Tonya Myers Phillips

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Tonya Myers Phillips
Candidate, Michigan House of Representatives District 7
Michigan House of Representatives District 7
Tenure
2025 - Present
Term ends
2027
Years in position
1
Predecessor: Helena Scott (D)
Compensation
Base salary
$71,685
Elections and appointments
Last election
August 4, 2026
Next election
November 3, 2026
Education
Bachelor's
University of Michigan, 1999
Law
University of Michigan Law School, 2003
Personal
Birthplace
Detroit, MI
Religion
Christian
Profession
Attorney, public policy advisor
Contact

Tonya Myers Phillips (Democratic Party) is a member of the Michigan House of Representatives, representing District 7. She assumed office on January 1, 2025. Her current term ends on January 1, 2027.

Phillips (Democratic Party) is running for re-election to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent District 7. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 3, 2026. She advanced from the Democratic primary on August 4, 2026.

Biography

Tonya Myers Phillips was born in Detroit, Michigan. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1999 and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 2003. Myers Phillips' career experience includes working as an attorney and public policy advisor. She is the director of community partnerships and development with the Sugar Law Center for Social and Economic Justice, and she serves as a public policy advisor for Michigan Legal Services.[1]

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

Phillips was assigned to the following committees:


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 7

Incumbent Tonya Myers Phillips (D) and Reginald Moorer (R) are running in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 7 on November 3, 2026.


Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary

Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 7

Incumbent Tonya Myers Phillips (D) defeated Seema Ahmad (D) and Oliver Gantt (D) in the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 7 on August 4, 2026.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Tonya Myers Phillips
Tonya Myers Phillips
 
63.2
 
7,250
Image of Seema Ahmad
Seema Ahmad
 
30.7
 
3,516
Image of Oliver Gantt
Oliver Gantt
 
6.1
 
700

Total votes: 11,466
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary

Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 7

Reginald Moorer (R) advanced from the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 7 on August 4, 2026.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔Reginald Moorer
 
100.0
 
344

Total votes: 344
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign finance

Endorsements

See also: Our approach to covering endorsements

Tonya Myers Phillips received the following endorsements and voter guide recommendations. To send us additional endorsements, click here.

2024

See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 7

Tonya Myers Phillips defeated Barry Altman and Linda Rayburn in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 7 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Tonya Myers Phillips
Tonya Myers Phillips (D)
 
78.9
 
22,713
Barry Altman (R)
 
15.0
 
4,331
Image of Linda Rayburn
Linda Rayburn (Working Class Party)
 
6.0
 
1,740

Total votes: 28,784
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 7

Tonya Myers Phillips defeated Abraham Shaw and Ernest Little in the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 7 on August 6, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Tonya Myers Phillips
Tonya Myers Phillips
 
67.9
 
4,986
Image of Abraham Shaw
Abraham Shaw Candidate Connection
 
16.3
 
1,195
Image of Ernest Little
Ernest Little
 
15.8
 
1,161
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.1
 
6

Total votes: 7,348
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 7

Barry Altman defeated Shelby Wininger in the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 7 on August 6, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔Barry Altman
 
58.3
 
176
Shelby Wininger
 
41.7
 
126

Total votes: 302
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Working Class Party convention

Working Class Party convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 7

Linda Rayburn advanced from the Working Class Party convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 7 on June 23, 2024.

Candidate
✔
Image of Linda Rayburn
Linda Rayburn (Working Class Party)

Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign finance

Endorsements

See also: Our approach to covering endorsements

Tonya Myers Phillips received the following endorsements and voter guide recommendations.

2020

Regular election

See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2020

General election

General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 4

Abraham Aiyash defeated Howard Weathington, Linda Rayburn, and Mohammad Alam in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 4 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Abraham Aiyash
Abraham Aiyash (D) Candidate Connection
 
89.7
 
27,263
Howard Weathington (R)
 
5.7
 
1,736
Image of Linda Rayburn
Linda Rayburn (Working Class Party)
 
3.4
 
1,023
Image of Mohammad Alam
Mohammad Alam (Independent)
 
1.2
 
355

Total votes: 30,377
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 4

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 4 on August 4, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Abraham Aiyash
Abraham Aiyash Candidate Connection
 
38.4
 
5,355
Image of Michele Oberholtzer
Michele Oberholtzer Candidate Connection
 
13.9
 
1,945
Image of Tawanna Simpson
Tawanna Simpson Candidate Connection
 
10.9
 
1,518
Image of Tonya Myers Phillips
Tonya Myers Phillips Candidate Connection
 
10.2
 
1,417
Image of Delorean Holmes
Delorean Holmes Candidate Connection
 
7.2
 
1,002
Shahab Ahmed
 
6.0
 
834
Christopher Collins
 
4.7
 
655
Frazier Kimpson
 
3.7
 
515
Image of Abraham Shaw
Abraham Shaw Candidate Connection
 
1.8
 
254
Anthony Ali
 
1.1
 
150
Sigmunt Szczepkowski Jr.
 
1.1
 
148
Gregory Reyner
 
0.7
 
97
Darwood Navarro
 
0.5
 
63

Total votes: 13,953
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 4

Howard Weathington advanced from the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 4 on August 4, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔Howard Weathington
 
100.0
 
329

Total votes: 329
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Working Class Party convention

Working Class Party convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 4

Linda Rayburn advanced from the Working Class Party convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 4 on July 26, 2020.

