(The Center Square) – Months after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called for Michigan to adopt legislation addressing cell phones in schools, Democrats defeated a bill in the state House that would have done just that.

Rep. Mark Tisdel, R-Rochester Hills, sponsored House Bill 4141. It needed 56 votes to pass the Republican-held House, but received only 53.

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Tisdel blamed politics for the bill’s failure.

“This defeat had nothing to do with the merits of the bill,” Tisdel said. “We tried working with Democrat lawmakers, made changes to accommodate their concerns, even used language provided by the governor’s office. We had an agreement with the governor and Senate Democrats, but the House Democrats decided to play games and vote no.”

Every yes vote was from a Republican, with five either voting in opposition or being absent, according to Tisdel’s office. That meant that at least three Democrat lawmakers needed to vote in favor of the plan for it to pass. None voted to support the bill, despite several expressing support for it before voting.

Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, was one of those. He said in an April interview on Fox 2 Detroit that he supported the bill and wanted it to pass, but later he voted no.

“I have to agree with Representative Tisdel,” Arbit said. “I think his bill . . . is good legislation. I would like to see it passed in the state House, I would like to see it passed in the state Senate and signed by the governor.”

Other Democrats also supported iterations of the bill, either in committee or in past years, but then voted no when it was called to a vote on the floor. None have made statements about why they decided to vote against the bill.

Tisdel worked extensively with Democrats, both in the governor’s office and the Democrat-held Senate, to get their support. He adjusted the legislation based on feedback from Democrats and the governor’s office even provided language that Tisdel incorporated into the bill.

“We had an agreement with the Senate Democrats and the governor,” Tisdel said. “House Democrats said no.”

The bill would have required school districts to follow the policies it laid out, which varied by grade. There were a number of exceptions laid out in the legislation, including for medically-necessary devices, for so-called “basic telephones” (i.e. flip phones), and more.

Tisdel first introduced the bill in the last legislative session, but it never received enough support from Democrats to move forward. After Whitmer expressed her support for such legislation in her 2025 State of the State address, he decided to reintroduce it.

“We can do better,” Whitmer said. “This year, let’s pass bipartisan legislation to limit the use of phones in class.”

Despite this setback, Tisdel said he plans to rework the bill and then reintroduce it next year’s session.

“We made lots of changes to accommodate what Democrats in the legislature wanted, and they still voted no. We’re not going to water the bill down to the point of being meaningless,” he said. “We played nice, we tried to work with them, and they played games. So now, we’re going to go the other direction and make the bill stronger.”

There is broad support for legislation like this, with a June survey by Pew Research finding that 74% of adults support a ban on cellphones in middle and high school class, up from 68% last fall. A number of states have already passed legislation addressing the issue.

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Tisdel expressed great frustration at the bill’s failure, which comes as tensions grow over the delay in the finalization of the 2026-2027 fiscal year budget.

“This legislation is wildly popular with parents. You want to play politics with something that three quarters of U.S. adults want? Have at it,” he said. “This was a test vote, and Democrat lawmakers proved they won’t even vote for legislation that their own governor wants. Now we all know who the roadblock is going forward.”