Why I am running.

My family has lived in the Upper Peninsula nearly as long as Michigan has been a state. My great-grandfather, Alphonse La Jeunesse, born just before the Civil War, came to the U.P. in the 1870s to work the mines, operating a steam hoist in Iron Mountain. The house he built with my great-grandmother, Natalie, in 1886, is still standing today. My grandfather, Omer La Jeunesse, was born in 1908 and developed a passion for sports at a young age. He left Iron Mountain for the University of Michigan, where he earned a master’s degree in physical education—and played football alongside future U.S. President Gerald Ford. He later served as athletic director in Dickinson County before moving on to coach football at Michigan Tech. Today, a monument honoring his career stands in the university’s Student Development Complex. On my mother’s side, my great-grandfather Emil Heikkinen emigrated from Finland, worked in a sawmill, and built the house my family still calls home. His older brother served in World War I, and when WWII broke out, Emil enlisted. He was captured in Europe and survived a Nazi POW camp by eating potato peelings. My great-uncle Harold followed in his footsteps during the Cold War, enlisting in the same armored division as Elvis Presley. My father was a teacher, hockey coach, and union representative with the Michigan Education Association. As a child, I traveled rink to rink across the U.P. with his hockey team, getting to know its towns firsthand. In high school, I joined the thriving local arts scene, performing in the Pine Mountain Music Festival and the Calumet Players. By college, I considered the entire U.P. home. I studied in both Houghton and Marquette, dated girls from Munising and Iron Mountain, and visited friends in Sault Ste Marie and K.I. Sawyer. I earned my B.S. in English from Northern Michigan University in 2006. Around that time, many of my friends were scattering across the country—or fighting in Iraq. It felt like the right moment to broaden my own perspective. I took a job teaching English in South Korea, where I lived and worked closely with locals for two years. I returned just in time for President Bush to crash the economy. The recession hit hard. The U.P. had no secure, full-time jobs for me, so I did the only thing I could do; I left, and hoped that the political tide would turn and one day I could come home.  I returned to school and earned an M.A. in English—with an emphasis in Publishing and a related field in Music—from the University of Minnesota Duluth. But instead of going on to publish music, UMD offered me a position as an adjunct literature instructor. I enjoyed the challenge of academic work, and I published two journal articles during that time. But part-time teaching meant full-time struggle, and with student debt between us, my wife and I had to look for better opportunities. We moved where the work was: teaching for me, medical research for her. When the Trump administration began cutting funding for both education and science, we left the country. We've since built a stable life in New Zealand—but I’ve always wanted to return home. The truth is, the economic strain of living in the U.S. has made that nearly impossible. And if our government won’t challenge the status quo, then I’ll do it myself. I’m running for senate because I want to build a Michigan where ordinary people can afford to live, work, and come home again. I will be different from regular candidates during this election. You’re used to personas with high-visibility, a lot of photo ops, and extensive advertising campaigns. Running for office is hard, and often only the wealthy can do it. I’m juggling a campaign and a job, and my political career can only happen on weekends and school holidays. I work, just like most of you, and I can better relate to your struggles and stresses than anyone who has the time and money to devote to campaigning for the next twelve months. I’m fighting harder than most candidates because we need leaders who understand the struggle. Your interests are my interests, and I genuinely want to make your life better–because it will make my life better, too.