Vermont senator and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders endorsed the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s 58th House District, Tamara Barnes.
Sanders endorsed 12 down-ballot candidates in Michigan, including Barnes, saying his movement was never about just one race.
“The only way our movement can continue is if we work together to elect great, progressive candidates at every level of government, in every state in this country,” Sanders said in a statement. “I am proud to endorse these excellent leaders who will make a difference in the lives of Michiganders.”
Barnes said she was honored by the endorsement.
“Bernie has been endorsing down-ballot candidates because he knows these races have big impacts,” Barnes said.
Barnes said, like Sanders, she thinks the wealthiest class should pay more in taxes so “a middle class can be rebuilt and thrive.”
Barnes also aspires to fix Michigan’s public school system, require what she calls “dark money groups” or nonprofit groups that donate to political campaigns to report the origins of their funding, and make conversations between politicians and their constituents more accessible.
“Corporations need to keep their hands out of our democratic process and Michigan needs to prioritize public education as a community service and investment,” Barnes said.
Barnes attended public schools in Saline, Michigan and then went to Western Michigan University, where she studied history. She is currently the assistant director for material culture at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.
If elected in November, Barnes would become the first Democratic state representative from Branch and Hillsdale counties since 1992. This isn’t her first race. Barnes ran on the Democratic ticket in 2018, losing to Rep. Eric Leutheuser, the Republican incumbent, who is retiring due to term limits.
“I still feel strongly, even this term, that people should be running, whether they think they can win or not,” she said. “We need people from both sides, up and down the ballot.”
After witnessing the contested Republican primary for the seat this summer, however, Barnes said the election now holds more gravity than in 2018.
She said that neither her ideas nor her political platform is radical.
“The real radicals are those that believe it’s absolutely fine to have 30% of our district’s children living in poverty,” Barnes said.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rates of Hillsdale and Branch counties are 13.5% and 14.5%, respectively, and Barnes stressed her concern for the number of children living in poverty in both counties.
“At the very least, they need to have decent public schools so they have a chance to do better for the next generation,” she said.
If elected, Barnes says she would seek to restructure school funding and pay for it by changing the current flat rate income tax of 4.25% to a graduated tax system, which means the higher the income of both people and corporations, the higher their tax rate would be.
Barnes said she has been called a communist and a socialist, but said she doesn’t want that for the state of Michigan.
“I have visited a lot of communist countries, and believe me I would never want that for us,” she said. “Obviously, those things are terrible.”
According to Barnes, she would support legislation that would force nonprofit groups that are involved in political spending to report their donors to the public.
“Loopholes that allow political action committees to raise money, and then they don’t have to say where that money comes from,” she said. “I just think anyone running a campaign, every dollar needs to be accounted for, and everyone should know where that money comes from.”
Because of this conviction, Barnes said she does not accept contributions from any PACs, even those that have endorsed her.
Barnes said she hopes to promote transparency in the political world by supporting legislation that would make communications between lawmakers and their constituents accessible to the public.
“If you’ve got a state representative who’s having communications with people about policies, that needs to be open to the public,” she said. Barnes would also like to see more funding for mental health services in Michigan and in the country overall.
“Especially in our district, we have a lot of mental health issues and addiction issues that could be addressed better, that would help our police force out, if we addressed them,” she said.
Barnes is well aware the Republican-dominated 58th District is “almost unwinnable” for a Democrat, but she has chosen to run here because it’s where she calls home.
Barnes said she would prove herself by being present in the community.
“I’m not running for me,” she said. “I’m running for this district. I know that Republican policies hurt a majority of the people that live here, whether they know it or not.”
