Proponents argued that Michigan's current districts are gerrymandered, giving an unfair advantage to the Republican Party.

In the 2012 Michigan House of Representatives election, Democrats won 53.97% of the vote, compared to 46.03% for Republicans.

[6] Proposal 18-2 was a citizen-led ballot initiative, supported by the 501(c)(4) organization Voters Not Politicians, founded by Katie Fahey.

250,000 applications to serve on the commission were randomly mailed out by the Michigan secretary of state on December 30, 2019.

200 semi-finalists were selected at random by the accounting firm Rehmann LLC by the end of June.

[9] On March 23, 2022, a group of nineteen African-American Detroiters who live in thirteen different Michigan House and Senate districts in portions of Detroit sued the MICRC for violating the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution and the Voting Rights Act.