Long before Republican state Rep. Andrew Fink won his re-election to the state House of Representatives on Nov. 8, his friends were canvassing Hillsdale College’s McIntyre Dormitory with a different election in mind.
They had nominated Fink as a blind date for Fall Ball, and as they went door-to-door advertising the dance, they found him a running mate: Lauren Grover, volleyball player and an editor for The Collegian.
“Get away from me!” were among Fink’s first words to Grover — he had bronchitis at the time.
Despite this introduction, the two remained friends as Fink graduated from Hillsdale in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in politics and entered the University of Michigan law school.
When Grover called Fink after a football game, he realized she didn’t really want to talk about football. They had what Fink calls a “DTR” or “define-the-relationship” moment, and later, a wedding.
Fink was still in law school during 2007 when the troop surge into the Iraq War reminded him of a promise he made as a 15-year-old.
“I told people I would readily join the military if we went to war,” he said. “While my classmates were competing for coveted interviews with big law firms for summer slots, I called the local Marine Corps office to see about becoming a Marine lawyer.”
Shortly after his marriage to Grover in 2009 and completion of his law degree in 2010, he entered the Marines and served five years as a judge advocate.
“All the recruiter could promise was that I would serve my country and lead Marines,” Fink said. “That was all I needed to hear.”
Following his retirement from the military in 2014, Fink opened a satellite office of his family’s Fink & Fink law firm in Hillsdale, where he and his wife “wanted to raise our kids.” From there, he said his step into elected office “just made sense.”
During the 2020 election, Fink won the Republican nomination to represent District 58 in the Michigan House. His wife, Lauren Fink, worked alongside him as the campaign’s media and design director. Facing three Republican challengers, Fink won the primary election without a majority. He went on to win the general election with more than 70% of the vote.
Fink won his seat this November against Democratic opponent Andrew Watkins with 74.7% to 25.2%. Like Fink, Watkins served in the military during the Iraq War and said experience in the military is helpful for a political career.
“There are lots of politics in the military,” Watkins previously said. “Some of it’s good, and some of it’s bad. But it helps you because you get more diversity, especially compared to where I grew up in Hillsdale. You get introduced to other cultures and ethnicities and start learning that the world is big.”
Covid-19 was a central focus of the 2020 election cycle, and Fink said his legal background gave him a unique perspective on what he called Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s “unconstitutional” policies.
“We have a governor who says she can declare an emergency for any reason — it could be that it’s too sunny or too cloudy — that lasts for as long as she says it lasts,” Fink said during a July 2020 campaign debate. “That allows her to impact your rights under every other statute in the state code.”
While in office, he opposed vaccine mandates and supported a bill to end mandatory Covid-19 protocols. Fink predicts the issue of Covid-19 will again influence voters this November. This time, however, he said the debate will center on education policy.
Parents whose children attended online classes got a first-hand view of the Michigan education system, and according to Fink, many didn’t like what they saw. Fink said the most detrimental policies include closures due to Covid-19, mask mandates, and critical race theory in schools. He said they showcase the “radical left” and its “lack of concern for the well-being of young students and their desire to push their radical, collectivist ideologies.”
Caleb Lambrecht ’21, Fink’s legislative director, said popular support for Fink’s policies is encouraging.
“He ran an unapologetically pro-family and pro-freedom campaign,” Lambrecht said. “Representative Fink is going to continue being a vocal advocate and an avid fighter for the principles of the founding within our system of constitutional government.”
Another issue dividing Michiganders is Proposal 3, which would eliminate Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban and “invalidate all state laws that conflict with this amendment,” according to the ballot measure summary. According to Bridge Michigan, this amendment could also include parental consent requirements and late-term abortion bans.
Fink said the proposal is poor policymaking and would make Michigan the least pro-life state in America.
“I dislike Prop. 3 immensely, more than anything else I know about,” Fink said, whittling down his viewpoints to a single sentence: “Constitutional rights, defending innocent life, and respect for the rule of law are guiding lights for all conservatives.”
