Democrat Dayna Polehanki is running for the newly drawn Michigan State Senate District 8 seat in the Nov. 3 general election. The district covers Northville, Northville Township, part of Novi, Livonia, Farmington and Farmington Hills.
Polehanki, who has served in the state Senate since 2019, said she is running to continue her focus on recruiting and retaining quality teachers, expanding access to college and the skilled trades, making quality health care affordable, advancing environmental protections and keeping communities safe from violence, according to her campaign website.
Candidate information
Party: Democrat
Residence: Livonia. She lives with her husband Jim, a manager at Ford Motor Company, according to her questionnaire responses to Surround Sound News.
Education: Bachelor's degree in psychology from Central Michigan University (magna cum laude); teacher certification from Alma College; master's degree in teaching from Marygrove College.
Experience and public service
Polehanki taught at New Haven Community Schools for nearly 20 years, earning the district's Teacher of the Year award twice, she said in her questionnaire responses. She also worked as manager of features casting at Paramount Pictures from 1995 to 1998 and owned the Detroit Casting Company from 2009 to 2018.
She was first elected to the state Senate in 2018. She has served as chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee and as majority caucus chairwoman. In 2025, she was appointed legislative commissioner to the Education Commission of the States.
Her awards include the 2023 Michigan School Counselor Association Legislator of the Year, the 2024 Outstanding Government Official Award from the Michigan Association of School Librarians and the 2025 Humane Society of Huron Valley Legislator of the Year.
On the issues
The following responses reflect Polehanki's own answers to questionnaire and platform materials.
Affordability: Polehanki called affordability the most pressing issue facing Michigan residents. She pointed to legislative actions she supported: repealing the seniors' retirement tax, quintupling the Working Families Tax Credit, increasing unemployment benefits from $362 to $614 per week by 2027, extending unemployment duration from 20 to 26 weeks and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2027.
Education: Polehanki said her background as a two-time Teacher of the Year and her roles chairing the Senate Education Committee and vice-chairing the School Aid Appropriations Committee give her the experience to ensure schools thrive. She said she wants to improve early literacy, protect student safety and mental health, recruit and retain teachers and expand college access.
Budget: Polehanki said the Legislature backfilled a $1 billion hole in the state budget to protect Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from cuts tied to the federal One Big Beautiful Bill. That meant less funding for individual districts, she acknowledged.
Environment: Polehanki said she supports environmental initiatives based on the assumption that clean air and water are human rights. She said she wants to protect the Great Lakes from corporate abuses and fix aging water infrastructure.
Public safety: Polehanki said she supports recruiting a high-quality police force, embedding social workers in police departments for mental health calls and improving law enforcement accountability and training.
District 8 voters head to the polls Nov. 3.
