Emily Dievendorf

Emily Dievendorf

Democratic Party

Candidate, Michigan House of Representatives District 77

Michigan House of Representatives District 77

Tenure

2023 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

3

Predecessor: Tommy Brann (R)

Compensation

Base salary

$71,685

Elections and appointments

Last election

August 4, 2026

Next election

November 3, 2026

Education

Bachelor's

Michigan State University

Contact

Official website

Official Facebook

Official Instagram

Official TikTok

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Personal Facebook

Personal Instagram

Personal LinkedIn

Emily Dievendorf (Democratic Party) is a member of the Michigan House of Representatives, representing District 77. Dievendorf assumed office on January 1, 2023. Dievendorf's current term ends on January 1, 2027.

Dievendorf (Democratic Party) is running for re-election to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent District 77. Dievendorf is on the ballot in the general election on November 3, 2026. Dievendorf advanced from the Democratic primary on August 4, 2026.

Biography

Emily Dievendorf lives in Lansing, Michigan. Dievendorf earned a bachelor's degree in social relations from Michigan State University.

Sponsored legislation

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.

Committee assignments

2025-2026

Dievendorf was assigned to the following committees:

• House Agriculture Committee
• House Regulatory Reform Committee

2023-2024

Dievendorf was assigned to the following committees:

• House Agriculture Committee
• Criminal Justice Committee (Decommissioned)
• Judiciary Committee

Elections

2026

See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2026

General election

The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.

General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 77

Incumbent Emily Dievendorf (D), Sally Jo Nelton (R), and Jennifer Long (L) are running in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 77 on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Emily Dievendorf (D)
	Submit photo	Sally Jo Nelton (R)
		Jennifer Long  (L)

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary

Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77

Incumbent Emily Dievendorf (D) advanced from the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77 on August 4, 2026.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Emily Dievendorf	100.0	15,730

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. Vote totals may change until results are certified. Source	Total votes: 15,730
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary

Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77

Sally Jo Nelton (R) advanced from the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77 on August 4, 2026.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Sally Jo Nelton	100.0	5,304

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. Vote totals may change until results are certified. Source	Total votes: 5,304
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Libertarian Party convention

Libertarian Party convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 77

Jennifer Long (L) advanced from the Libertarian Party convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 77 on June 28, 2026.

		Candidate
✔		Jennifer Long

---

	There were no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Endorsements

See also: Our approach to covering endorsements

Emily Dievendorf received the following endorsements and voter guide recommendations. To send us additional endorsements, click here.

• Michigan AFL-CIO
• Equality Michigan Action
• Jess’s Progressive Picks (Sway voting group by Jess Craven)
• Mamdanification (Sway voting group by Hunter Dunn and Smallplates)
• Michigan League of Conservation Voters
• Michigan's Progressive Voter Guide (Sway voting group by Justin Mendoza)
• Sierra Club Michigan
• We The People Action Fund
• vagina voters (Sway voting group by nikkivinck)

2024

See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 77

Incumbent Emily Dievendorf defeated Cady Ness-Smith in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 77 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Emily Dievendorf (D)	60.2	30,203
	Submit photo	Cady Ness-Smith (R)	39.8	19,971

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 50,174
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77

Incumbent Emily Dievendorf defeated Angela Mathews in the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77 on August 6, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Emily Dievendorf	66.6	6,707
	Submit photo	Angela Mathews	33.4	3,364

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 10,071
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77

Cady Ness-Smith defeated Julie DeRose in the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77 on August 6, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Cady Ness-Smith	54.0	2,973
		Julie DeRose	46.0	2,536

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 5,509
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

See also: Our approach to covering endorsements

Emily Dievendorf received the following endorsements and voter guide recommendations.

• Michigan League of Conservation Voters

2022

See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2022

General election

General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 77

Emily Dievendorf defeated John Magoola in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 77 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Emily Dievendorf (D)	62.4	25,269
		John Magoola (R)	37.6	15,214

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 40,483
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77

Emily Dievendorf defeated Jon Horford and Logan Byrne in the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77 on August 2, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Emily Dievendorf	41.2	4,548
	Submit photo	Jon Horford	41.0	4,522
		Logan Byrne	17.8	1,958

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 11,028
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77

John Magoola advanced from the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 77 on August 2, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Magoola	100.0	5,491

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 5,491
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Tim Totten (R)

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Emily Dievendorf has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Emily Dievendorf asking them to fill out the survey. If you are Emily Dievendorf, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?

