WALKER, Mich. — Republican Mike Milanowski, a loan officer from Walker, says it’s “plain and simple — I have a family of five kids, four of them being daughters, and I think the voters need a better option in this election on May 3.”
Milanowski is launching a write-in campaign for the 74th District special election to fill a vacant state House seat.
The historically red district is made up of the area in Kent County both west and north of Grand Rapids, and has been vacant since state Sen. Mark Huizenga was elected to the Senate last fall.
Right now, there are two names on the ballot: Democratic nominee and Walker City Commissioner Carol Glanville and GOP nominee Robert “RJ” Regan.
In the days that followeda four-candidate GOP primary this month, the embattled Regan received condemnation from his own state party after he made several controversial comments on social media and in interviews.
“Mr. Regan’s history of foolish, egregious and offensive comments, including his most recent one, are simply beyond the pale," said Michigan GOP Chairman Ron Weiser. "We are better than this as a party and I absolutely expect better than this of our candidates.”
“Just think looking at the future going forward, and not just as a Republican but just going forward together, I think the voters... everybody is just sick of the extremism of everything going on in politics,” Milanowski said. “I think I'm going to give them an alternative choice, to be a voice to move forward to talk about things that are important to them: the issues here in this district, not things going on nationally, or overseas.”
Milanowski says those issues are: helping small businesses recover from the pandemic; and people as the costs of goods rise.
“I think we need to look at ways to help relieve them right now. If that's, you know, looking at the gas tax for the state, you know, so be it. But that stuff we need to talk about and have real conversations about.”
“I know it's an uphill battle,” Malinowski says of his write-in bid. “But I want to just tell the voters you have a choice. And I hope to be that choice for you.”
The winner of May’s special election will go on to serve eight months in the Legislature. All three candidates plan to run again for a full term in the newly drawn 84th state House district. Those primaries take place in August.
