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Michigan House District 79

Duties: The Michigan House of Representatives shares responsibility with the Michigan Senate to enact new laws and amend or repeal existing laws.Qualifications: Representatives are elected in even-numbered years to 2-year terms. They must be at least 21 years of age and a registered voter in their district. There are 110 State House districts which are re-apportioned after each census.Term: 2 years

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  • Candidate picture

    Zach Abbott
    (Dem)

  • Candidate picture

    Angela Rigas
    (Rep)

Biographical Information

EDUCATION: How do you evaluate Michigan’s current education system in terms of quality, funding, the teacher workforce and standardized testing? What changes, if any, would you propose or support?

ECONOMY: What policy initiatives do you support for residents to earn a living wage and address the overall question of affordability across Michigan?

ENVIRONMENT/ENERGY: How would you approach ensuring energy reliability, consumer affordability, and environmental protection in Michigan?

IMMIGRATION: What is your position on due process, First Amendment, and Fourth Amendment rights for all Michigan residents, including noncitizens, and what changes, if any, would you support?

Education BA - History from Calvin University
I think there are significant gaps in terms of the resources available to our public schools, which can lead some districts to be underfunded, understaffed, and under resourced. I believe that we have excellent teachers here in Michigan, but we need more teachers, increased teacher pay, and a weighted funding model that provides more funding based on students with special needs, the geographic size of the school district, and staffing needs.
My platform is heavily focused on reducing barriers to economic growth and affordability: these include long permitting delays for housing and renewable energy construction, exhaustive application requirements to access state funded grants and loans, and other burdensome regulations. Furthermore, I would increase investment in public transportation to connect more residents to careers, expand apprenticeship and work training programs, increase and expand the Tri-Share childcare program, and seek statewide universal health insurance coverage.
I believe it's imperative that we continue to develop our renewable energy supply: nuclear, solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal. Additionally, I want residents to have more options for who provides their electricity. Furthermore, I would create a "Michigan Corp of Engineers" that could assist with siting, planning, construction, and maintenance of our transmission lines. This would help improve the reliability of the grid and allow transmission lines to get built and repaired more quickly.
I believe that noncitizens still deserve the right to due process and to First and Fourth Amendment rights. This is because these rights either apply to all of us or they apply to none of us: if the government can arrest people, accuse them of a crime, and then imprison or deport them without a trial, that jeopardizes the guarantee of our rights regardless of our citizenship status.
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