(Center Square) – Republicans picked up a seat in the US House after Michigan’s 7th Congressional District turned red early Wednesday morning.

The Associated Press called the race at 4:05 a.m. Wednesday for Republican Tom Barrett, who leads Democrat Curtis Hertel 50.3 percent to 46.5 percent with 99 percent of the vote counted.

Barrett, a former state senator for the 24th District, has focused his campaign on cutting government spending and cutting taxes, supporting law enforcement, improving border security and ending government subsidies to Chinese companies operating in the US. He describes himself as “100% pro-life. “

While in office, Barrett was a vocal critic of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s shutdown policies and sponsored legislation to limit the governor’s emergency powers, which Whitmer vetoed.

Barrett opposed taxpayer-funded subsidies for an electric vehicle battery plant in Lansing, supported increased resources for members of law enforcement and the National Guard, and sponsored legislation that would expand Title 42 authority to deport immigrants who enter the country illegally .

In 2022, Barrett lost the 7th District race by 20,000 votes to incumbent Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who will vacate the seat due to her run for the U.S. Senate.

Michigan’s 8th Congressional District seat, another closely watched race, will remain blue as Democratic state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet led Republican challenger Paul Junge 51.3 percent to 44.6 percent as NBC and Bloomberg called race for Rivet around 5 a.m. Eastern Wednesday.

Rivet will replace incumbent Dan Kildee, D-Flint, who is retiring for personal reasons.

Rivet centered his campaign on job creation and tax cuts, lowering the cost of living, child care and healthcare, and promoting abortion access.

As a state senator, Rivet co-sponsored bills aimed at lowering prescription drug costs, providing a tax credit for working parents, increasing affordability for child care, expanding absentee voting options, mandating background checks background checks on gun buyers and requiring non-union members to pay agency fees. She also introduced a bill, now law, that would prohibit schools from using teacher performance evaluations to make tenure or termination decisions.

Districts 7 and 8 have been targeted by the Democratic and Republican parties this election cycle.