3 Republicans, 2 Democrats running in Michigan's 38th House District race

A handful of candidates are vying to represent Michigan’s 38th House District. August’s primary election includes three Republicans and two Democrats facing off for their party’s nomination.

The newly created district runs along Lake Michigan from Saugatuck to the Michigan-Indiana border. It includes Saugatuck, South Haven, Covert, Benton Harbor, New Buffalo and several other communities.

Republican candidates are George Lucas, Troy Rolling and Kevin Whiteford, while Joey Andrews and Annie Brown square off in the Democratic party primary.

Whiteford, 57, is a CPA and business owner of Whiteford Wealth Management and Whiteford Properties Inc. He lives in South Haven and is married to current 80th district representative Mary Whiteford, who will be term-limited following her current term.

Kevin Whiteford has not held an elected office, but has been on the South Haven Downtown Development Authority board for six years, has been an election delegate for over 10 years and briefly served as Allegan County GOP chair.

Rolling, 49, of Benton Harbor, is the owner of Redtie Concierge. He has not held elected office before, but has experience in Michigan politics, working on several campaigns and serving as vice chair of the Michigan GOP.

Lucas, 64, is a real estate broker from Harbert and is also pursuing elected office for the first time. He has served in leadership roles with multiple non-profit organizations.

Brown, 61, most recently worked for Sen. Gary Peters as West Michigan Regional Coordinator, a position she held for three years until November 2021. Brown previously worked for Sen. Carl Levin in Washington, D.C.

Brown, of South Haven, has previously held elected office, serving as a member of the South Haven Board of Education for 13 years.

Andrews, of St. Joseph, is a lawyer and policy analyst for AFL-CIO and a previous regional coordinator for the 2020 campaigns of President Joe Biden and Sen. Gary Peters. He previously ran in Michigan’s 79th House District in 2018.

Rolling was motivated to run for office by his “heart to serve,” saying the community has given a lot to him. He said he “wants to take a conservative philosophy to Lansing.” Whiteford is running because he feels West Michigan is “incredibly underserved and misunderstood” on a statewide basis.

Lucas became interested in running for office after interacting with legislators as part of the leadership for the Southwest Michigan Association of Realtors.

“I realized some issues I was running into in my real estate practice are things that should be addressed at the state level,” he said. “With redistricting creating this open seat and what’s gone on (during the pandemic), I decided I could stop complaining or get busy.”

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Brown is running to help bring more women into Michigan’s legislature and address the areas of reproductive rights, housing and mental health. On his website, Andrews said his goal is to “elevate the voices of my community and bring focus to our region that has been sorely lacking for a long time.”

Supporting and attracting business will be a focus for Whiteford if elected.

“Business creates community, communities then thrive,” he said. “We need to make sure we bring businesses into our state when they’re looking for places to build facilities. We need to allow small businesses to operate as easily as possible, that’s the heart of the community.”

Whiteford is also in favor of lowering income tax to balance new streams of revenue for the state.

“People ask ‘Can you lower income tax?’ I believe you can,” he said. “When you raise extra money in marijuana and internet gambling sales tax that was never expected, why not reduce income tax for the same amount? We don’t need to raise unexpected money and not decrease revenues that are burdening our people.”

When asked his legislative priorities, Rolling highlighted a goal of protecting parental rights in education.

“I want to protect parental rights in education. Parents have rights, too,” he said. “Parents want to have more say in what kids are learning. We don’t want education to be influenced by any government or social indoctrination. The whole point of school is to prepare kids for life.”

He also said that more emphasis should be placed on skilled trades and “making sure kids understand there is more than one path to success.”

Handling inflation is another issue important to Rolling, saying there are opportunities to help residents save money. One example, he said, would be a gas tax holiday.

“I believe that we can tackle inflation from a state standpoint,” he said. “There are things the state can do to help people keep a little bit more money. Opportunities are there and we need to take advantage.”

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Rolling said he has lived in the district his entire life and thinks that gives him a greater knowledge of the people he would represent.

“It helps knowing the heart, mind and thoughts of Michiganders,” he said. “I know and want to protect the things we have.”

The top priority in office for Lucas would be getting Michigan to be a top 10 state for economic and population growth. One way to do this, Lucas said, is to explore reducing or eliminating income tax.

“We need to make Michigan a place that people want to come and establish a business and where people want to move to,” he said. “We need to stop the bleeding and start moving in the right direction.”

Expanding access to high speed internet for rural communities and small towns is another focus area for Lucas.

“I look at having access to the internet as almost tantamount to having access to electricity,” he said. “I don’t think most people can function properly in this society without internet access.”

On education, Lucas said the state needs to make investments in trades and other vocational education pathways.

“The grand experiment of every kid going to college has failed,” he said. “We’re shortchanging kids that aren’t college bound. (High school graduates) should have developed some skill or expertise to at least get them started in the type of work that could lead to a meaningful career for them.”

Each of the three Republican candidates said they are anti-abortion. Whiteford said his pro-life stance goes beyond abortion, however.

“I am pro-life. I believe life starts at conception. It has its own DNA, to me that means it has a constitutional right,” he said. “But part of being pro-life is, what are we doing with kids that are born? We should be helping these kids become productive citizens and productive workers in our communities.”

Primary issues for Brown include reproductive rights, affordable housing and mental health services.

“I want to go to Lansing to fight for reproductive rights, expand affordable housing and expand mental health care,” Brown said. “Those have all been in crisis in Michigan.”

She is running in hopes of contributing to a wave of more women being elected in Michigan.

“I’m the only pro-choice woman running in our house district,” Brown said. “I have so much support from women and men who are just excited that this will be the year of the pink wave when women are elected in Michigan.

“My parents raised me to be tough, speak out and stand up for others. That’s the kind of fearless leadership that I’ll take with me to Lansing.”

Brown said her political experience will help her “hit the ground running” if she’s elected.

“My experience working for (Sens. Peters and Levin) in addition to serving on the school board has prepared me to become our next legislator,” she said. “Gary Peters taught me the importance of working across the aisle. I will work with Republicans or Democrats or anyone in the middle to get the job done for Michigander.”

Important local issues for Andrews include addressing water infrastructure on the lakeshore, maintaining local control of short-term rentals and expanding local employment to be less reliant on tourism.

“Tourism is obviously big money on the coast. But for permanent residents here that economy is not a stable one,” Andrews told The Sentinel after announcing his campaign. “You've got maybe good work during the summer, not so much in the winter.

“It makes local businesses unstable because they're so dependent on the tourist drive. We’re thinking ‘let's bring the trades back in, let's create those more permanent jobs.’”

At a statewide level, Andrews supports repealing Michigan’s 1931 abortion law to protect abortion rights and extended the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch. 

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: 3 Republicans, 2 Democrats running in 38th House District along lakeshore