Congressional candidate Blomquist hosts town hall in Marquette
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MARQUETTE -- On Tuesday evening, Congressional candidate Kyle Blomquist, D-Iron Mountain, hosted the last of an 18-stop Town Hall series Thursday at the Northern Center in Marquette.
Blomquist is running against Callie Barr, D-Traverse City and Wayne Stiles, D-Traverse City in the Democratic primary election being held on Aug. 4.
Blomquist is an architect from Iron Mountain, who has served on the Iron Mountain City Council for 12 years and has served as mayor pro tem for the last 6 years.
"I am mayor pro tem in the city of Iron Mountain not because everybody on that Iron Mountain city Board votes the same way I do -- kind of the opposite, actually," said Blomquist. "I'm mayor Pro tem in the city of Iron Mountain because people have come to trust, and we've gained a degree of mutual respect, for how we go about using the limited resources of our government unit to meet the needs of our people to the highest extent possible."
Blomquist is running what he terms a progressive platform.
"Our material conditions here in Northern Michigan have been deteriorating the whole of my life," said Blomquist. "Every single year, all of our lives in the American working class keep getting harder and harder."
Blomquist listed factors such as a "collapsing" health care system, "catastrophically" unaffordable and unavailable housing and tax dollars being used "to murder children on the other side of the world" as reasons why he decided to run for Congress.
"So many of us have so much in common, and we are always told otherwise," said Blomquist, discussing partisan divides in the First District. "And we fall for that trick so often, especially in districts like ours, and that is to our detriment. And we have to understand that that is deliberate."
"I could do what a lot of Democrats will do in a district like ours, and say 'this is all the Republicans' fault,'" said Blomquist. "…I believe that GOP policy has always been catastrophic to the American working class. That's not in dispute here. But I also know two other things.
"One, pointing to Republicans and saying 'Republicans bad,' that's never going to win this race here in Northern Michigan. It never has, and it never will.
"Two, I recognize that that would be dishonest, to tell you that this is all the Republicans' fault. The systems that exist in this country were constructed by both Democrats and Republicans."
"… Medical debt is a policy choice. Homelessness is a policy choice. Starvation wages are a policy choice. War is a policy choice."
Blomquist's policies include support for Medicare for All.
"The United States of America is the only developed, wealthy nation in the entire world that does not provide universal healthcare to its citizens, and that is unacceptable and something we should no longer accept," said Blomquist.
He also discussed his housing platform, saying that "one of my greatest frustrations is the inability to house people within my own income bracket and below."
"I will champion housing first and for all policy, functionally decriminalizing homelessness by meeting people's needs," said Blomquist. He cited statistics that the U.S. pays the same amount of money each year in managing and prosecuting homeless populations as it would cost to house them all.
"(I will) repeal the Fair Cloth amendment so we can create quality, affordable, public housing for everybody who needs it, and (ban) private equity and hedge funds from buying up our homes in places like Northern Michigan and pricing American families out of their own communities," said Blomquist.
Blomquist is the only candidate running for Michigan's First District who supports shutting down Line 5, as well as the only candidate calling for a full moratorium on data center construction.
"I grew up in this district my whole life," said Blomquist. "Most of my friends in Iron Mountain, to this day, don't vote like I do. But that doesn't matter one iota to me.
"…What matters to me is that their needs are met, and that their families are prosperous as a matter of default, not some stroke of luck. I don't want 70% of us to feel, every day, the crushing weight on your chest, this economic system that strangles so many of us, so that 30% of us can be vaguely comfortable and 1% of us can rule everything.
"I don't care if somebody's collar is white or blue. If you sell some of your finite time on this earth for a dollar, and if at any point you stop, this system abuses you, jails you and forgets about you, then congratulations ... you are in the American working class.
"And by definition, we are the 90% in this country. And we have a tremendous amount of power and agency so long as we accept that we are naturally allies and not adversaries."
"…I promise to work with you, to create a country that works for the 90%. Where the needs of the working class are met, where our unions are strong, where our families are prosperous and our dignity is a guarantee.
"This is not radical. There's not a thing I've said here tonight that is radical. This is all necessary. It is past due."
After his speech, Blomquist took questions and statements from members of the assembled audience. Question topics included Line 5, tribal rights, the Iran War and veterans benefits.
"The bulk of our message has been that you all deserve so much more from your government," said Blomquist. "That you are being denied your basic dignity as a human being so that somebody else can profit. And I can tell you what, that's not a partisan message. It's one that everybody understands, loud and clear."
More information about Blomquist's campaign is available at https://www.blomquistforcongress.com/.
Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.