We contributors.

Nolan Finley of The Detroit News.

Steven Henderson of W D.

E.

T.

Radio.

You know, I should have brought like, bowl popcorn.

A thing of Harbin had exactly, but our feet up and talk about this There is a lot coming out of the primary.

And the one thing that it was amazing to see was the turnout over two million votes cast.

I was at my polling place, which had a pretty good turnout, and I actually saw an 18 year old neighbor of mine vote for the first time.

I wish I thought was pretty cool in a primary in a primary election.

All right, so the biggest takeaway from from Tuesday night for you on a global sense no one Well, clearly it's the fact that people are engaged and I think they're engaged on both sides of the aisle.

He saw a strong Democratic turnout, But you also saw ah, strong Republican turnout that pretty much matched their their makeup of the Michigan population.

People are fired up and are going to vote this time.

What do you think in terms of?

We saw the numbers we saw democrats coming out maybe a little bit more than the Republicans, more than Republicans.

But there are more of a man, but there are more registered Democrats in the state.

You know, I've said this before that it's It's weird, t sort of contemplate that one of the effects that Donald Trump has had on the political culture and process in this country is more engagement people, arm or concerned.

I think about the direction of government in the country than they were before.

And I I think a lot of that is attributable to his surprising win and the things that he said and done since then that have sort of incited not just the left, but also also the right.

I mean, think of how energized people who support the president now That doesn't mean he's a good.

He's overall a good a good person or is having a good effect on our country.

Maybe he's making people pay attention, and I think they're very invested in what decisions are being made.

It's interesting, Nolan, when you look at all the national papers as well.

When they looked at Michigan on on Tuesday night, you saw ah variety of storylines coming coming out, okay?

I mean, there's no question about it.

The number of women who were elected was was simply amazing.

The number of women who were actually on the ballot you will.

You have a congressional district where two women will be facing off.

I think that's for the first time I can ever remember.

And two viable candidates that 11th districts a toss up.

I know we're going to talk about that a little bit, but you've got a Democratic tippet ticket that is going to be, at this point, all female.

And I don't know that we've seen that in a long Did they also talking about in terms when they call it the Year of the Woman or the Pink Wave they're looking at.

Also, the number of female candidates for governor across the nation is the largest that we've had is 11 candidates right now, including here in Michigan.

Gretchen Whitmer.

Yeah, well, I mean, the thing is not just the number of candidates, it's the number of wins.

That's also yeah, uh, making this the Year of the woman.

There are not a lot of races where you see women losing two men And if you think about our primary results, it wasn't just Gretchen Whitmer, but but someone like Haley Stevens beat Tim Greimel.

Uh, I was surprised.

A very established Democratic, uh, Rashid to leave bettering Bill Wild.

And in Conyers and, uh, Coleman Young in the 13th.

It's it's the winning.

That, I think is, is cementing that that moniker for this year.

I think what's going to be very interesting, though, is we now go through these next couple of months is how these female candidates are going to be judged because we know and you to do.

You look at ad literature.

When you look at people, they say, Well, is she coming across to heart?

Is she coming crossed?

Too nice.

That is sometimes is the problem when people judge female candidates and whether it's conscious or it's an unconscious judgment on the people's part, Um, women who are running for office get judged in a bit of a different way than male candidates.

D'oh d'oh!

And that's part of the double standards that make up the fabric of this country.

And it's not the only double standard.

Obviously, I think what's what's different this time and this year is partially the reaction of the things that we've seen happen in the past year that have to do with women's issues and gender issues that has women motivated and and let's be honest, women are the majority of the population.

If they decided to vote on Mass and vote their gender interest above everything else, you would see majority of politicians, uh, the woman.

I'm not sure there's anything wrong with that.

I think I think you can.

You can pay attention to something like that and also be caring about the issue exactly.

I'm and I'm not going to say that.

Every woman's like, Well, I'm just gonna vote for just cause she's a woman.

I think that people are very savvy enough to know that they want to vote for someone who is going to advance their interest, whether it's a man or a woman and what they stand for, No one, Yeah, I think that's right, and I think as they campaign, I mean there's another side of that Two women can't hide behind their own skirts.

They've got understand political world.

You become a political candidate.

You look at what we went through in the governor's race.

It gets dirty and it gets vicious.

Whether you're a man or a woman, I have never seen Aah!

Primary campaign that any of the women who are running right now we're not gonna be hiding behind their own skirts because even get to this point to say, I'm going to run, I'm going to raise the money.

I'm gonna get out there, Put yourself out there.

That's already sure, But every criticism of everything they do or everything you stand for isn't about their sex.

And I think we've got as as we get into this campaign where you've got almost an equal number of men and women running, they've got to be judged on their positions on the issues.

They got to take the heat as well as, well, I'm not gonna be able to stand up.