Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette State Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, Who is running for governor, spoke at the Copper Country Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner Friday..

HOUGHTON – The Copper Country Republican Party hosted its 2026 Lincoln Day dinner Friday at the Bonfire at the Continental Fire Co.

Speakers at the event included candidates Dave Prestin and Beau LaFave, who are running for the 38th District Senate seat. They are seeking to succeed Ed McBroom, R- Waucedah Township who is ineligible due to term limits.

Prestin is currently serving his second term in the House, representing the 108th District.

Prestin said he has been watching the Upper Peninsula in a downward slide all of his life. Driving across the U.P., he said, people see nothing but shuttered up businesses that used to thrive.

Among the current issues causing the decline of the U.P. is Public Act 235, a clean energy law signed by Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer that overhauls the state’s energy framework. It mandates that electric utilities reach a 100% clean energy standard by 2040, significantly increases renewable energy requirements. The bill (Senate Bill 271) was passed strictly along party lines.

“At the end of the day,” said Prestin, “the entire clean and renewable energy mandates have been down the throats of the U.P and are devastating us and have to be repealed.”

LaFave, an Iron Mountain native who served in the State House of Representatives from 2017 – 2022, spoke about Gov. Whitmer’s actions in the 2020 Covid pandemic. LaFave said he was the only lawmaker in the state to oppose lockdowns on Day One.

He next discussed the governor’s signing a no-bid contract with one of her political donors to do contact tracing on residents’ cell phones to determine if they went to their families homes, he filed articles of impeachment.

“The U.P. needs a fighter for the state’s senate seat,” he said. “It needs somebody who’s willing to stand up and do the hard work, is willing to knock on 15,000 doors, and willing to say uncomfortable facts, like when the governor gives a no-bid contract, doesn’t get any input from the legislature, it’s corruption in office.”

LaFave went on to say that he was able to lower the price of auto insurance for the first time in 47 years.

Justin Michal and Matthew Denotter, running against incumbent Jack Bergman for the U.S. House of Representatives 1st Congressional District, also spoke at the event.

Michal said residents are concerned about how they’re going to pay their bills, pay for fuel, how they are going to get their kids through college, and what opportunities those kids will have in Michigan when they graduate.

For that, he said, there are a few people to blame. “One: What are they doing in Washington D.C.? For the last two years, we’ve done nothing,” he said. “We passed one bill in the legislature in the last 18 months. We promised people in America that we we have changed, and nothing happened. That’s a travesty.”

The second, he said, is the fault of the people.

“We vote,” he said, “but we constantly vote for the same people over and over and over again, and expect a different outcome.”

DenOtter talked about purchasing a home in Harvy, then having to leave because he could not find work. A small business owner, he wants to approach politics differently.

“I’m going try this process where we’re going to change this ‘from the top down driving local policy’ to going from the county (level) up to drive federal (policy).”

DenOtter, who has worked in healthcare for more than 25 years, addressed issues confronting that industry. Politicians, he said, don’t know how to handle healthcare, and not capable of understanding how to improve it.

“I know the system,” he said. “I know how to change it with the payers of Medicare and Medicaid, when they’re offering you gas cards or gift cards.”

Aric Nesbitt, the current Michigan Senate Minority Leader running for governor, was present. He is running, he said, because currently it is tough for families and job providers and kids to make it in Michigan.

“I’m running for governor to join with President Trump to make sure everybody can make it in Michigan,” he said.

The average Michigan family earns $9,000 less than the average family nationally, he said.

“We’re getting squeezed by the high cost of living,” he said. “(We have) some of the highest energy costs, insurance costs, and taxes in the Midwest.”

A man he spoke with recently in Gladwin, who moved from Tennessee. Tennessee, said Nesbitt, is a right-to-work state, has no statewide income tax, no statewide property tax.

“He told me ‘I add up all my bills; I add up my taxes,'” he said. “I figure I’m spending $5,000 per year more for the privilege of living in Michigan.”

Nesbitt said as governor, he will repeal no-fault auto insurance, as well as the green energy mandates. He will stop the forced conversion of farmland to hundreds of thousands of acres of solar panels.

The event also featured a silent auction, sponsorship opportunities, live music, and time after the program for guests to ask questions, meet candidates, and take photos with the speakers.