Michigan — 12th District

DETROIT, MI - Five candidates are competing to represent Michigan’s 12th Congressional District in the U.S. House in the Nov. 3 election.

The candidates are Democratic incumbent Rashida Tlaib, Republican James D. Hooper, U.S. Taxpayers Party candidate Marc Joseph Sosnowski, Green Party candidate Brenda K. Sanders and Working Class Party candidate Gary Walkowicz.

MLive has partnered with the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Michigan Education Fund to provide the VOTE411 voter guide. All five candidates participated in the questionnaire.

Candidates were asked about health care, the economy and affordability, energy and the environment, and immigration and constitutional rights.

All responses in the voter guide were submitted directly by the candidates and have not been edited by the League of Women Voters, except for necessary cuts if a reply exceeded character limitations. Spelling and grammar were not corrected. Publication of candidate statements and opinions is solely in the interest of public service and should not be considered an endorsement. The League never supports or opposes any candidates or political parties.

Here’s what the candidates had to say:

Rashida Tlaib, Democrat

Occupation/current position: Member of Congress

Education: Cooley Law School

Qualifications and experience: Lawyer, 4th-term Congresswoman

HEALTH CARE: What specific steps will you take in Congress to address healthcare affordability, access, and quality for the people you represent?

In Congress, I will keep fighting for healthcare as a human right, not a privilege reserved for people who can afford it. That means supporting Medicare for All while also taking immediate steps to lower out-of-pocket costs, protect Medicaid, reduce prescription drug prices, expand the healthcare workforce, and keep care accessible in our communities. I introduced the Medicines for the People Act to take on the cost of prescription drugs, the Expanding Health Care Providers for Veterans Act to address provider shortages for veterans, and the Health Equity and Middle Eastern and North African Community Inclusion Act to make sure federal health

ECONOMY: What policy initiatives do you support for residents to earn a living wage and address the overall question of affordability across Michigan?

Working people across Michigan are being asked to do more and more while corporations continue raising prices, suppressing wages, and concentrating wealth at the top. I believe anyone working full-time should be able to afford housing, groceries, healthcare, childcare, and retirement with dignity. That is why I support raising the federal minimum wage to a living wage, strengthening unions and collective bargaining rights, protecting workers from exploitation, and investing in affordable housing and public infrastructure that creates good-paying union jobs. In Congress I introduced the BOOST Act, the Baby Bonus Act, and the End Child Poverty

ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY: How would you approach ensuring energy reliability, consumer affordability, and environmental protection in Michigan?

I approach energy policy by rejecting the false choice between reliability, affordability, and environmental protection. Michigan families deserve all three: power that stays on, bills they can afford, and air and water that are not sacrificed for corporate profits. That starts with accountability for investor-owned utilities. Ratepayers should not be asked to pay more and more while still experiencing frequent outages, shutoffs, and pollution burdens. I introduced the Make DTE Pay Act to strengthen penalties against investor-owned electric or gas utilities that raise rates around the same time they are penalized for Clean Air Act violations.

IMMIGRATION: What is your position on due process, First Amendment, and Fourth Amendment rights for all Michigan residents, including noncitizens, and what changes, if any, would you support?

The Constitution does not limit core civil liberties only to citizens. Due process protections, First Amendment rights, and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures apply to all persons within the United States, including noncitizens. Courts have repeatedly affirmed that immigration status does not eliminate basic constitutional protections. As a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, I have consistently pushed for stronger oversight of ICE detention and enforcement practices, including conditions inside detention facilities, transparency failures, and abuses of authority. I have opposed

James D. Hooper, Republican

Occupation/current position: Blue-Collar

Education: De La Salle Collegiate & a vast array of public libraries

Qualifications and experience: Constitutional Requirements: To serve as a U.S. Representative, a person must be at least 25 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, and an inhabitant of the state they represent.

HEALTH CARE: What specific steps will you take in Congress to address healthcare affordability, access, and quality for the people you represent?

Understanding any problem begins with understanding the “ROOT CAUSE”

Q: Why is ‘Healthcare’ so expensive? A: Because it’s structured to manage disease, not to actually promote HEALTH & HEALING.

There is no greater single policy initiative that will address healthcare AFFORDABILITY, ACCESS, & QUALITY than addressing the quality of the food that our citizens consume. Poor diet, high amounts of toxic additives, and food devoid of essential nutrients are the single biggest cause of underlying disease patterns.

Expand the MAHA principles. 2) Encourage and implement exercise programs in all schools that receive federal funding.

ECONOMY: What policy initiatives do you support for residents to earn a living wage and address the overall question of affordability across Michigan?