Candidate
✔
Image of Linda Rayburn
Linda Rayburn (Working Class Party)

Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign finance

Special election

See also: Michigan state legislative special elections, 2020

General election

Special general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 4

Abraham Aiyash won election in the special general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 4 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Abraham Aiyash
Abraham Aiyash (D)
 
100.0
 
28,379

Total votes: 28,379
Candidate Connection = 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

Special Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 4

The following candidates ran in the special Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 4 on August 4, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Abraham Aiyash
Abraham Aiyash
 
37.9
 
5,208
Image of Michele Oberholtzer
Michele Oberholtzer
 
14.7
 
2,021
Image of Tawanna Simpson
Tawanna Simpson
 
12.6
 
1,728
Image of Tonya Myers Phillips
Tonya Myers Phillips
 
10.5
 
1,444
Image of Delorean Holmes
Delorean Holmes
 
7.8
 
1,070
Shahab Ahmed
 
6.2
 
852
Christopher Collins
 
5.4
 
739
Image of Abraham Shaw
Abraham Shaw
 
1.9
 
266
Sigmunt Szczepkowski Jr.
 
1.2
 
164
Anthony Ali
 
1.1
 
152
Gregory Reyner
 
0.7
 
103

Total votes: 13,747
Candidate Connection = 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

2012

Phillips was defeated in the primary election on August 7, receiving 9.62% of the vote.[2][3]

See also: Michigan judicial elections, 2012 - District Courts

Bar association ratings

The Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association rated candidates running for judicial office in 2012. Candidates were given one of five ratings: Outstanding, Well Qualified, Qualified, Not Qualified or No Rating.

Phillips was rated as Qualified.[4]

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Tonya Myers Phillips has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Tonya Myers Phillips asking her to fill out the survey. If you are Tonya Myers Phillips, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?

Any candidate running for elected office, at any level, can complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Survey. Completing the survey will update the candidate's Ballotpedia profile, letting voters know who they are and what they stand for. More than 24,000 candidates have taken Ballotpedia's candidate survey since we launched it in 2015. Learn more about the survey here.

You can ask Tonya Myers Phillips to fill out this survey by using the buttons below or emailing repmyersphillips@gmail.com.

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2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Tonya Myers Phillips did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Video for Ballotpedia

Video submitted to Ballotpedia
Released July 1, 2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Tonya Myers Phillips completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Phillips' responses.

Expand All
Who are you? Tell us about yourself.
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?
In a time of strained resources, what should be the state’s spending priorities?
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?
Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?
What was the last song that got stuck in your head?
What is something that has been a struggle in your life?
What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and the state legislature?

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


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.


Tonya Myers Phillips campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2024Michigan House of Representatives District 7Won general$45,494 $0
2020Michigan House of Representatives District 4Lost primary$18,157 N/A**
Grand total$63,651 N/A**
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Election Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

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.

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

See also


External links

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by
Helena Scott (D)
Michigan House of Representatives District 7
2025-Present
Succeeded by
-


Current members of the Michigan House of Representatives
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Matt Hall
Minority Leader:Ranjeev Puri
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 13
Mai Xiong (D)
District 14
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 18
District 19
District 20
District 21
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
District 26
District 27
District 28
District 29
District 30
District 31
District 32
District 33
District 34
District 35
District 36
District 37
District 38
District 39
District 40
District 41
District 42
Matt Hall (R)
District 43
District 44
District 45
District 46
District 47
District 48
District 49
District 50
District 51
District 52
District 53
District 54
District 55
District 56
District 57
District 58
District 59
District 60
District 61
District 62
District 63
District 64
District 65
District 66
District 67
District 68
District 69
District 70
District 71
District 72
District 73
District 74
Kara Hope (D)
District 75
District 76
District 77
District 78
District 79
District 80
District 81
District 82
District 83
District 84
District 85
District 86
District 87
District 88
District 89
District 90
District 91
District 92
District 93
Tim Kelly (R)
District 94
District 95
District 96
District 97
District 98
District 99
District 100
Tom Kunse (R)
District 101
District 102
District 103
District 104
John Roth (R)
District 105
District 106
District 107
District 108
District 109
District 110
Republican Party (58)
Democratic Party (52)