Rachel Howard

MARQUETTE — Rachel Howard, a first time political candidate, has thrown her hat in the ring for the 2026 U.S. senate election in Michigan.

Howard served as a combat medic in the Michigan Army National Guard from 2005 to 2019, has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and is one of 500 females to ever receive the Purple Heart award. Following her retirement from service, she has worked as an EMT in the metro-Detroit area, a clinical researcher at Henry Ford Health and a Research Health Science Specialist with the Veteran’s Affairs Department in Ann Arbor. Holding two master’s degrees in Social Work and Public Health, Howard has also created one of the only Post-Deployment Respiratory Health speciality clinics in the country.

Originally never seeing herself in the political sphere, Howard decided to run for senate after she became frustrated with elected officials not doing the jobs she and others had elected them to do. She says her skills and talents best align with a position in the U.S. senate, and decided to become the candidate that she would want to vote for.

“Politics has never really been something that really drew me (in.) I thought it was messy. It was something I didn’t really want to get involved with. I paid attention long enough to cast an educated vote, and then I expected the people I voted for to do the job…as time has gone on, probably about the last 15 years or so, I’ve noticed things in the political climate just kept getting worse. Every year, I was kind of looking at it going, ‘I elected people to do a job, and they’re not doing that. They’re not doing the job I elected them to do.’ And things were becoming very divisive and hate-filled, and I just saw this general trend every year. It’s like people (were) doubling down …” Howard explained. “I sat down and I started looking at open positions or seats that were going to be coming open. When Gary Peters announced that he was not going to be seeking reelection, I looked and saw the opportunity and said ‘My style, the way I work, the way I operate, the way I think, it fits with a Senate position.’ I think that we’ve not been served well by politicians over time, so it turned into ‘If we keep doing what we did, we’re going to keep getting what we’ve got.’ I don’t see a candidate that I would want to vote for in this race, so why don’t I just be the candidate I want to vote for?”

Howard’s campaign strategy is reaching out to voters and making sure that the general public is educated in a way where they can make informed decisions based on what they think is best, even if voters don’t agree with her platform.

“My stance is essentially kitchen table issues, the things that impact absolutely everybody every single day of our lives. People need housing, people need healthcare, need jobs to afford all those things. These are things that we absolutely have to have and every single person needs them,” Howard said. As a candidate who isn’t backed by a lot of traditional financial infrastructure, Howard shared that it can be difficult to spread her message. “You’re starting from scratch in what is a pay to play game, but that, I think, is part of my whole plan, is that it’s not supposed to be this way. Candidates aren’t supposed to be independently wealthy or essentially bought, whether that’s by a party or organization, it doesn’t matter. You can’t represent the people that you are supposed to represent if your funding is, essentially, coming from elsewhere. So, it’s challenging, but my strategy is … going to people individually, having conversations with people, getting people on board, and really spread(ing) the word with the mindset that evening if you don’t necessarily agree with my platform, the voting population has the right to be educated and to make informed choices. Nobody should have their message withheld. It should never try to be stifled. It should be accessible to everybody, so that they can say whatever choice is best for them.”

If elected to serve in the U.S. Senate, Howard plans to keep open lines of communication with all constituents, and take the ideas that are presented to her and find ways to create actionable plans that make change.

“My firm belief is that you have to represent everybody, every single one of your constituents, not just the ones that voted for you, which means keeping open communication. It’s holding town halls. It’s going into communities…it’s keeping your email open and actually reading and responding to it and not just having, at best, a form of response that goes back and nothing gets acknowledged. Hearing what all of the constituents are concerned about, what their priorities are, what their thoughts are, because people have really good ideas,” said Howard. “(It’s about) taking those things and synthesizing them, and from that, creating fashionable plans that can be implemented and evaluated down the road, and that’s what a legislator is supposed to be in my mind. Our job is to essentially enact what the constituents are about, so it’s very focused on what the citizens, in this case, of Michigan, are wanting. I have my priorities that I think are shared by most of us in those kitchen table issues, but ultimately, that is directed by what people express to me.”

For voters who are unfamiliar with Howard or her campaign, a few key messages she wants to share revolve around how her professional career has spanned positions that focus on service and systemic problem solving, and that her desire to run for office is based purely on service for the people.

“I am actually a pretty viable candidate, which people may not see on the surface. I have spent my entire adult life serving my community, my state, my country. For 25 years, I’ve been serving in some way, shape or form, and in that time, I have spent 20 of those years systemically understanding problems. That’s part of my education…” Howard said. “My focus is actually on solving problems, and I am the candidate with the most experience solving complex problems, true, real-world complex problems. The other is that I believe in service, that this is not for me, that I’m established in a political career. For me, this is truly about service to people and people’s needs, and not about personal needs.”

More information about Rachel’s senatorial campaign can be found on her website at rachelforussenate.org.

Abby LaForest can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 548. Her email address is alaforest@miningjournal.net.