Understanding the “ROOT CAUSE”

INFLATION: Inflation comes on the heels of irresponsible spending of ‘printed’ money by the federal government. Inflation is the hidden tax that is not seen in your paycheck, but it’s felt everywhere you shop-especially at the grocery store. Every dollar that the federal government has to pay in interest on the debt = less that can be spent to benefit Americans and American cities.

Check reckless spending by the federal government. 2) END sending American taxpayer dollars to ALL foreign nations. 3) END Illegal Immigration and deport all Illegal Aliens.

ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY: How would you approach ensuring energy reliability, consumer affordability, and environmental protection in Michigan?

Let’s face it- EVERYONE wants clean water and a healthy environment to live in. But we also have a growing need for energy that must be addressed.

Energy scarcity leads to dramatically higher costs for EVERYTHING that Americans buy as products or consume as food. Everything is moved by truck, train, or plane. And energy scarcity is definitely felt by regular folks every time we open our DTE & Consumer’s bills.

All forms of energy must be utilized including traditional fossil fuels, renewables, and most certainly Nuclear. Nuclear energy provides the most ‘bang for the buck’ and NEW nuclear technologies are safer and CLEAN.

IMMIGRATION: What is your position on due process, First Amendment, and Fourth Amendment rights for all Michigan residents, including noncitizens, and what changes, if any, would you support?

Our Immigration system needs to be completely OVERHAULED.

But first, Illegal Immigration must be stopped, and Illegal Aliens should be deported as quickly and as compassionately as possible to their home countries.

I have seen and personally felt how Illegals have cut the wages and working conditions of America’s blue-collar workers. Poor and middle-class Americans are especially disaffected by our failed immigration policies.

I am sure that some may find this harsh, but as an elected Representative in Congress, your job is to work for AMERICAN CITIZENS in your congressional district and their welfare.

Marc Joseph Sosnowski, U.S. Taxpayers Party

Occupation/current position: Certified Broker / David Allen Capital

Education: MBA, Cornerstone University, Summa cum Laude; Baccalaureate, U of M - Dearborn; Diploma, Detroit Catholic Central High School

Qualifications and experience: 30+ years in Property Management; 40+ years in Bio-Ethics

HEALTH CARE: What specific steps will you take in Congress to address healthcare affordability, access, and quality for the people you represent?

The best health care is Don’t Get Sick. I will advocate for wellness, especially in nutrition and supplements and exercise. I will work to stop the FDA from banning substances the public wants, and to make known the substance “natural flavor” on the lists of ingredients on product packaging. In terms of affordability, we are in a current paradigm of sickness care by third-party payments, making us trust insurance companies rather than doctors. Instead of shopping for monthly premium value, we must demand disclosure of the pricing of procedures and services to promote competition to bring down costs.

ECONOMY: What policy initiatives do you support for residents to earn a living wage and address the overall question of affordability across Michigan?

How many times do we see major corporations with tax incentives to grow their business? We must make incentives for small biz and side-gig operators to go into business and grow, too. Rather than mandating controls on wages, let’s open the way to prosperity through individual efforts. I will advocate for entrepreneurship, and also for promoting charity of free-will donations from the prosperous to the needy through churches rather than the government.

ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY: How would you approach ensuring energy reliability, consumer affordability, and environmental protection in Michigan?

The term “fossil fuel” is misleading. Oil is not derived from prehistoric remains. It is obvious that the amounts consumed to date far surpasses whatever could have been putrefied for our modern usages. A-biotic oil exists and replenishes, and this is where research is needed, along with development of means to capture and neutralize combustion wastes. Making the abundance of fuel available will drive down costs for consumers in Michigan, in the USA, and across the world. I will advocate for this, and for so many other truths that must be told.

IMMIGRATION: What is your position on due process, First Amendment, and Fourth Amendment rights for all Michigan residents, including noncitizens, and what changes, if any, would you support?

The US Taxpayers Party is the affiliate of the national Constitution Party, and we just want the government to follow the Constitution! All the Amendments stand as written, unless and until future amendments are implemented. In terms of illegal searches and seizures, I will advocate to make known the purpose in the sudden rise of data-center capabilities, and where privacy will have been invaded, I will work to make just compensation mandatory to individuals. The illegals in the USA since 2020 must be returned to their land of origin. Those here longer should stay, since enforcement had been ignored, with a path to legal status.

Brenda K. Sanders, Green Party

Occupation/current position: Attorney/Harpist/Painter

Education: B.A. University of Michigan; J.D. University of Detroit-Mercy Law School

Qualifications and experience: 41 tears lawyer; 7 1/2 Years Judge, 10 College Professor,

HEALTH CARE: What specific steps will you take in Congress to address healthcare affordability, access, and quality for the people you represent?

