Holland’s 86th House District: Republican Nancy DeBoer defends her seat as Joseph McClusky courts a growing Latino vote

HOLLAND — Voters in Holland and three neighboring townships will decide Tuesday, Nov. 3, whether to keep Republican state Rep. Nancy DeBoer in Lansing or replace her with Democrat Joseph McClusky, in a lakeshore race that both parties are treating as one of the seats that could decide control of the Michigan House.

The 86th House District takes in the city of Holland, most of Holland Township and all of Park and Laketown townships, in Ottawa and Allegan counties, and is home to roughly 92,000 people, according to The ’Gander, a Michigan political news site.

Republicans hold a slim majority in the state House, and every seat is on the ballot this year, Michigan Public reported.

The incumbent

DeBoer, 72, is a former high school English teacher who joined the Holland City Council in 2005 and became the city’s first woman mayor. She won the House seat in 2022 with 56% of the vote and defended it by a similar margin in 2024, The ’Gander reported. She chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee.

On her campaign site, DeBoer lists childcare expansion, more housing legislation and education changes passed by her committee, including phonics-based reading instruction for teachers, limits on phones with social media apps in K-12 classrooms and more career and technical education. She also points to votes to end state income tax on tips, overtime and Social Security, a road-funding plan of nearly $2 billion a year and a 2025-26 state budget she says was the first in decades to shrink overall.

She says local governments, not Lansing, should decide where large solar farms, wind turbines, battery storage sites and gravel mines go. She also supports requiring voters to show legal proof of identity and banning ballot harvesting.

The challenger

McClusky, 28, is a Hope College graduate who managed the 2022 Democratic campaign against DeBoer, according to The ’Gander. He was active in the campus Republican club as a freshman and attended the 2016 Republican National Convention as a guest of the Michigan delegation, before leaving the party, the site reported.

His campaign centers on housing costs, health care access, prevailing wage protections and skilled trades programs. He says he will not take corporate PAC money and wants the Legislature and the governor’s office covered by the state’s Freedom of Information Act. He has criticized DeBoer’s votes on school funding.

Why the Latino vote matters

The district is home to one of the most concentrated Latino populations in Michigan, and both candidates are reaching out to voters in English and Spanish, Michigan Public reported. Eric Gonzalez Juenke, a Michigan State University political scientist, told the station that Latino voters in places like Holland are “swingy” and could decide the race if their turnout surges.

Their votes are not a given for either party. Pew Research Center data cited by Michigan Public show Latinos nationally backed Democrats by 21 points in 2022, more than 20 points less than in 2018, and exit polls showed most Michigan Latinos voted for Donald Trump in 2024. One Holland factory worker told the station she has always voted Republican and is weighing her choice this year, with grocery and gas prices topping her list.

Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Michigan’s early voting sites stay open through Sunday, Nov. 1.

Sources:
Michigan Public, “Why Michigan’s battle for the state House runs through Holland’s Latino community,” Oct. 30, 2026 (district, outreach in two languages, Juenke and voter interviews, Pew and exit-poll figures, House majority), https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2026-10-30/holland-michigan-latino-voters-86th-district-2026
The ’Gander, “DeBoer vs. McClusky: Republican faces ex-Republican in Michigan’s 86th District,” June 16, 2026 (district boundaries and population, 2022 and 2024 margins, candidate backgrounds and platforms), https://gandernewsroom.com/news/elections/deboer-vs-mcclusky-republican-faces-ex-republican-in-michigans-86th-district/
Nancy DeBoer campaign, “The Issues” (priorities, tax and budget votes, local control, voter ID), https://nancydeboer.com/the-issues/
Photo: GD333, “Holland, MI Downtown.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holland,_MI_Downtown.jpg

Holland · Election 2026 coverage

Tags: Holland · Election 2026 · 86th House District · Nancy DeBoer · Joseph McClusky · Michigan House