Michael James Anderson
Elections and appointments
Personal
Contact
Michael James Anderson (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent District 22. He lost in the Democratic primary on August 4, 2020.
Anderson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Michael James Anderson was born in Troy, Michigan. He received a bachelor's degree from Alma College in 2016. As of the 2020 election, Anderson anticipated receiving a master's degree from Wayne State University in 2021. His professional experience includes working in the camping, hunting, and fishing department for Dicks Sporting Goods. Anderson has been affiliated with the Michigan Democratic Party, Phi Mu Alpha Fraternity, Roseville Schools, the Michigan Association of School Boards, and Michigan AFL-CIO Advocates.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
Democratic primary election
Republican primary election
Campaign finance
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Michael James Anderson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Anderson's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My entire life, I have lived in Michigan. As the son of a former MEA president and a Sheet Metal 80 Production Worker, I was raised with strong values, especially when it came to the workplace. I graduated in 2012 from Almont High School, and after spending some time at Macomb Community College, I transferred to Alma College. Graduating in 2016 with a Bachelor's degree in history and business administration, I eventually moved to Roseville. Shortly after, I decided I needed to help my community as much as possible, so I successfully ran for the school board. Six months later, I decided I needed to do better, and enrolled in graduate school at Wayne State University. I am now halfway through a masters in Employer/Labor Relations, hoping to continue in politics or delve into union administration or organizing.
- We need to better education system, from funding, to making sure our children can follow their dreams
- We need to ensure that we have an easy path to organize workplaces and give voice to the workers
- Affordable heathcare should be a human right
Featured local question In the aftermath of our recent health issues nationwide, we saw major issues and flaws with how our health care system is ran in this country. We can and should do better. Thankfully, with quick action, the millions of people that were unemployed were still able to retain access to their health insurance. Having our healthcare directly tied to our employment status and tied to our employer is not a great thing, this much was proven true just recently. We need to start by looking at where the money is, and that is why do we pay so much for our healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and insurance. Thankfully, we have a recent court case where hospitals have to reveal their prices before service, and have a full breakdown of costs. While this won't fix anything, it's a good start of seeing how things in the system work. Next would be to open up medicare and medicaid to be able to negotiate prices for these services, then allow them to offer a full public option for every person. As a current graduate student on medicaid, without it, I would not be able to afford healthcare at all.
The two main things that I enjoy looking into and helping with are labor and education. I thank my parents for that most of all. I actually enjoy labor law classes and discussing how we should set up our classrooms. Growing up, people would ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up, and I would tell them I wanted to go into law, I wanted to help people. Since I got on the school board, the biggest thing that I have been attempting to do is give our students who don't want college another option. We have the building trades, and they need people. My dad was only one of hundreds that retired this year from the trades. We need people who are skilled and able to replace them. By working together, we can make sure our students are well educated and that our community has the labor force it needs to continue growing and maintaining.
Both of my parents have been involved in the labor movement. My mother is a retired local Michigan Education Association President. My father a retired sheet metal local 80 production worker. I grew up learning about the values of work and working together to achieve common goals. Thanks to them and a few other factors, I realized I wanted to do my part in supporting labor. I enrolled in Wayne State University in Employer/Labor Relations. I want to ensure that everyone has a voice and place in their workplace. We are not simple cogs in the machine, and can do better. I want to make it so that the next generation doesn't have the workplace issues and lack of enthusiasm that we have today. Whether in politics or in the labor organizations, I just want to do my part and try my best.
My first job had quite the effect on me, even if I didn't know it at the time, though it would not be the most influential or the most interesting. I don't really count any of the volunteer work or farm work I did at home. My first real job was at Alma College. One of my fraternity brothers helped in getting me a job at the Information Technology Help Desk. I was in charge of helping my fellow students with their computer problems. Most of the time, it was very uneventful, I would just work on homework and sat around waiting to see if someone came in that day. At the time, I was majoring in computer programing and business administration. In the eight months I worked there, I realized that my passion beyond the occasional building of computers was completely gone. My love of programing was only there thanks to one of my old high school teachers, and without him giving me drive and discussing things, I had lost interest in the topic. It was then I started looking at what I really wanted to do in life. While only a sophomore at the time, I realized thanks to duel enrollment in high school and my time at Macomb Community College, I was already halfway done with a history degree. Not only that, thanks to my boredom at work, I realized the supervisor was adjusting the time cards, so I ended up leaving the job and filing a complaint. It didn't make me mad, but just worried that if one small supervisor in a small department at a college with 1,400 students was messing with workers, how many more were as well. This is where my passions truly grew and developed.
Michigan has had many issues with its districts. We have odd shapes, weird boundaries, and packed districts. Proposition 3 that recently passed looks very hopeful for possibly fixing a lot of our issues. By making it about people and the voters, instead of politicians trying to hold onto power. The best way to do it is through a computer algorithm by making sure politics are not influenced by the districts. The people are there to double check, and ensure that the borders are as even as possible.
First and foremost, due to my background on Roseville Community Schools Board of Education, I know I would be a really good fit for Education Committee. We need to do better with our schools, starting with finding stable methods of funding and ensuring that all students have quality education. We also need to move more authority to the local school boards.
Second is elections and ethics. I want to be on this committee to ensure all of our elections are conducted in a free and fair way, that benefits nobody. I also want to look at the prospect of implementing ranked-choice voting state wide.
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See also
External links
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 25, 2020
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Matt Hall
Minority Leader:Ranjeev Puri
Representatives
Republican Party (58)
Democratic Party (52)