The Mackinac Policy Conference concluded with a series of addresses from prominent state politicians and a debate from Senate candidates. Speaker Mike Rodgers (R) — former U.S. Rep. and current Senate candidate — began by discussing current challenges affecting the state, including affordability and education.
In Michigan, the median age of a first-time home buyer has increased by seven years since 2021, going from 33 to 40 years old. Rodgers said he believes buying a home is the largest investment one can make in personal wealth, and homeowners who purchase homes later in life lose out on personal equity. He proposed credit providers begin factoring rent payments into credit score calculations.
“We’re gonna make sure that your rent payments count for your credit score so that when you go into the bank, you don’t get the highest interest rate, you get the best interest rate,” Rodgers said. “Right now, that doesn’t count. You pay rent for seven or eight or nine or 10 years, doesn’t come toward your credit score. I think that’s wrong.”
Ultimately, Rodgers said the biggest issue impacting both Michigan and the United States is educational challenges, specifically literacy rates. He cited Michigan’s third grade reading law — which mandated holding back kids unable to read at the end of third grade — and criticized its repeal. Rodgers said he believes lower literacy rates lead to a higher probability of needing welfare assistance or being incarcerated.
“If you can’t read … by the fourth grade, you have a 70% chance of being on welfare or going to prison,” Rodgers said. “There are states that use fourth grade reading rates to predict their prison population in the future. Now, if that isn’t the biggest ‘I give up on neighborhoods, communities and people’ I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Following Rodgers’ address, Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield (D) discussed the effects of poverty in the Detroit communities and throughout the state, calling it a multi-faceted problem.
“Poverty is not just a social issue, it is an economic, business, workforce and regional competitiveness issue,” Sheffield said. “If we are serious about building a sustainable growth strategy, which I know we all are, then we need to be serious about eliminating poverty and increasing economic mobility.”
Sheffield said the city has an early childhood poverty rate of 51% — the highest rate in the state and third highest in the country. She warned that consequences of poverty are both expansive and a major economic concern.
“Our children are not just our moral responsibility — they are our future workforce, entrepreneurs, homeowners, civic leaders,” Sheffield said. ”The problem of poverty, and its consequences don’t stop at just Detroit’s borders. They show up in our recruiting pipelines, our health care costs and all of our local economies.”
Thursday afternoon featured a debate between Democratic Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed, Mallory McMorrow and Haley Stevens focusing on issues of affordability, foreign policy and governance. McMorrow has served in the Michigan Senate since 2019 and was elected Senate majority whip in 2023; Stevens was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2019; and El-Sayed ran for governor in 2018.
Candidates were asked, if elected, how they would adapt to the Senate way of governance and proposed changes. All three candidates responded with support for abolishing the filibuster.
El-Sayed criticized sitting senators, saying they utilize the filibuster as a mechanism to avoid critical votes and public backlash.
“(The Senate) has become the place where all legislation goes to die,” El-Sayed said. “(The filibuster) allows senators who don’t want to take hard votes to hide behind the filibuster of just one senator, usually in a safe seat. And it keeps us from being able to move forward legislation that we possibly need. So I believe we have to abolish the filibuster. We have to expose senators to democracy again.”
McMorrow shared a similar sentiment, and said she believes the filibuster creates public distrust when used as a political shield against criticism.
“Politicians, elected officials, should be able to govern the way that they see fit to govern, and then let the voters decide what happens after that,” McMorrow said.
Campaign funding has been a major point of contention in the Senate race. Stevens has received significant funds from the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and was asked on the debate stage how it could affect her biases.
In response, Stevens said her campaign was “a love letter to Michigan” and expressed gratitude to her supporters, avoiding mention of AIPAC. El-Sayed — who has centralized his campaign around not accepting any funds from corporate Political Action Committees — and McMorrow each pointed out they have not taken any corporate PAC money this election.
Moderators asked if the Democratic Party currently has an antisemitism problem. McMorrow said she believes it does, while denouncing Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, which has been classified as a genocide by the United Nations.
“We need to be able to state very clearly that what the Netanyahu government is doing is wrong, that the violence needs to end, that we need to bring about long-term peace and security for Palestinians and for Israelis,” McMarrow said. “Turning that into not an anti-Netanyahu, but an anti-American Jewish message, is dangerous.”
Stevens spoke about her experience with the recent synagogue attack that occurred within her congressional district. She said she has worked to combat antisemitism in a non-partisan way.
“A temple in my congressional district was blown up by homegrown terrorists,” Stevens said. “I serve in the Congress on behalf of an incredibly diverse district and I’ve also led on combating antisemitism in a bipartisan way. That does not have to be a partisan thing.”
El-Sayed said he believes antisemitism and Islamophobia are both rooted in white supremacy and concerns among government leaders. He disagreed with the claim that criticism of the United States’ continued funding of the Israeli military campaign equates to antisemitic speech.
“I think it’s absolutely critical for us to differentiate between love, respect and admiration for Judaism and the Jewish people and a continued policy that has us send our money to a foreign government,” El-Sayed said.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer concluded the conference by delivering her final closing address. With seven months left in her final term, Whitmer reflected on accomplishments of her administration and overcoming state adversities. Ultimately, Whitmer said the best part of the state she serves is the people who live here.
“People ask me why I love this job despite all the challenges we’ve had to overcome: mass shootings, polar vortex, tornadoes, floods, death threats, plots, divisive elections, global pandemic, to name a few,” Whitmer said. “My answer, why I love this job, is my fellow Michiganders. There is truly inspiration everywhere. On some days, you might have to search for it, but it’s there.”
Summer Managing News Editor Alexa Cheaney can be reached at acheaney@umich.edu.