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You can ask Emily Dievendorf to fill out this survey by using the button below or emailing emily@emilydievendorf.com.

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Emily Dievendorf did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Emily Dievendorf completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Dievendorf's responses.

Expand All

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Emily Dievendorf has called Lansing home since just a few years after she moved to the area from Kalamazoo, Michigan at 18 to attend Michigan State University in 1997. She worked in the Michigan House of Representatives for Democratic state legislators for nearly a decade, first for Alexander Lipsey (D-Kalamazoo) and then as Chief of Staff for Representative Andy Coulouris (D - Saginaw). Emily moved from the legislature to Equality Michigan, Michigan’s statewide LGBTQIA+ advocacy organization, in 2010 to serve as policy director, eventually advancing to manage the organization until 2015.

Emily has served as president of the Lansing Association of Human Rights (LAHR), vice president of the board of the Firecracker Foundation, a board member of the Lansing Area AIDS Network (LAAN), and as commissioner to the Ingham County Women’s Commission. In 2015, she was federally appointed to the Michigan Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and recently completed her second term. She has been an independent political and civil rights consultant since 2015 and is co-founder of a nonprofit bookstore located in Downtown Lansing. She graduated from James Madison College at Michigan State University. Emily is an openly LGBTQ candidate and lives in Lansing, Michigan.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• There is no excuse for a lack of living wage. Every resident should make enough to both survive AND thrive. There should be no expectation of families to sacrifice one basic need over another to sustain, and that includes the need to rest from labor.
• Public schools must be funded well, equitably, and funded as the long-term, consistent investment our future success and community should be. Our students and educators deserve schools and resources that allow them to create and grow in safe and modern institutions that will ensure every student can receive the unique approach they need to participate and succeed fully in the world upon graduation. Educators and students deserve mental health support staff, training, and resources that will support them in being healthy and whole beings.
• In the 77th District and nationally we need to address gun violence. We can all agree that we want more safety for our families and that responsible gun ownership is a reasonable expectation in order to save lives. Continuing to fight for reforms that both push back against irresponsible gun sales and ownership practices, and supporting community programs that work to prevent and otherwise address gun violence is essential to the safety of everyone.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Emily is particularly passionate about equity. She has been involved in her community throughout her career on a myriad of justice issues, particularly LGBTQIA equality, racial justice and equality, immigration, sexual and domestic violence, voting rights and ending HIV/AIDS.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Emily Dievendorf campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024	Michigan House of Representatives District 77	Won general	$33,299	$0
2022	Michigan House of Representatives District 77	Won general	$21,664	$0
Grand total			$54,962	$0
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Election Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards, State legislative scorecards in Michigan

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.

• 2025
• 2024
• 2023

Below you can find the scorecards found for the Michigan State Legislature in 2025.

• Michigan AFL-CIO Advocates — Legislators are scored on labor issues.
• Michigan League of Conservation Voters — Legislators are scored on environmental issues.

Below you can find the scorecards found for the Michigan State Legislature in 2024.

• Michigan AFL-CIO Advocates — Legislators are scored on labor issues.
• Michigan Chamber of Commerce — Legislators are scored on business-related bills.
• Michigan Farm Bureau — Legislators are scored on agriculture-related bills.
• Michigan League of Conservation Voters — Legislators are scored on environmental issues.
• National Federation of Independent Business — Legislators are scored on business-related bills.
• The Freedom Index — Legislators are scored on their adherence to the limited government principles of the U.S. Constitution.

Below you can find the scorecards found for the Michigan State Legislature in 2023.

• Michigan AFL-CIO Advocates — Legislators are scored on labor issues.
• Michigan League of Conservation Voters — Legislators are scored on environmental issues.
• The American Conservative Union — Legislators are scored on conservative issues.
• The Freedom Index — Legislators are scored on their adherence to the limited government principles of the U.S. Constitution.

