Republican Carl Meyers has been elected and Democrat Denise Ilitch has been reelected to eight-year terms on the University of Michigan Board of Regents.
With all 83 Michigan counties reporting, unofficial statewide totals indicate Meyers was the top vote-getter in the Nov. 5 election with 2,553,175 votes or 25.76% of votes cast, according to the Michigan Secretary of State’s website. Ilitch received 2,472,806 votes, or 24.95%.
Democrat Shauna Ryder Diggs and Republican Sevag Vartanian finished third and fourth, respectively, with Diggs getting 2,330,275 votes, or 23.52%, and Vartanian getting 2,239,397 votes, or 22.60%.
Meanwhile, Kimberly A. Thomas, clinical professor of law at the Law School and director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic, won her bid for an eight-year term on the Michigan Supreme Court. Thomas received 2,572,928 votes, or 61.36%.
Meyers will succeed Regent Ron Weiser, whose term is ending. This will be Ilitch’s third term on the board. Both will begin their terms Jan. 1, 2025.
Meyers of Dearborn is a senior vice president of investments for Raymond James in Plymouth, Michigan, and a 1979 graduate of the UM-Dearborn, receiving his B.S.A. degree. He ran for the board unsuccessfully in 2004, 2016 and 2020.
Ilitch of Bingham Farms was elected to the Board of Regents in 2008 and reelected in 2016. She is an owner of Ilitch Family Companies and president of Ilitch Enterprises. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from U-M in 1977 and has a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Detroit.
U-M’s eight regents serve overlapping terms, with two seats up for election every two years.
Other candidates for the Board of Regents and their unofficial vote totals were:
- Donna Oetman, U.S. Taxpayers Party, 157,773 votes.
- Andrew Chadderdon, Libertarian, 156,296 votes.
