Issue Position: Women's Voices Must be Present

Issue Position

One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote in Michigan.

A year later, Michigan women participated in statewide elections for the very first time.

The tremendous sacrifices that were made for women's suffrage spanned generations.

Our country's first women's rights convention was held 70 years before Michigan women would ultimately participate in their first state election.

While women have been participating in state elections for 100 years and make up over 50% of our state's population, our voices are greatly underrepresented in our state Capitol.

Today, women hold just a quarter of the seats in our state Capitol(37 out of 148).
I've served Meridian Township residents for two decades and have spent countless hours mentoring and helping women seek public office so that our boards actually reflect those they serve.

We should all want our governing bodies to reflect those they serve, but that is far from the case in Michigan, which is why we're seeing legislation to require women to purchase rape insurance, and efforts to defund Planned Parenthood every budget cycle.

I will work to diversify our state Capitol across the board and elect lawmakers who share our values, so families who rely on Planned Parenthood have access to basic preventative health care, family planning, cancer screenings, contraception and the many essential services Planned Parenthood provides.

And, so our right to choose isn't infringed upon by requiring addition insurance converage, or eliminating the availability of reproductive health care services.

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