Truth in Local Government
Local government matters. It is where federal and state agendas have the ability to transform communities through board decisions, grant implementation, and government bureaucracy. Just ask the people of Springfield, OH— and their pets.
Ottawa County’s prior Republican Boards proved to be excellent allies to the Democratic Party agenda, creating a DEI office and spreading membership to UC Berkely’s progressive organization, Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), as an early core member of the radically left organization. Ottawa County and its Board gave DEI a foothold in Ottawa County, and worked to spread Biden-Harris aligned GARE through its affiliations across the county and nation through Commissioner Phil Kuyers’ presence on the boards of MAC (Michigan Association of Counties) and NaCo (National Association of Counties).
It is notable progressive GARE now works with the Biden administration, implementing DEI into the federal bureaucracies with their methodology fine tuned by working on the county and local level.
Interestingly, after the current Ottawa County Board of Commissioners faced great backlash for closing the county DEI Department— which had cost $1M+ by the time of closure, and was budgeted to continue at $280K+ per year— numerous major corporations and institutions across America have followed suit in closing their costly, Marxist DEI Departments.
Ottawa’s previous Board fell prey to the left’s propaganda that white, Christian residents were a problem for the county, and rolled out the Department to promulgate that lie. The DEI Department taught the greatest oppressors in our community were Christian, conservative, white, male, heterosexual, and cisgender (identifying with the sex assigned at birth). Ottawa County’s first DEI Department countywide training featured a transgender keynote speaker, platforming transgender ideology in the county which is so destructive for children.
The DEI movement is at its core Marxist and totalitarian, squelching freedom of conscience and speech, while imposing its ideology onto others. It is incredibly harmful to children, and platforms gender confusion and transgender ideology.
Ottawa County was also an early adaptor of progressive policy implementation in other areas, earning praise and awards from a national public health policy and lobbying hub, NACCHO, the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
NACCHO joined Health Director Adeline Hambley’s lawsuit against Ottawa County. NACCHO has an interest in public health powers, which NACCHO worked hard to explore, expand and protect surrounding the Covid era. NACCHO’s Business Affiliate Partners and sponsors include multiple pharmaceutical companies and related medical industry organizations.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ottawa County Department of Public Health (DPH) aggressively used their public health powers to close schools and mask and quarantine children and student athletes. These actions ultimately and predictably contributed to learning and developmental loss, increased mental illness, and the loss of scholarship opportunities for student athletes. One could argue Ottawa County’s Department of Public Health had some of the harshest health orders in the state.
But this was not the first time DPH was heavy handed. In the years prior, the Department had overplayed its hand, requiring parents to attend vaccine waiver education appointments for their children to attend school, which many parents found intimidating, when a simple hand written note from the parent to the school was all that was required by Michigan law.
In addition, as early as 2017/18, Ottawa County DPH was promoting Planned Parenthood-aligned progressive sex ed to Allendale Public Schools and other districts across the county, to include the promotion of LGBTQ+ and gender identity education materials. An Ottawa County DPH sexual health educator was on the Board of MOASH, the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health, a progressive organization which advocates for radical sex ed and abortion without parental consent.
DPH had also issued a guide on child sexuality which promoted Planned Parenthood materials and the sexual pleasure of children from birth. The guide was so extreme, it was called out nationally by Libs of Tik Tok for its radical content.
The county website contained multiple links leading to abortion services, and in 2022, DPH began partnering in a radical sex ed week for students at GVSU, as exposed by The Midwesterner in 2023.
My Democrat opponent has implied values and beliefs don’t matter in a county commissioner race, nor do they come into play in county government. And yet, they clearly have.
In 2022, I was the primary author of Ottawa Impact’s Pro-Life Protection Assessment, which outlined much of the above information on DEI and Planned Parenthood/abortion promotion in detail, and led to Right to Life of Michigan removing their endorsement from the Ottawa County commissioners who were seated at that time.
The implementation of progressive ideology into county government and the tyrannical abuse of public health power which impacted the county’s children were concrete motivations which led me to run for office in 2022. You could even say, I ran to Restore Reason.
My opponent sits in leadership of progressive organizations and initiatives cloaked in non-partisan language that promote Democratic Party leaders and ideology, while presenting herself to the majority of the community as a harmless moderate campaigning for a position in local government where values don’t matter. (She has been more transparent on her advocacy for Democratic Party platform issues in advertising to GVSU students.)
The Democratic Party has moved the neutral position, viewing their radical ideological positions to be neutral, non-political, and non-controversial. Perhaps that is how they rationalize a thought like values don’t matter.
Local Democrats often say that traditional American values are extreme, political, and not to be tolerated. At the same time, the Democratic Party has embraced late-term abortion, abortion without parental consent, the gender transition of children, divisive DEI values that teach children are privileged or oppressed based on skin color, and censorship of those who disagree with their views.
In abandoning truth, the Democratic Party has left so many behind. I am encouraged by the active realignment of America, as everyday Americans— including Tulsi Gabbard and Robert Kennedy, Jr.— are coming together to speak truth, protect children, and restore America.
As we work to restore our nation to greatness and Make America Healthy Again, we need to protect our piece of America— from school boards to townships to the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners— where truth matters in local government.