My every effort will focus on accessibility and affordability. I would like to further subsidize and/or eliminate doctor visit co-pays so that there will be no obstacles to those that are seeking non-emergency care from a doctor.

ECONOMY: What policy initiatives do you support for residents to earn a living wage and address the overall question of affordability across Michigan?

I have always espoused that the federal minimum wage be raised to at least 21.00. When I first started addressing this issue, the federal minimum wage was in the 7.10 or 8.90 range. Earning more more will help to keep our economy strong. Most importantly, the money will provide sufficiency for working families. Sufficiency will eliminate “counting every penny” budgeting for the average blue collar worker.

ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY: How would you approach ensuring energy reliability, consumer affordability, and environmental protection in Michigan?

Environmental Protection is foremost on my list. Chemical pollution from our government is rampant. I have documented the same on my Instagram page @brendaksanders4thepeople. We have to accelerate the implementation of climate change remedies. Stopping and prohibiting further harmful chemical and radioactive substances into are breathing spaces should be ongoing. My twin sister died because of the ills that are perpetrated in our climate. Those ills and hazards still exists today.

IMMIGRATION: What is your position on due process, First Amendment, and Fourth Amendment rights for all Michigan residents, including noncitizens, and what changes, if any, would you support?

I support each and every standing law. I believe that our federal judicial system must more favorably interpret the purposes of the law when the essence of the law is tested in the courtroom setting. The First Amendment must be upheld, and retaliatory efforts for upholding this constitutional protection must be addressed and discouraged. Carving out exceptions to the “free speech” protections must be limited. Free speech cannot continue to be determined on a case by case basis. We must ingest indignities and concepts to which we do not agree. Such acceptances, even with opposing views, preserves the First Amendment in its purest form.

Gary Walkowicz, Working Class Party

Occupation/current position: Retired. Worked at Ford for 45 years on the assembly line and as an elected UAW representative

Education: I am from a working class family and grew up in a working class town. I worked multiple jobs prior to working at Ford. My education was similar to many other workers in this society.

Qualifications and experience: I organized to fight against speedup and harassment on the assembly line. I organized against the concessions that the auto companies were demanding. I ran for president of the UAW.

HEALTH CARE: What specific steps will you take in Congress to address healthcare affordability, access, and quality for the people you represent?

In the richest country in the world, it is criminal that many don’t have health care, or can’t afford treatment, or go broke paying for it. The money is there for everyone to have good health care. In the U.S., more money is spent on health care than any other country in the world. But yet the U.S. is worse than many countries in things like life expectancy and infant mortality. The reason is that much of the money spent on health goes into the pockets and profits of insurance companies, hospital corporations and drug companies. Health care should be a human right, not a profit-making industry. We must have a national health care system.

ECONOMY: What policy initiatives do you support for residents to earn a living wage and address the overall question of affordability across Michigan?

Workers produce all the wealth in society. We build everything, deliver everything, service everything. We all should be able to have a decent life. But corporate bosses and Wall St. are taking a bigger and bigger share of what we produce. Our standard of living is going down. The answers should be -- The minimum wage should be 5 times higher. Our pay should keep up with inflation. When prices go up, our wages should go up equally and immediately. The same for Social Security. Everyone who wants a job should have one by dividing up the work. These things will not happen through legislation. It will take a fight by the whole working class.

ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY: How would you approach ensuring energy reliability, consumer affordability, and environmental protection in Michigan?

The disaster in Nepal is another warning that we have an environmental crisis. Until global warming is reversed, things will get even worse, threatening the future of humanity. Those who run the society -- the corporate elite, bankers and the politicians who work for them are not going to fix global warming because they are responsible for it. They know the outcome of burning fossils fuels, but they pursue profit above all else. We can have both reliable energy and protect the environment by investing in science and technology. But it won’t happen until working people throw out this capitalist class and run society themselves.

IMMIGRATION: What is your position on due process, First Amendment, and Fourth Amendment rights for all Michigan residents, including noncitizens, and what changes, if any, would you support?

Most immigrants who come here are working people who want the same thing that workers born here want -- a job that provides a decent life for themselves and their families. If someone comes here to work, they should not be “illegal”. They should have the right to be here without their homes being invaded by ICE. What should be illegal is that the corporate bosses and their politicians use immigration laws to divide workers and to keep immigrants in insecure situation so that they feel forced to work for less money and accept worse conditions. The attack on immigrant workers is an attack on all workers.