Two Republicans running to represent Holland in Michigan House District 86

Republican voters in Holland will soon pick who they want to represent them on the November ballot in the race for the 86th Michigan House District: former Holland mayor Nancy DeBoer or business coach Seth Getz.

The 86th District covers the city of Holland, Park Township, Holland Township and Laketown Township.

Following DeBoer's election loss in November 2019 to Mayor Nathan Bocks, Holland's first female mayor took a break from politics, getting involved in a Christian women's leadership organization called She Leads Michigan. DeBoer said as the new legislative districts took shape she started getting calls asking her to run, and she answered them.

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"It's not for myself," DeBoer said. "I'm not a political animal, I've never been one. I've never pursued public office because of my own ambition. It's from the standpoint of 'Can I help?' and 'Is there a place where I can make a difference by being involved?'"

Education is a key issue for both candidates.

"Everyone is individually designed, and we need to help them find what they're good at and find their wings," DeBoer said, explaining she wants to introduce more choices outside of college to children in schools, such as a better understanding of advanced manufacturing careers and helping children prepare for today's job market.

Getz said education has been a top issue in his conversations with voters. He wants to invest in mental health counselors in Michigan schools.

"Our schools are some of the best investments we can make as a culture and as a community," Getz said. "It affects not this year, not next year, but it affects the next 50 years. Anything we can do around schools to make sure that that is a good, healthy safe environment for students, that they can go there without fear is an important thing but that they can go there and learn and thrive in that environment, is huge."

DeBoer said support for public safety — "I think it's really important that we protect our public safety and that we don't cave to the idea that we don't need police officers," she said — and protecting the natural resource of Michigan's Great Lakes are key priorities for her, along with economic development.

She pitched an idea for a "Pure Michigan"-like marketing campaign targeted to businesses instead of would-be tourists, showing off the charms and work ethic of the state. She also said she would look for places where taxes on businesses could be trimmed.

"I'll find the places that we can maybe cut back on and places where we have absorbed control and areas where we don't need to exact control," DeBoer said. "For example, farmers are under too much regulation. We should regulate in order to protect public safety, but you can go overboard sometimes, and there is a fine line between free choice and public safety."

Her opponent, Getz, talked about a holistic view of economic development, where community investments like high-speed internet, housing and infrastructure come first to make Holland an attractive place for prospective employees and businesses to move.

"There's a pattern of short-term thinking of 'We need to give tax credits to businesses to come and stay here,'" Getz said. "I would rather take that money and, instead of handing it to a company, invest that into our communities to make our communities so strong that companies will say, 'I have to be there, because that's where the people are.' I'd much rather invest in our communities than bribe companies to come here."

DeBoer has been able to draw much of the Republican establishment support to her campaign, including endorsements from many sitting state representatives and senators for Ottawa and Allegan counties and the endorsement of the Michigan Chamber PAC.

Candidates eschew party's focus on election fraud

"I have really stepped away from the 2020 election," DeBoer said in response to a question about her views on fraud in the 2020 election.

The view that the 2020 election was "stolen" from former president Donald Trump through widespread fraud has been a common refrain among the top-of-the-ticket Republican candidates for governor.

Getz, too, said he was focused on the future but went a step further than DeBoer to make his stance on claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election clear.

"I have not seen any proof of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election and believe that it was as valid as past elections," Getz said. "The Republicans need to turn their attention to the future and stop obsessing about one election in the past."

The view puts Getz in line with top GOP statehouse leadership, who concluded in an investigation of the 2020 election that there was no widespread or systemic fraud and debunked many of Trump's claims about Michigan's count.

DeBoer is supportive of election reforms that have been proposed by the party in the Michigan House and Senate, such as requiring voter identification to vote: "I think you need to have a license or ID when you vote, and I think it's reasonable that we should not have ballot harvesting, and I don't think we should send out unsolicited absentee ballots. It needs to be the responsibility of the voter to prove who they are."

Who is running on the Democratic ticket?

Their Democratic opponent in the November election is Larry Jackson, an information technology professional originally from Chicago. Jackson has lived in Park Township for nine months, having moved south to the Holland area from Spring Lake.

"We need collaboration in politics," said Jackson, who along with Getz is a first time political candidate. "That's what we don't have right now. Our goal should be impacting people's lives."

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The U.S. Navy veteran said he is focused on issues that he can "reach across the aisle" on to work with conservatives, issues like water quality, broadband internet access, affordable housing and preserving the environment.

Where he might find some disagreement with his Republican opponents, though, is on the issue of abortion, which has come to the forefront of political debate in the U.S. following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that ended federal protections for abortions and empowered state legislatures to regulate abortion. (The candidates were interviewed prior to Friday's Supreme Court decision.)

Jackson said he supports Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's position and her actions to try to preserve abortion rights in the state. Whitmer is suing to try to invalidate Michigan's ban on abortions.

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Getz said he is "pro-life," and DeBoer emphasized that she "feels very strongly about protecting life from womb to tomb."

"Every person is uniquely designed, intrinsically valuable and designed with a purpose," DeBoer said.

The primary election is Aug. 2 and the general election is Nov. 8.

— Contact reporter Carolyn Muyskens at cmuyskens@hollandsentinel.com and follow her on Twitter at @cjmuyskens. 

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Republicans seeking GOP nomination in Holland statehouse seat