Endorsement: Our picks for Michigan state House in Nov. 5 election

In 2021, a mass shooter killed four teenagers at Oxford High School. It was an unspeakable tragedy, and it ought to have fueled a legislative push for the commonsense gun reforms most Michiganders support.

It didn’t.

In 2023, a mass shooter slew three at Michigan State University — another senseless horror.

This time, the state Legislature did something, passing laws to require universal background checks for gun buyers, establish legal consequences for parents who don’t secure firearms in the home and red flag laws allowing courts to temporarily prevent people who’ve given clear indications that they are dangerous to themselves or to others from purchasing or possessing guns. Not a panacea, but finally, a start.

What changed?

In 2022, Michiganders elected Democratic majorities to the state House and Senate, giving the party — along with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — unilateral control of state government for the first time in 40 years.

A one-vote majority.

In two years, the Democratic majority has made admirable strides.

In addition to gun reform, they’ve adopted a tiered funding system for public schools, acknowledging that it costs more to educate students who arrive in the classroom with different challenges; expanded the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include protections for LGBTQ+ Michiganders — another policy objective with widespread support among business owners that GOP lawmakers just wouldn’t pass; created a dedicated affordable housing fund; allocated $7.8 million to community gun violence prevention programming; expanded tax credits for working families; budgeted $509 million for water infrastructure projects and lead service line replacement; enshrined the Affordable Care Act in state law.

But there is more work to be done, and we can’t afford to go back.

Endorsements: Free Press picks for Michigan US House, Senate and House in Nov. 5 election

A future for Michigan

In 2022, the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board took the unprecedented step of endorsing only in competitive districts key to flipping both chambers.

Not because of ideology, but because over the course of a decade, Michigan Republicans had become the party of no.

Lansing Republicans failed to advance any affirmative agenda or enact their constituents’ will – not just during the tenure of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, but while her Republican predecessor, former Gov. Rick Snyder, held office.

Snyder was forced to truncate a trade trip overseas to corral his party mates into passing Michigan’s Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion, which extended health insurance to 683,000 people of all political stripes. The Legislature passed right-to-work against Snyder’s objections (he signed it, regardless), and shot down his efforts to fix Michigan’s roads and fund Michigan’s schools.

When Whitmer took office in 2018, little changed, even when a deadly pandemic put Michiganders’ lives at risk. The gun reform bills passed largely along party lines (five Republicans broke ranks to support secure storage). After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Michigan Republicans were content to let a never-repealed 1931 law that would ban abortion in nearly all circumstances become enforceable again.

Lawmakers aren’t meant to simply fall into line — and should vote in opposition when a plan or policy doesn’t pass muster.

But Michigan Republicans seem content to sandbag their political foes, without ever presenting alternative plans or their own legislative agenda.

Opinion: Michigan Republicans are suddenly chill on abortion. Should we buy it?

Changing the map

One thing the GOP did prioritize was holding onto power, approving gerrymandered legislative maps after the 2010 U.S. Census that made electing a Democratic majority – or anything close to it – virtually impossible in this 50-50 state.

Bipartisan redistricting maps, required by a voter referendum and in play for the first time in 2022, set a more level playing field, and Democrats, we believed, deserved a turn at the wheel.

We’ve seen little evidence in the last two years that Michigan’s GOP has become a more functional entity — or more capable of representing its constituents. The party has focused much of its energy on advancing false claims about the 2020 election — a former party chair is awaiting trial for attempting to seat a slate of false state electors — and bickering over which election-denying chairperson should lead it, spawning lawsuits and bringing the party to the brink of bankruptcy in the process.

Meanwhile, votes on practical matters with benefit to all Michiganders continue to break on party lines.

So, for the second time in two years, we are endorsing only in those races necessary for Democrats to hold or expand their majority in the state House of Representatives, and only in the most competitive races. (Members of the state Senate serve four-year terms, and won’t need to seek re-election until 2026.)

Hoping for a brighter 2026

Politics are policy’s necessary companion, and the push-pull of our two-party system ensures that the people impacted by policy have a say in its crafting.

Or it ought to.

We hope, in two years, to evaluate candidates fielded by a changed Republican Party, one that has put aside dysfunction and hysteria to craft an agenda that serves its constituents.

District 28

Parts of Wayne and Monroe counties, including Woodhaven, Brownstown Township, Berlin Township and Newport

Republican Rep. Jamie Thompson was elected to this downriver seat in 2022 with 50.9% of the vote, a 735-ballot margin — making this seat far from secure for Republicans.

Teacher Janise Robinson is hoping to prove that point. Robinson, a Taylor native who now lives in Brownstown Township with her husband and children, cites a positive early experience with government as one reason for her candidacy: When her father became disabled, savings and insurance wouldn’t cover the bills. Her mother wrote to former Gov. George Romney, whose staff helped her family find state support.

It’s a powerful testimony to the impact government can, and ought to have. She has collected a swath of endorsements from local elected officials, labor unions and civil rights groups.

