Michigan’s 2nd Congressional District stretches from Ludington on the Lake Michigan shoreline to Mount Pleasant in the middle of the state, and from Cadillac in the north to Hastings in the south.
It is farm country, but with several industrial centers.
The district is currently represented in Congress by John Moolenaar, who is unopposed in the Republican primary in a bid for a seventh term.
The Democrats vying for their party’s nomination are: Ben Ambrose, Clyde Welford and Jamie Hill.
Ambrose, of Hesperia, is a Marine veteran who served multiple combat tours. In civilian life, he has served as an advisor to the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense. He has studied international affairs at Georgetown University, marketing and finance at Johns Hopkins and anthropology at Harvard.
Community safety is among his priorities, and he supports community policing programs, better training for law enforcement officers, investment in violence prevention and intervention and combating the opioid crisis.
Ambrose would also raise the pay of all public servants.
The focus of his work with the Veterans Administration was on restoring health care benefits to thousands of ex-servicemembers who had lost them.
Like Ambrose, Jamie Hill grew up on a Michigan farm. Hill’s priorities in Congress would be to put rural America in the spotlight and address the unique needs of its residents.
Hill has a platform that focuses on “Equal human rights for all Americans; creating an economic system that benefits the worker; accessible and affordable healthcare for all and reproductive and LGBTQ healthcare rights.”
Hill, of Fremont, owned and operated a construction company and worked as a medic.
Clyde Welford is a Lake County commissioner whose priority is bringing down the cost of living.
The Baldwin resident’s to-do list in Congress includes a fair living wage, free health care and education, and college debt forgiveness.
Of the three choices, we believe Ben Ambrose should be the Democratic nominee to face Moolenaar in November.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: A voice for rural America in Michigan’s 2nd Congressional District
Reporting by The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