See also

2026 Elections

What's on the ballot? Michigan U.S. Congress U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. CongressState executivesState legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal governmentList of school districts in Michigan

Newsletters

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External links

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Candidate

Michigan House of Representatives District 77

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Michigan House of Representatives District 77

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Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Tommy Brann (R)	Michigan House of Representatives District 77 2023-Present	Succeeded by -

[show]

Current members of the Michigan House of Representatives

Leadership

Speaker of the House:Matt Hall

Minority Leader:Ranjeev Puri

Representatives

District 1

Tyrone Carter (D)

District 2

Tullio Liberati (D)

District 3

Alabas Farhat (D)

District 4

Karen Whitsett (D)

District 5

Regina Weiss (D)

District 6

Natalie Price (D)

District 7

Tonya Myers Phillips (D)

District 8

Helena Scott (D)

District 9

Joseph Tate (D)

District 10

Veronica Paiz (D)

District 11

Donavan McKinney (D)

District 12

Kimberly Edwards (D)

District 13

Mai Xiong (D)

District 14

Mike McFall (D)

District 15

Erin Byrnes (D)

District 16

Stephanie Young (D)

District 17

Laurie Pohutsky (D)

District 18

Jason Hoskins (D)

District 19

Samantha Steckloff (D)

District 20

Noah Arbit (D)

District 21

Kelly Breen (D)

District 22

Matt Koleszar (D)

District 23

Jason Morgan (D)

District 24

Ranjeev Puri (D)

District 25

Peter Herzberg (D)

District 26

Dylan Wegela (D)

District 27

Rylee Linting (R)

District 28

Jamie Thompson (R)

District 29

James DeSana (R)

District 30

William Bruck (R)

District 31

Reggie Miller (D)

District 32

Jimmie Wilson (D)

District 33

Morgan Foreman (D)

District 34

Nancy Jenkins-Arno (R)

District 35

Jennifer Wortz (R)

District 36

Steve Carra (R)

District 37

Brad Paquette (R)

District 38

Joey Andrews (D)

District 39

Pauline Wendzel (R)

District 40

Matt Longjohn (D)

District 41

Julie Rogers (D)

District 42

Matt Hall (R)

District 43

Rachelle Smit (R)

District 44

Steve Frisbie (R)

District 45

Sarah Lightner (R)

District 46

Kathy Schmaltz (R)

District 47

Carrie Rheingans (D)

District 48

Jennifer Conlin (D)

District 49

Ann Bollin (R)

District 50

Jason Woolford (R)

District 51

Matt Maddock (R)

District 52

Mike Harris (R)

District 53

Brenda Carter (D)

District 54

Donni Steele (R)

District 55

Mark Tisdel (R)

District 56

Sharon MacDonell (D)

District 57

Thomas Kuhn (R)

District 58

Ron Robinson (R)

District 59

Douglas Wozniak (R)

District 60

Joseph Aragona (R)

District 61

Denise Mentzer (D)

District 62

Alicia St. Germaine (R)

District 63

Jay DeBoyer (R)

District 64

Joseph Pavlov (R)

District 65

Jaime Greene (R)

District 66

Josh Schriver (R)

District 67

Phil Green (R)

District 68

David Martin (R)

District 69

Jasper Martus (D)

District 70

Cynthia Neeley (D)

District 71

Brian BeGole (R)

District 72

Mike Mueller (R)

District 73

Julie Brixie (D)

District 74

Kara Hope (D)

District 75

Penelope Tsernoglou (D)

District 76

Angela Witwer (D)

District 77

Emily Dievendorf (D)

District 78

Gina Johnsen (R)

District 79

Angela Rigas (R)

District 80

Phil Skaggs (D)

District 81

Stephen Wooden (D)

District 82

Kristian Grant (D)

District 83

John Fitzgerald (D)

District 84

Carol Glanville (D)

District 85

Bradley Slagh (R)

District 86

Nancy De Boer (R)

District 87

William Snyder (D)

District 88

Greg VanWoerkom (R)

District 89

Luke Meerman (R)

District 90

Bryan Posthumus (R)

District 91

Pat Outman (R)

District 92

Jerry Neyer (R)

District 93

Tim Kelly (R)

District 94

Amos O'Neal (D)

District 95

Bill Schuette (R)

District 96

Timothy Beson (R)

District 97

Matthew Bierlein (R)

District 98

Gregory Alexander (R)

District 99

Mike Hoadley (R)

District 100

Tom Kunse (R)

District 101

Joseph Fox (R)

District 102

Curt VanderWall (R)

District 103

Betsy Coffia (D)

District 104

John Roth (R)

District 105

Ken Borton (R)

District 106

Cameron Cavitt (R)

District 107

Parker Fairbairn (R)

District 108

David Prestin (R)

District 109

Karl Bohnak (R)

District 110

Gregory Markkanen (R)

Republican Party (58)

Democratic Party (52)

Capital: Lansing

Michigan

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