Incumbent Democrats Katherine E. White and Michael J. Behm have been re-elected to eight-year terms on the University of Michigan Board of Regents.
With all 83 Michigan counties reporting, unofficial statewide totals indicate White was the top vote-getter with 2,006,735 votes or 25.16% of votes cast, according to the Michigan Secretary of State’s website. Behm garnered 1,959,035 votes, or 24.56%.
Republicans Lena Epstein and Sevag Vartanian finished third and fourth, respectively, with Epstein getting 1,907,433 votes, or 23.91%, and Vartanian getting 1,780,191 votes, or 22.32%.
White was first elected to the Board of Regents in 1998. She is a tenured professor of law at Wayne State University, and a brigadier general in the Army National Guard, serving as the deputy commanding general of the 46th Military Police Command in Lansing.
Behm was elected to the Board of Regents in 2014. He is president and owner of the law firm of Behm & Behm, has sat on boards of directors of charitable and community organizations and was president of the Michigan Association for Justice in 2011-12.
U-M’s eight regents serve overlapping terms, with two seats up for election every two years. White’s fourth term and Behm’s second term will begin in January.
Other candidates for the Board of Regents and their vote totals were:
- Eric Larson, Libertarian, 128,697 votes.
- Sherry A. Wells, Green Party, 77,826 votes.
- Joe Sanger, U.S. Taxpayers Party, 71,323 votes.
- Kathleen Oakford, Natural Law Party, 45,564 votes.
