State House Democratic candidate Sarah Schulz has blasted mailers from the Michigan Republican Party that say she wants to 'defund the police' as lies.
Schulz Launches Campaign, Challenging Glenn
MIDLAND, Mich. — Sarah Schulz formally announced her candidacy for State Representative in the 98th District Sunday night at an event held in the Midland Mall. Approximately 300-400 campaign volunteers and community members attended.
Ms. Schulz, a Democrat, is seeking to challenge State Rep. Annette Glenn (R) in the 2020 general election on Nov. 3. In 2018, Ms. Glenn defeated Ms. Schulz by 20,209 votes to 18,629, however Ms. Schulz received more votes in the City of Midland.
At the event, Ms. Schulz spoke about growing up in Flint and the shooting death of her uncle.
“When I was 16, my uncle was tragically killed when five young people robbed a party store and shot him as they fled,” she said. “People often ask me why I decided to do this work and every time they do, my uncle’s smile comes to my mind. That event lit a spark in me that I’ve carried around since I was 16.”
The anger over the event, she said, quickly turned into a sense of responsibility to prevent violence for other families.
Ms. Schulz also spoke about personal difficulties her and her family experienced shortly after moving back to the area after living in New York City and then losing her job in 2009 due to the recession.
“So, my Andrew and I and our two babies — both still in diapers — moved to an old, single-wide trailer home less than 20 miles from here on Wixom Lake that we had mortgaged years before,” she said. “The well on the trailer had failed so we lost running water. The roof leaked, the walls were growing mold, and the windows barely held out the wind.”
Ms. Schulz said that that was not a story of “us pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps,” rather the story of “a young family who needed help … and got it.”
One of the ways her campaign plans to resonate with more rural voters — areas in which her campaign failed to garner much support last cycle — is to tell that story.
“I don’t think that, in 2018, we really told that story very often,” Ms. Schulz told the City Paper. “It’s an important story because so many people have similar stories, and their voices aren’t as loud and they want someone to go to Lansing to represent their lived experience — and I’ve lived their experience.”
Eileen Grew, a resident of Midland, attended the event.
“[Ms. Schulz’s] character is extraordinary. She stays on focus, she is so bright, and she is effective. I think I’m looking for effective these days,” Ms. Grew told the City Paper.
Ms. Grew said that she came to support Ms. Schulz after the 2016 election.
“I was paying attention after the 2016 election, I went ‘Holy cow, I better wake up and pay attention,'” she said. “And [Ms. Schulz] kind rose at that time, and I listened, and I wanted to know what her positions were, and I wanted to know if she was capable of doing what she was saying.”
Midland Mall
The event was held at the Midland Mall, which lately is becoming — in Midland and across the country — a business desert as more local leaders and companies flock downtown.
“I walked this very mall many times as a teenager in my acid-washed jeans, ratted up hair, and Walkman,” she told the crowd. “During those heydays, every store was open and the mall was always bustling with activity … And now malls everywhere are changing as our society changes how we shop, connect, and live our lives.”
Ms. Schulz laid out a vision where the mall could be used for events as well as other creative uses as the community struggles with how to revitalize the area.
“The malls of today can be a community resource in a different way. For example, an indoor space to hold events like this,” she said. “Some may say this mall is a symbol of the past. But I think this mall can be a symbol of growth and transition. Of taking something we are used to seeing on way and seeing it in a new way, and opening up new possibilities.”
Ms. Schulz used that theme — seeing things differently — to talk more broadly about her campaign and about what took place in 2018.
Issues & Purple
Ms. Schulz has once again chosen purple as her campaign’s official color. The event crowd was adorned in purple attire and the Schulz campaign signs — many of them were held up by supporters at the evernt — are purple.
She said that she chose the color for three reasons. Her late grandmother’s favorite color was purple, it was one of the colors of the women’s suffrage movement, and it’s a combination of the traditional red and blue of the conservative and liberal movements.
“It is the combination of red and blue — a symbol and a strong reminder that we can work together. If we value relationship and conversations, even (maybe especially) over disagreements, that is is possible to have progress that benefits all of us,” she said.
So why isn’t Ms. Schulz running as an Independent?
“It’s a two-party system. If I were to look at some of the ways that my platform falls — pro-union, pro-workers’ rights, pro-health care, that sort of thing, it falls generally more on the Democratic side. So that’s why I’m running as a Democrat,” she told the City Paper.
Ms. Schulz addressed five specific political issues in her speech to supporters. She touched upon health care and prescription drug prices, saying that they should be affordable and available to those that need them.
She addressed firearms, championing universal background checks, and she endorsed so-called “red flag” laws designed to remove firearms from people deemed dangerous by a court.
Ms. Schulz addressed education as well. Her husband, Andrew, is a teacher.
“Most of us agree that investing in high quality public education should be our highest priority,” she said. “It isn’t about only the students of today but all of our future.”
She addressed unemployment figures, saying that having low unemployment isn’t enough.
“People need more than low-paying, dead-end jobs. They need good jobs, like union jobs, with wages families can live on that offer them stability and the flexibility to live their best lives and plan their futures,” Ms. Schulz told the crowd.
Finally, she mentioned climate change.
“Most of us agree that our Earth is the legacy we leave to our children and grandchildren, and it is our supreme responsibility to leave them a world they can live and prosper in, and I can’t believe this is even still a debate,” she said.
mike@chemicalcitypaper.com | @Westendorf
Michael Westendorf is the chairman and executive editor of Chemical City Paper. As Executive Editor, he leads the City Paper’s news coverage and editorial team.