LANSING, Mich. — The race to Michigan Senate District 23 is heating up as Michigan Representative Sarah Anthony threw her hat in the ring on Wednesday.
"I have decided to continue my service in the Capitol and run to become your next state senator," Anthony said.
Anthony serves in the Michigan House of Representatives and is the first Black woman to serve in her position. If elected she says there's a lot of work to be done.
"Honestly the issues I've been fighting for in the House are the same issues I'm going to fight for in the Senate," she said. "Looking out for working families, education whether that's K-12 education or college affordability, and quite honestly making sure that we not only survive but thrive in the shadow of this pandemic."
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Anthony said that she plans to get her work done through bipartisanship.
"There's nothing we can get done in the Capitol if all we want to do is go there and argue and fight. At the end of the day people want leaders that are going to reach across the aisle to get things done," she said.
On a personal note, the two-term representative says, when she puts work aside, she's a "Star Wars" nerd and "I love natural hair and I appreciate the opportunity to come back to my hometown, back where it all happened where it all started here at Everett High School."
Anthony isn't the only politician vying to represent the district, which covers East Lansing and parts of Lansing.
Former state representative and East Lansing Mayor Sam Singh announced his candidacy back in June. He tells me he has been disappointed by politics at the national level.
“I've been disappointed watching the national conversation around democracy, the restrictions that are being put on women in Texas," he said. "There's all those changes that are not the Michigan I know, not the U.S. I know. And I want to make changes so we can better help our communities thrive in this new economy.”
Singh says that Michigan has changed during his lifetime and not always for the better.
“I take a look at the way I grew up in Michigan when my parents immigrated from India to Michigan and I don't see that same Michigan before my son," he said. "I really want to make sure that we are fighting for our education systems, making sure that our, our universities and colleges have the resources that they need, that when he's able to graduate, he's able to find a job."
The voters will decide who they want to represent East Lansing in the Michigan House on Nov. 8, 2022.
