DETROIT (AP) — Between redistribution and Incumbents forego re-electionFour congressional seats in Michigan are key targets as parties fight for control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Republicans are trying to flip two open congressional seats in central Michigan as the GOP tries to expand its majority.

The two vacated seats were redistricted in 2021, leading to Democratic victories in the midterm elections. This year’s races are real contests and are among the most competitive in the country, with millions of dollars poured into the campaigns.

8th Congressional District

After longtime Democrat Dan Kildee announced he would not run for re-election in Michigan’s 8th District, Republicans saw their first opportunity in decades to flip the seat red. Kildee had been in office since 2012, when he succeeded his uncle Dale Kildee, who represented the area, including the cities of Flint and Saginaw, in Congress for 36 years.

For Republicans, former Trump administration news anchor and immigration official Paul Junge is running for Congress for the third time after losing to the younger Kildee by about 10 points in 2022.

Junge appealed to voters about economic and immigration concerns. He also attacked Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet about national security and tried to tie them to one Battery manufacturer based in China I want to build in Michigan, which has been a Republican target.

McDonald Rivet, a freshman senator, portrayed Junge as a California outsider and portrayed herself as a middle-class pragmatist. She focused her messages on preserving reproductive rights and, like her opponent, on the economy.

7th Congressional District

The 7th District in central Michigan is home to former state legislators Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr. and Republican Tom Barrett have filed for the seat vacated by U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin.

Slotkin, the Democratic candidate for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, narrowly defeated Barrett in the 2022 midterm elections for the district that includes the state capital Lansing and surrounding rural areas.

Hertel, a former state senator and recent legislative director to the governor, was portrayed in an ad campaign as a “regular guy” in which he grills, takes out the trash and prepares to mow a yard. He called Barrett an anti-abortion extremist, but to appeal to Republican voters he also criticized Democrats over immigration.

Barrett, in turn, appealed to voters’ concerns about inflation and attacked Hertel on national security grounds. A former state representative, senator and Army veteran, he has run ads showcasing his background as a helicopter pilot.

3rd Congressional District

The open seats are the most contested in the state, but two other congressional seats have drawn attention from national parties.

Hillary Scholten became that first Democrat to represent the city of Grand Rapids in the U.S. House of Representatives since the 1970s, when she won Michigan’s redrawn 3rd Congressional District in 2022. But surrounding Kent County has many Republican voters. The county went for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. The Republican ticket has targeted the county with five visits between Vance and Trump in 2024.

Scholten faces Republican Paul Hudson, who lost a bid for the Michigan Supreme Court in 2022.

10th Congressional District

Voters in Michigan’s 10th congressional district — which includes the key Macomb County suburbs north of Detroit — will decide a rematch between Republican incumbent John James and Democrat Carl Marlinga.

Marlinga lost by just 1,600 votes in 2022, and the district is now considered competitive, attracting money and attention from Democratic national groups.