Michigan was once a top-five economy in the nation, with high wages, strong homeownership, and low unemployment. Today, we're in the bottom five for unemployment. As the City of Detroit’s first ever Director of Small Business Affairs under Mayor Sheffield, and as a professor teaching workers’ rights law at the University of Detroit Mercy School of law, I know firsthand that a strong economy uplifts both workers and small businesses. We have everything we need to build a growing, affordable, and vibrant economy that works for all of us, one that creates high-paying jobs, dignifies workers, and builds community wealth.

I will prioritize:

• Empowering workers by protecting collective-bargaining rights, repealing the ban on project labor agreements, cracking down on wage theft, and raising the minimum wage

• Uplifting Detroit and Downriver small businesses with targeted support that allows entrepreneurs to turn blight to beauty, hire locally, and grow in Michigan

• Investing in Michigan’s high-growth startup ecosystem by backing emerging technologies tackling the world’s toughest challenges, supporting workforce development and talent retention efforts, and strengthening partnerships with Michigan's world-class universities

• Strengthening public schools by rebuilding school infrastructure, ensuring equitable funding, raising teacher and staff pay, and expanding skilled trades programs

My mother and grandmother are nurses. I learned from them and from my own experience, that health is not just about staying out of hospitals. A happy, healthy Michigan means safe neighborhoods, strong public services, and the right to clean air, clean water, and a high quality of life. We must fight to ensure that every Michigander lives in a community that supports their well-being and future.

I will work to:

• Build vibrant communities by investing in public transit, modern infrastructure, increased housing supply, and walkable neighborhoods 

• Protect community health by ensuring every resident has clean air to breathe, clean, affordable water to drink, and real environmental justice so that where you live doesn’t determine your health outcomes

• Lower property taxes and rent through structural property tax reform and ensure that economic development, relief, and beautification efforts reach all communities

• Create safer communities with strong gun safety laws, public safety funding for police, fire, and community violence intervention organizations, criminal justice reform, and robust youth and after-school programs

• Dignify seniors by lowering prescription drug prices, boosting in-home care, and directing funding to local senior centers and support services

To make progress on every issue, government must be ethical, effective, and responsive. For too long, Michigan has lagged behind on ethics, public trust, and transparency. That’s why I helped lead efforts to enshrine term limits and financial disclosure laws in our state constitution. We need a government that is transparent, ethical, and accountable—not one trapped in the dysfunction of Lansing, Washington, or the chaos of the 2024 legislative lame-duck period. We deserve a state government that actively listens to our communities, defends our rights, and delivers results.

I will fight for:

• Transparent government with FOIA reform, a strengthened State Board of Ethics, and full financial disclosure from lawmakers

• Just government that fights racial injustice by tackling health disparities, advancing criminal justice reform, closing the wealth gap, and protecting our communities from redlining and discrimination

• Ethical government that restores trust by stopping Lansing lawmakers from cashing in as lobbyists or legislative consultants with a required cooling-off period

• Honorable government that defends our constitutional rights against extreme attacks on reproductive freedom, marriage equality, free speech, and immigrant communities

• Fair government with a Michigan Voting Rights Act to guarantee equal access to the ballot, prevent voter suppression, and strengthen democracy

The Trump administration’s actions have continuously placed our rights, our healthcare, our environment and our economy under threat. We need state government leaders who will put Michigan first and ensure that our communities are protected in the face of this federal administration.

I will prioritize

• Protecting our votes by passing the Michigan Voting Rights Act.

• Keeping Trump’s ICE out of our communities by passing a Michigan No Secret Police Act and increasing protections for sensitive locations.

• Protecting our air, water and health in the face of cuts to the EPA by passing a Michigan Environmental Justice Act that strengthens protections for overburdened communities, holds polluters accountable, and reduces pollution that harms our health.

• Lowering healthcare costs in the face of attacks on our healthcare by creating a prescription drug affordability board, banning healthcare junk fees, and forgiving medical debt.

• Defending our civil rights by increasing funding and enforcement for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.