14 Days to Go: Jaime Churches and Jenn Hill

Tuesday Twofer

Oct 22, 2024

Who: Jaime Churches and Jenn Hill

Where: Michigan State House Districts 27 (Churches) and 109 (Hill)

Why: State legislatures are a key steppingstone for talented elected officials to advance to federal offices. According to the Democratic Leadership Campaign Committee, nearly half of the members of the U.S. Congress were once state legislators. (Eleven of the candidates for the U.S. House profiled so far by Democracy in the Balance have served in their state legislatures.)

In 2022, Democrats won a 56-54 majority in the Michigan House of Representatives, gaining control for the first time since 2008. Republicans are determined to flip it back. One of their chief targets is incumbent freshman Jaime Churches, who won two years ago by 660 votes out of 42,000 cast.

(For all of you who—like me—are Upper Peninsula fans, don’t worry. I am indeed aware that’s part of Michigan, too. We’ll get to that shortly.)

Representing the “Downriver” 27^thdistrict on the southern side of the Detroit metropolitan area, Churches is a former elementary school educator who has had four bills signed into law during her brief tenure thus far, including bills that expanded background checks for firearm purchases and allowed public schools to help collect union dues. Her priorities also include investing in new roads and bridges, replacing outdated water filtration systems, and planning now for the ways in which climate change will affect infrastructure.

Her opponent is Rylee Linting, a 22-year-old college student and political newcomer. Linting attended Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, where according to her website she “faced indoctrination, vaccination mandates, and woke student culture,” which led her “to get involved politically and fight for freedom and family values.”

Michigan’s House District 109, which includes Marquette and the central part of the Upper Peninsula, has been held by Democrats since the 1950s. Incumbent Jenn Hill is hoping to maintain that streak even though the area has been trending more conservative.

Hill is the vice president of the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan and has worked for clean-energy-oriented nonprofits and other organizations focused on the environment. In addition to securing millions of dollars to invest in projects benefitting Yoopers (see “Culture” section here), she strongly supported Michigan’s Reproductive Health Act which protects and expands access to care and was passed following the successful “Right to Reproductive Freedom” ballot measure in 2022.

Challenging Hill is Karl Bohnak, a former TV meteorologist. He has been endorsed by Citizens for Traditional Values, an anti-abortion group, and opposed the expanded background checks and registration requirements for gun purchases that the legislature passed last session.

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Democracy in the Balance

14 Days to Go: Jaime Churches and Jenn Hill

Tuesday Twofer

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