I'm voting for Emily Busch in Michigan's 10th Congressional District | Letters

In early 2023, I began researching Democratic candidates for the Michigan’s 10th U.S. Congressional District. I got a chance to meet Emily Busch at a coffee shop.

Her "why" captivated me. It's easy to connect with someone on their love for their kids. Emily’s push into wanting to serve in public office came during the Oxford High School shooting that claimed the lives of four students and tore the construct of safety from a community.

Her son Andrew was trapped in the school. The fear that gripped her driving to the nearby Meijer to wait to pick him up. The desire to do whatever she could to reduce, however much, the chances another parent had to experience what she did. Sure, guns are a fun time at the range, but my 6-year-old and 2-year-old will always clear the table for conversations on sensible gun reform, which a majority of Americans already support.

I knew generally of that “why” going into that coffee shop to meet with her. Getting to know her since that initial meeting rounds out a strong candidate. With her decision to collect signatures with her campaign manager herself, going from libraries to community events in the district, she’s gotten to speak to voters firsthand rather than paying a signature farming company. Doing that, she’s seen how our campaign finance system is backward.

Ideally, candidates would be able to run on their ideas and relatability, not how fortunate their finances make them. Her husband, a retired firefighter, had to go back to work in a new industry so she could campaign full-time for this seat. In our conversations over the last 18 months, she’s reflected on this fortune of being able to run only because her family has lifted her up.

“How can voters elect people who understand what it’s like to work in a plant or do 12 hours nursing at patients’ bedsides when the vast majority of a district could never financially afford to run regardless of their policy ideas?”

This has also fed into her appreciation for the security and dignity forming a union can provide workers; the retirement security her husband has provided helps make this campaign possible. “How can being willing to leave your family for 40 hours a week to work in America not provide real economic security?” We’ve also talked about how our patchwork nation of rights for women since the fall of Roe could have made the hardest decision she’s ever had to make not her own when she was 18 years old living in Indiana.

There are fine candidates in this Democratic Primary, but having watched Emily up close grind this campaign, she’s the one I’ll proudly vote for on Aug. 6.

David Micallef

St. Clair Shores

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: I'm voting for Emily Busch in Michigan's 10th Congressional District | Letters