Alert Reader: NoMI Represent
Peyton Schindler sent a letter.
Updated with additions by writer, 2:15 p.m. 6/12/26
In 2018, I got to meet our House of Representatives member Jack Bergman during a senior class trip to Washington, DC. At the time, Betsy DeVos was attempting to decrease public school funding. Our trip was chaperoned by our vice principal, who was also the AP Literature teacher and school guidance counselor. These were positions that would typically be filled by multiple different people, but due to a lack of funding, had to be shouldered by one. I raised my hand and asked Representative Bergman if he supported defunding public schools, and listened as he spoke for two minutes broadly about education without answering the question.
A few weeks ago I went to see Democratic candidate Callie Barr speak at her town hall. With gas prices continuing to climb due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, I asked Callie: “What is your stance on the war in Iran?” She spoke for a few minutes broadly about the Middle East without answering the question.
I studied public relations in college, and one of the things they teach is that when you’re asked a question you don’t want to answer, you answer a different question. Once you learn this, you see it all the time, from politicians to celebrities to athletes, but if someone did that in a regular conversation, I’d assume they were hiding something or being untruthful.
Too often our politicians don’t speak like normal people and pass legislation that normal people would never want. Our governor, Gretchen Whitmer, just posed for a photo with tech CEOs at the construction site of a data center in Saline, which it seems like nobody in Michigan wants. I haven’t heard Jack Bergman talk about data centers publicly, but seeing that he’s taking campaign contributions from the data center giant Oracle, I think I have my answer. When I saw Callie speak in Traverse City, she wouldn’t take a stance against data centers, instead opting to call for “more transparency.” Callie takes a different approach than Jack. She accepts PAC donations from “A Pleasant Peninsula PAC,” which accepts donations from a Consumers Energy corporate PAC. I think I know where she stands, too.
When the same corporate interests fund both sides, I can understand how people become apathetic about politics, but please know that we have other options. I’ve seen Kyle Blomquist, Justin Michal, Zeb Featherly, and Wayne Stiles speak like normal people. Unlike Jack or Callie, they actually show up to community-hosted debates and Q&As and will speak plainly about how they feel about the many issues facing our country. So far, none of these candidates has taken any corporate PAC money, and Kyle Blomquist has called for halting data center construction. You might not see as many advertisements about them on TV, but I recommend looking them up and voting for one of them in August. Northern Michigan only gets one representative in the U.S. House of Representatives. Let’s make sure they represent us, not corporations. —Peyton Schindler
Views expressed in a letter to the editor or op-ed are the writer’s own. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Send yours to emilyvotruba@yahoo.com!
Well said!