The WØRD – “Accountability”

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From the Chair

The people charged with leading our state should expect to be held to account for the actions they take as public officials. That is at the heart of a new initiative by your state Democratic Party: holding Republicans in the Legislature accountable for how they vote on critical issues.

We are beginning with two of the most important issues facing all of us: gun safety, and personal freedom. First, gun safety.

Your party has launched a six-figure ad campaign calling out specific Republican legislators who voted against common-sense gun safety legislation overwhelmingly supported by their constituents in the wake of the tragic Michigan State University Shooting.

The new campaign directly targets six Representatives – Steele, Tisdel, Thompson, DeSana, Kuhn, and St. Germaine – in vulnerable districts that are 2024 priority seats to turn from Red to Blue. Through a combination of TV, digital, and billboard ads, the campaign is calling out these representatives for opposing common sense gun safety measures, like universal background checks and extreme risk protection orders.

When Republicans chose to blindly follow the NRA instead of prioritizing the safety of their constituents, we promised we would hold them accountable. Now, this is just the beginning of us keeping our word. In launching this campaign, we are making it clear to Michiganders in these districts exactly what their representatives did, who they stood with, and who they turned their backs on.

The second issue where we are holding Republicans accountable: your healthcare freedom. This week, House Republicans made yet another egregious attack on Michiganders’ fundamental right to abortion. 

Just mere weeks after House Freedom Caucus members (that’s right, the same legislators who voted against bills to prevent sexual assault) sponsored a bill package to repeal the right to reproductive freedom and make it a felony to perform an abortion, a group of House Republicans on Tuesday introduced a resolution to condemn abortion statewide.

This wasn’t just any resolution – it was filled with vitriolic language. Specifically, a section of the resolution reads:

“Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we recognize an individual unborn child as a distinct human life and that any effort to eliminate this life is akin to homicide; and be it further Resolved, That we condemn the practice of abortion and condemn any deliberate intent to procure an abortion as murderous.”

Despite the fact that Michiganders made their support for reproductive freedom abundantly clear at the ballot box in November, House Republicans refuse to accept reality. 

By introducing this resolution, Representatives Friske, Rigas, Alexander, Cavitt, and Maddock join the rest of their extremist colleagues in ignoring the will of their constituents, attacking fundamental reproductive rights, and jeopardizing health care access across our state. 

But one thing is clear: they have and will continue to fail, thanks to our Democratic majorities and Governor Whitmer, who are deeply committed to protecting bodily autonomy and freedom for every Michigander. 

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Democrats are also acting to reinforce a basic principle of democracy: guaranteeing that the candidate who gets the most votes wins the election. The United States is the only democracy on the planet where the second-place finisher in a national election can win. It has happened twice in the 20 years: the candidate for President who finished second in the voting was still sworn into office anyway thanks to the arcane Electoral College. There’s a national movement to stop this. We’re joined by the House sponsor of legislation supporting the National Popular Vote, Rep. Carrie Rheingans.

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