Planet Detroit Candidate Survey
What are the three most pressing environmental issues facing the communities you seek to serve? Please rank them in order of priority and briefly explain why you chose each.
1. Energy Costs — S and Holding Utilities Accountable: Too many families in our district are paying some of the highest energy bills in the Midwest while receiving unreliable service. Monopoly utilities have too much power and too little accountability. That has to change, and as the candidate in this race who has never and will never take corporate campaign contributions, I'm ready to lead the charge.
2. Clean Air — And Safe, Affordable Water: Communities across our district have lived for generations next to refineries and industrial facilities. We can see the cumulative pollution burden on these neighborhoods in the adverse health outcomes faced by too many families. At the same time, no family should lose access to safe water because of cost. These are connected fights.
3. Trees & Forests — Road Safety: A walkable community is a livable community, and there is no reason driving down Telegraph, Michigan Avenue, or Southfield Freeway should be as dangerous as it currently is. No one should have to fear for their life crossing the street or walking through our neighborhoods. As state senator, I will lean on my experience bringing government leaders together to fix our roads, invest in mass transit, keep pedestrians safe, and tackle road noise and reckless driving.
Michigan law requires utilities to reach 100% clean energy by 2040. If elected, would you support maintaining this law, or would you support revising or repealing it? Please explain your position.
Maintain the current law and timeline
I strongly support full and robust implementation of the Clean Energy and Jobs Act and will oppose any attempts to weaken or roll back its core provisions. We need legislators who fight to not cede a single inch of the progress our state has achieved, because rolling back progress would create instability and undermine long-term cost savings.
More than two dozen Michigan communities are considering or have approved large-scale data center developments. These facilities can consume as much electricity as a small city and place significant demands on local water and energy infrastructure. What role should state government play in overseeing data center development, and what guardrails should the state legislature enact to protect communities where data centers are proposed?
I have been organizing alongside Allen Park residents opposing a proposed data center in our district that would consume as much power as the entire city of Allen Park, would sit next to a residential neighborhood and a high school, and provided no credible commitments on renewable energy, noise, water use, or community benefit. Through that organizing, residents have stopped the proposed data center and are insisting that transparency and regulatory questions get answered.
Michigan can welcome innovation, but not at the cost of working families. Large energy users should be required to pay their fair share for grid and infrastructure upgrades, operate with full transparency, and protect air and water resources. Every project should be evaluated case by case, with enforceable community benefit agreements, strong environmental safeguards, and meaningful, enforceable worker protections before approval, not after.
PFAS contamination has been detected in drinking water, groundwater, and surface water across Michigan. Cleanup efforts are underway, but many affected communities are still waiting for action. What is the single most important step the officeholder in this position should take on PFAS in the next term?
I have worked on PFAS policy at the federal level in ways that directly shaped what is now possible. As Congressman Andy Levin's environmental policy advisor, I drafted the letter that gathered 162 bipartisan House members to demand that PFAS cleanup provisions be retained in the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act. Those provisions phased out military use of PFAS firefighting foam, expanded water quality monitoring, and directed additional federal funding for PFAS health studies. That effort was built in close coordination with organizations like the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), who helped us understand the science and push the coalition to 162 signatures. I also helped draft Rep. Rashida Tlaib's amendment that required DoD to develop cleanup action plans in coordination with state and local governments, and another that prioritized PFAS infrastructure funding for frontline and disadvantaged communities — which is exactly the situation facing parts of our district.
What I learned from that work is that federal action is necessary but not sufficient. The state has to match federal cleanup resources with its own testing, monitoring, and remediation programs, and it has to do so with an environmental justice lens that ensures the most overburdened communities are first in line. In Lansing, I will push for expanded PFAS testing and groundwater monitoring statewide, aggressive pursuit of state and federal remediation funding, and biomonitoring programs so communities know what they have been exposed to and can access the health tracking they deserve.
