Life shouldn’t be this damn hard.

Food isn’t a luxury. We want lower grocery bills and stocked shelves.

Across the 105th, families are choosing between groceries and rent, groceries and gas, groceries and medicine — and in too many corners of our seven counties, the nearest grocery store is thirty minutes away. We'd take on rising costs, expand food access, and protect the programs our neighbors depend on.

More houses. Fair rents. A place to call home.

Across the 105th, working people are paying rents they can barely keep up with — while homes sit vacant as short-term vacation rentals and second homes. Some neighbors have run out of options entirely and are living in campers in the woods. We'd take on the housing crisis from both sides: cap runaway rents and bring real housing back. text goes here

Good jobs and strong small business means skilled workers, living wages, and shopping local first.

Big corporations don't need more help; Main Street does — we'd back small business, support skilled trades education and training, and wages that keep up with the cost of living.

Universal Healthcare without deductibles and co-pays.

Healthcare is a human right, not a profit center — we demand universal coverage, no deductibles, and protections for every rural hospital and clinic in our seven counties.

Public education is how rural communities grow their own future.

Our small districts are stretched thin — fewer teachers, longer bus routes, less bandwidth to chase grants the big districts can. We'd push for funding that reflects what rural schools actually need, recruit and retain teachers in every corner of the 105th, and protect what makes a great school: skilled trades training that opens up good jobs at home, and the art, music, theatre, and sports programs that shape who our kids become.

Parents can't work if they can't find childcare.

In our seven counties, that's a daily reality — providers are scarce, costs are climbing, and the workers raising our kids earn poverty wages. We'd expand rural childcare access, raise pay for childcare workers and caregivers, and support the grandparents and family members filling the gaps that the system leaves behind.

The Supreme Court just gutted the federal Voting Rights Act and the SAVE Act nearly passed.

Michigan is fighting back with our own Voting Rights Act to protect every eligible voter. We'd support it — and oppose HB 4765, the proof-of-citizenship bill that would force the 60% of Michiganders without passports, and the 2.2 million married women with birth certificates in their maiden names, to clear new hurdles just to register.

Reproductive healthcare is healthcare.

Birth control, prenatal care, miscarriage management, cancer screenings, fertility treatment, abortion — these are medical decisions, and they belong to the patient and their doctor. We'd protect access to all of it, defend the rights Michigan voters affirmed in 2022, and make sure reproductive care is reachable from every county in the 105th.

We can repair most of this if we’re all willing to put down the sword and talk.

A few years ago, I started feeling something was off — not just for me, but for everyone. Neighbors who'd shared fence lines for decades had stopped speaking. Family dinners had gone quiet. People were scared to say what they thought out loud, and angrier when they finally did.

That's why I co-founded The Human Development Collective. That's why we launched The Bad Pancakes Podcast. Every piece of work I've been doing has been about reconnecting people with each other.

This isn't a left or right problem — it's happening in every direction, in every community across the 105th. Closing the divide doesn't mean agreeing on everything. It means choosing to stay at the table when it would be easier to leave. We'd bring the work of reconnection to Lansing — because a state that can't talk to itself can't fix anything else.

Families shouldn't pay for Big Tech's electricity or for plants Michigan already chose to retire. We'd make data centers cover their own costs and put energy decisions back in Michigan's hands — not Washington's.