That stands in stark contrast to Thompson, who recently posted a video to the social media site TikTok in which she decried skin care products marketed to men at a local Target as “woke sh-t,” and speculated that an apparently female model in marketing materials displayed in the section was a men.

In the weeks following a deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Tex, a group founded by Thompson and her husband held a “meet the candidates” event at which an AR-15 was raffled, despite requests from local officials to cancel the raffle in light of the tragedy in Texas.

JANISE ROBINSON is a better fit for this 50-50 district.

District 29

Parts of Monroe and Wayne counties, including the cities of Taylor, New Boston and Huron Township

State Rep. James DeSana, R-Carleton, won the 29th District seat in 2022 with 51.5% of the vote, defeating Democratic incumbent state Rep. Alex Garza by a 1,040-vote margin.

Democratic candidate Kyle Wright is hoping to return the favor and push DeSana out this cycle. This district trends Republican, but DeSana, a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, is far to the right of the average Republican — even the average Republican state lawmaker. During his two years in office, he’s proved a reliable “no” vote, even casting ballots against measures most Republicans support.

DeSana posted to social media this month that U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary Alexander Myorkas should be arrested, and that America should withdraw from the World Health Organization. In response to a questionnaire issued by the fringe group Rescue Michigan, DeSana affirmed that he would support concealed carry sans permit, opposes financial disclosures for elected officials, would vote to restore Right to Work and to charge doctors with felony offenses for providing gender affirming care to trans kids.

Born and raised in Taylor, Wright has served on the Taylor School District Board of Education for three years, holding the roles of president and secretary. Wright says his particular focus in the state House will be educational investment, emphasizing reducing class sizes, funding the purchase of updated textbooks and other classroom materials and boosting teacher wages.

For this district, KYLE WRIGHT is the best choice.

46th District

Parts of Jackson and Washtenaw counties, including the cities of Jackson and Chelsea

Republican state Rep. Kathy Schmaltz won an easy nine-point victory in 2022 after the embarrassing past of her opponent, a poorly vetted Democrat, made statewide news. In any other circumstances, the 46th District would’ve been a true toss-up — and Schmaltz faces a serious opponent this year: Jackson Mayor Daniel Mahoney.

Mahoney has been a wise steward of Jackson’s stimulus dollars, using the federal funds to target issues like housing affordability and barriers to homeownership, the revitalization of a commercial corridor, support for small businesses and job training — all specific policy objectives that could be expanded at scale in other Michigan cities. Republicans have tried to gin up controversy over a rap song Mahoney recorded 10 years ago, but local reporting shows it’s all smoke and no fire.

DANIEL MAHONEY is better qualified for the 46th District seat.

District 55

Rochester, Rochester Hills and part of Oakland Township

Republican Rep. Mark Tisdel, R-Rochester Hills, won the seat in 2022 by less than a thousand votes.

Democrat Trevis Harrold is running to unseat Tisdel. An Army reservist and international diplomat who’s served in Mexico, Thailand, Jamaica, Kosovo and Washington D.C., Harrold became interested in public service as a child while knocking on doors with his union organizer mother. His priorities are gun safety, expanding pre-K education to 4-year-olds and preserving reproductive rights, particularly access to in vitro fertilization, which he says has higher-than-average usage rates in Rochester and Rochester Hills.

In a 2022 forum, Tisdel said he believed that Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban, which mandated felony manslaughter charges for doctors and nurses who performed abortions, should deem abortion murder and allow for the commensurate felony charge.

TREVIS HARROLD is a better fit for the 55th District.

District 27

Parts of Wayne County, including Grosse Ile, Riverview, Wyandotte, Trenton and Gibraltar

This downriver district is arguably the most competitive House race in the state. Incumbent Rep. Jaime Churches, D-Grosse Ile, won the seat in 2022 by 1.56 percentage points, a margin of less than a thousand votes, in a year that favored Democratic candidates. Republican candidate Rylee Linting is vying to unseat Churches.

Linting, of Wyandotte, attended Grand Valley State University. At Grand Valley, her website says, Linting “faced indoctrination, vaccination mandates, and woke student culture.” Linting has been endorsed by Citizens for Traditional Values, a right-wing group that’s working to remove reproductive rights from the Michigan state constitution, ban abortion medication, restore the 1931 ban and install criminal penalties for violators.

Churches has delivered tangible results for her district, like legislation allowing Grosse Ile Township to purchase and operate a bridge — pending a community-wide vote — that is one of two ways to access the island, millions for lead service line replacement and funding for the Downriver Council for the Arts.

JAIME CHURCHES works hard for her district, and residents ought to re-elect her.

District 31

Parts of Lenawee, Monroe, Washtenaw and Wayne counties

State Rep. Reggie Miller, D-Van Buren Township, won the 31st District seat in 2022, beating Republican Dale Biniecki with 52% of the vote.

During two years in Lansing, Miller has secured or is working to get state funds home to her district for a bridge project, the wastewater treatment plant in Milan, park erosion management and 4-H youth programs. Before winning the House seat, she spent 10 years as a Van Buren Township trustee. She’s steeped in the concerns of her constituents, and is ably representing them in Lansing.

