Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Republican gubernatorial candidate Aric Nesbitt visited Houghton last week.

HOUGHTON – Current Michigan Senate Minority Leader and Republican gubernatorial candidate Aric Nesbitt was in town last Friday to attend the Copper Country Republican Party Lincoln Day event, conducted at the Bonfire at the Continental Fire Company.

Nesbitt, a Porter Township, Van Buren County native, said he is vying for the office because currently it is tough for families, kids, and job providers to succeed in Michigan.

“This is about making life more affordable for hardworking Michigan families,” Nesbitt said. “This is about the average family in Michigan making $9,000 less than the average family does nationally.”

Nesbitt said Michigan families are being squeezed as a direct result of high energy rates, high insurance rates, and excessive property taxes.

He also intends to repeal the Michigan clean energy mandate, established under the 2023 Clean Energy and Jobs Act. It requires the state’s electric utilities to transition to 100% clean energy by 2040.

“I’m running for governor,” said Nesbitt, “to repeal the green new scam, to lower the cost of energy, to repeal the personal property tax, to force utility companies to roll back rates by a billion dollars, repeal auto no-fault to lower the cost of insurance and take on the trial lawyers and big insurance and repeal the state property tax to help families actually keep their own homes.”

These actions, he said will ensure families can make it in Michigan.

Nesbitt, a sixth-generation farmer, said the state needs someone who understands rural areas.

“I’m from a rural area,” he said. “I’ve been to all 83 counties, including the 15 counties here in the U.P., and that’s why I’m running for governor. I have a whole rural agenda, and a U.P. agenda, to make sure we protect our rural families.

In the area of employment and job growth, Nesbitt said job providers have a challenge if they want to do business in Michigan. Lansing policies are responsible for the decades-long decline in the U.P. and across the state. Burdensome bureaucracy, excessive regulations and unreasonable permitting systems have contributed to Michigan’s decline for decades, he said.

“Whether you’re in Ironwood, seeing the development going on across the river, or in Monroe and have seen the development in Ohio, or in Niles, seeing what’s going in Indiana – when you’re next to a border state, you realize why Michigan is a bottom 10 state — Because of our high cost of living, our regulations and permits are strangling folks,” said Nesbitt.

Nesbitt said these state burdens, along with their red tape, are crushing job creation.

Nesbitt cited a farmer he spoke with recently in LaPeer as an example. The farmer, he said received a letter from EGLE saying when he brings his stock trailer back from the auction house, he cannot apply the manure to his fields for fertilizer. EGLE told him manure is classified as industrial waste and it needs to be landfilled.

“That’s B.S., literally and figuratively,” Nesbitt said. “We’ve got to take a blowtorch to the bureaucracy in Lansing, do full dozer to state government and limit the waste, fraud and abuse, and say we’re open for business.”

Nesbitt said the current system of government is forcing families and young to seek employment and lives in other states. He also places part of the blame the state’s public school system.

“It’s tough for kids to make it here,” he said. “When only three of out five fourth graders can read at grade level – and we know if they’re not able to read at grade level – you have a nearly 70% chance of doing one of two things in life: going to jail or being on welfare.”

Nesbitt said priorities in the education system have to shift back to the fundamentals.

“Rip out the DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), woke and trans(gender) nonsense out of our schools, and provide school of choice for working families, and make sure we bring back trades,” he said. “That’s something I hear day after day,” he said, “whether it’s in Alpena or Ironwood, or Monroe. Let’s get back to basics: Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmatic.”

Bringing back the trades, said Nesbitt, is how you make sure kids can stay in Michigan and succeedd.

Nesbitt says he also hears from residents is they want someone to join with President Trump to deport every criminal and illegal and make sure sanctuary cities in the state are banned, and that we have the backing of the police.

“I want to paint a lot brighter future than what is currently painted for the future of Michigan,” he said.