Michigan residents in some communities face disproportionate exposure to air pollution, contaminated water, and industrial waste. Do you support requiring Michigan regulators to assess cumulative environmental and health impacts on overburdened communities before approving new permits for polluting facilities?
Yes
Our district has two refineries and a growing list of proposed industrial projects — including at least one data center — sitting next to homes and schools in communities that are already carrying a heavy pollution burden. The current permitting system evaluates each facility in isolation, which systematically undercounts that burden, and I fought to change that at the federal level alongside Reps. Tlaib and Levin; I will do the same in Lansing.
Utility rate cases directly affect what Michigan residents pay for electricity and gas. DTE and Consumers Energy have requested frequent significant rate increases in recent years. Should elected officials play a greater role in holding utility companies accountable for rate hikes and rising energy costs?
Yes. Monopoly utilities have a captive customer base and a track record of requesting frequent, significant rate increases while delivering unreliable service. As District 2's next State Senator, I will fight to tie utility rates directly to reliability, meaning rates should go up only when service improves, and down when it doesn't. I will also strengthen oversight through the Michigan Public Service Commission and expand weatherization and energy efficiency programs for low-income households. As a candidate who has committed to never accepting utility company or any other corporate contributions, I'll be ready to fight for accountability on Day One.
Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline runs through the Straits of Mackinac and carries crude oil and natural gas liquids between Wisconsin and Ontario. A proposed tunnel beneath the lakebed to house a replacement pipeline has faced legal and regulatory challenges for years. What is your position on the future of Line 5?
Line 5 is a 72-year-old pipeline, more than two decades past its intended lifespan, running 23 million gallons of oil daily through the Straits of Mackinac, which scientists have identified as the worst possible location in the Great Lakes for an oil spill given the strong currents. A rupture could contaminate more than 700 miles of coastline and take years to clean up. For the families I am running to represent, who have already lived with generations of industrial pollution, that risk is personal. I support shutting down Line 5.
On the tunnel, I have serious concerns based on expert research. The projected cost has ballooned to three times Enbridge's original estimate, the timeline has grown significantly, and environmental advocates argue it would not eliminate the risk of a spill, it would extend it, while damaging local ecosystems and fisheries in the process. A 2023 logistics study concluded Line 5 can be shut down without causing shortages or price increases by using alternative transportation methods that don't run through the heart of the Great Lakes. I understand that skilled trades workers would build the tunnel, and those are real jobs for real families. But the answer to that is ensuring workers are at the table and part of a serious transition and investment strategy, not locking Michigan into decades more of fossil fuel infrastructure that puts the Great Lakes at risk. I will support efforts in Lansing to shut down Line 5 responsibly, with workers, not at their expense.
Drinking water is becoming increasingly unaffordable for Michiganders in both rural and urban areas, leading to water shutoffs. Would you support legislation that caps water bills for low-income Michiganders and adds shutoff protections?
Yes. No family should have to choose between paying a water bill and meeting other basic needs. I support a statewide water affordability framework with income-based rate structures that give every household access to safe water. And I support a ban on shutoffs; I helped write the federal bill that would have made that the law of the land, working closely with Reps. Tlaib and Dingell. Shutoffs create serious public health risks, especially for children, seniors, and people with medical needs. The answer is long-term investment in household stability and utility sustainability, not punitive disconnections.
Michigan is home to more than 18,000 contaminated sites. Do you support or oppose legislation to hold polluters accountable for cleaning up these sites?
Support
Yes. Companies responsible for contamination should pay for cleanup, not taxpayers. I support strong polluter-pay laws with strict liability and financial assurance requirements that ensure remediation happens thoroughly and without delay. In communities across Senate District 2, including in Dearborn and Melvindale, which sits within one of the most polluted zip codes in Michigan, residents have lived with the legacy of heavy industry for generations. Families should not be left waiting while corporations escape accountability. Restoring and strengthening Polluter Pay protections is about environmental justice, public health, and basic fairness.