Former State Reps. Bob Genetski and Aric Nesbitt, both Republicans, will be joined by Democrat Dr. Garnet Lewis in the race for 26th District State Senator.
The district takes in all of Allegan and Van Buren counties and the City of Kentwood and Gaines Township in Kent County. It is represented now by Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton), but she is term limited and running for Michigan Attorney General in the August primary.
Libertarian candidate Erwin Haas has also filed to run for the senate seat.
Lewis is no stranger to public service. She was appointed in 2009 to an eight-year seat on the Northern Michigan University Board of Trustees and currently is chair of the Saugatuck Planning Commission and a member of the Saugatuck Board of Review.
Lewis currently serves as business manager for Vigano, LLC and Allicom, LLC, based in Saugatuck, MI. She has more than 25 years of professional experience in higher education, including associate director for professional education in the College of Education at Central Michigan University, as director of institutional research at Saginaw Valley State University, and as the associate vice president for student services at Tarleton State University in Texas.
She received her bachelor’s degree from Truman State University in 1983, her master’s degree in education from Northern Michigan University in 1986, and PhD from the University of North Texas in 1992.
Dr. Lewis is a former member and president of the NMU Alumni Association Board and a past member of the NMU Foundation Board.
“We can’t even really have a conversation with one and other right now,” Lewis told the Holland Sentinel. “Our best days were and will be when we can come together regardless of our political ideology and meet in the middle.”
Lewis, daughter of an Air Force veteran, was born in England, raised in Germany and grew up working on her family farm in Texas.
Lewis’ main priorities, if elected to the state senate, would be health care, education, environmental issues and infrastructure and technology.
“My heart and my mind are moving strongly to a single-payer health care system,” she said. “I know that is a national issue, but I want to see how we as a state can get to the point where every person regardless of income has health coverage.”
Fixing roads and extending reliable Internet access to underserved portions of the state are issues Lewis would like to work on when it comes to technology and infrastructure.
“We really can do better. Not just on roads, but on our broadband access,” Lewis said.
COVER PHOTO: State Senate candidate Dr. Garnet Lewis, a former employee at Central Michigan University, closely followed Presley Hudson and the Chippewa women’s basketball team this past season. She is shown here cheering at CMU’s big win over Ohio State March 19.
