Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy — who has been considering a run for higher office — filed “Mike Murphy for State Senate Committee” paperwork with the Michigan Secretary of State on March 14.
Murphy is expected to make the public announcement about his state Senate run later this week.
Current 22nd District state Sen. Lana Theis — after four years in the state House and eight in the state Senate — is term limited. Michigan’s 22nd state Senate District includes all of Livingston County and parts of Genesee, Ingham, Oakland, and Shiawassee counties.
No one who watches Livingston County politics can be surprised by Murphy’s decision. In January, Murphy told The Livingston Post that he was thinking about a run.
Murphy’s increasingly high-profile political activities in the last election — from hosting President Donald Trump’s campaign event to video-taping endorsements of other candidates in areas outside Livingston County to getting his own website — raised his political profile and added fuel to the will-he-or-won’t-he-run-for-higher-office fire.
Murphy voluntarily resigned from the LACASA Board of Directors last fall after a tenure of 25 years because he didn’t want the controversy of the Trump visit to cloud the work LACASA does. Trump went on to win the Nov. 5 election in red, red Livingston County with just over 61% of the vote.
Murphy is a popular member of the Livingston County community, and has been involved in many community organizations, including the Second Chance Network, the Salvation Army, the Livingston County United Way, Leadership Livingston, and the Sunrise Rotary Club. He’s also served as chair of the Livingston County Republican Party.