Biniecki is a retired truck driver who has been endorsed by the right-wing group Citizens for Traditional Values. In 2022, he echoed the group's push to restore Michigan's abortion ban.

Voters in the 33rd District should re-elect REGGIE MILLER.

District 58

Utica and parts of Sterling Heights, Shelby Township and Warren

Democratic incumbent state Rep. Nate Shannon was elected to the Michigan House in 2018, re-elected in 2020 and again in 2022 — that year with just 51% of the vote against fringe candidates. This year, he’s facing Utica City Councilman Ron Robinson, a more conventional Republican, in another hotly contested race.

Shannon is a former teacher who served on the Sterling Heights City Council before winning the House seat.

Shannon chairs the Transportation, Mobility, and Infrastructure Committee. He introduced a bill that passed the House last year and is pending a vote in the Senate to allow installation of cameras on school bus stop arms to help enforce bus stop laws; co-sponsored House-passed bipartisan legislation that would use a portion of state sales tax revenues to establish a new Public Safety and Violence Prevention Fund that would support local police departments, community violence intervention programming and a victims’ rights fund; and co-sponsored the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit expansion, a direct benefit to working families.

Robinson, a real estate agent and former Marine, has served on the Utica City Council for one year. He has been endorsed by Right to Life of Michigan, which requires the candidates it supports to oppose abortion in all circumstances except to save the life of the mother.

NATE SHANNON is a better fit for the district.

District 81

Northeast Grand Rapids, Ada Township, parts of Grand Rapids and Plainfield townships

Just one open House seat is competitive in the November election. Democratic state Rep. Rachel Hood, D-Grand Rapids, opted not to seek re-election, and Democrat Stephen Wooden, of Grand Rapids, and Republican Jordan Youngquist, of Kent, are vying for the seat.

Wooden has been a Kent County commissioner since 2019. As a housing and community development manager for Dwelling Place, a nonprofit, he led the development of more than a thousand units of affordable housing, and led the creation of Grand Rapids’ $58.3 million affordable housing fund. He is married with one child.

Youngquist cites a former role on the board of the Kent County Farm Bureau and his membership in two agricultural associations as relevant experience for office. He is married with five children.

STEPHEN WOODEN has experience in elective office and professional experience relevant to Michiganders’ most pressing needs, and his politics are a better match for this Democrat-leaning district.

District 103

Leelanau County and parts of Benzie and Grand Traverse counties

State Rep. Betsy Coffia, D-Traverse City, won this district in 2022 with fewer than 800 votes. Although it is trending blue, Republican Lisa Trombley is running to unseat Coffia.

Trombley is a Michigan native who spent the bulk of her career in high-ranking positions in IT and intelligence at government defense contractor Lockheed Martin in the Washington D.C. area. She is now a resident of the Old Mission Peninsula. In a candidate forum, she expressed skepticism about climate change — "Science can argue science,” opined that passing “3,000 laws” would not prevent gun violence and says that unilateral Democratic control has put Michigan in “a dark place.” She has been endorsed by Citizens for Traditional Values, which wants to remove reproductive rights from the Michigan Constitution.

Coffia has championed measures to address a housing crisis in northern Michigan, securing $5 million in state funding for an affordable housing development specifically for educators in Grand Traverse County. She also introduced legislation passed in the House that would modify how the Michigan State Housing Development Authority can use bonds, freeing up millions in funding to address affordable housing.

In 2023, Coffia wrote a letter to Attorney General Dana Nessel seeking an opinion that would allow affordable housing developers using federal funds to also gain access to Michigan’s Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program – which offers financing for efficiency improvement and renewable energy systems installation.

Nessel issued the opinion in October 2023 and the Housing and Urban Development Department in April issued its own approval and will now consider proposals for HUD projects to access PACE.

It’s an example of the kind of problem-solving know-how that makes BETSY COFFIA the better choice in this race.

District 109

Alger, Baraga and Marquette counties and parts of Dickinson and Houghton counties

The 109th is a Democratic enclave in the conservative Upper Peninsula. Dems have had a lock on this seat since 1950, but Republicans are hoping Karl Bohnak can unseat incumbent Rep. Jenn Hill, D-Marquette.

Hill, elected in 2022, has brought millions to the district, including funding for a transportation center. She sponsored legislation to make solar energy more affordable for Michigan families and has been a consistent voice for U.P. residents on subjects from road funding to population growth.

Bohnak, a Negaunee resident and longtime meteorologist at WLUC-TV, was fired from the station in 2021 after its parent company required employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing. Bohnak has been endorsed by Citizens for Traditional Values, which wants to ban abortion medication and and install criminal penalties for violators.

Voters in the 109th District should retain JENN HILL.

Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we may publish it online and in print.

This story has been updated to clarify a candidate’s educational status.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Endorsement: Our picks for Michigan state House in Nov. 5 election