Mayor Quast-Lents declares candidacy for State House Representative
Mount Pleasant Mayor Allison Quast-Lents poses for a photo on Aug. 28, 2017.
Slightly overwhelmed but at peace with her decision, Mount Pleasant Mayor Allison Quast-Lents announced she is running for the State House of Representatives for Michigan’s 99th district.
“We really need a champion in Lansing helping to make sure (Michigan residents are) getting the resources we need,” Quast-Lents said. “When I realized we need that, and that I’m doing that on a small scale here now and I might have an opportunity to make great change, and make all of the communities within the district stronger, I thought ‘OK let’s do it.’”
Quast-Lents is the only Democratic candidate to enter the race. She will campaign against State Rep. Roger Hauck, R-Union Township, if she wins the primary election.
The seat has been held by a Republican since the 1930s.
“It’s not going to be an easy win, but it is certainly doable,” Quast-Lents said. “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it was doable.”
With the April 24 deadline approaching, Quast-Lents is in the process of putting together a committee, which must be done before she continues with her campaign. Also in the works is a website and endorsement letters. The process is moving quickly, she said.
A public kick-off party will be held at 5 p.m. April 19 in the old New Yorker building downtown Mount Pleasant, located at 117 South Main Street.
House Minority Floor Leader Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills, will be there to speak about the need for strong women in public office, and why she is excited about Quast-Lents decision to run. Another speaker, a friend of Quast-Lents, will be speaking on a personal level as a friend, advocating for her as a candidate.
Quast-Lents has been serving on the Mount Pleasant City Commission since 2016, as a commissioner, vice mayor and now mayor since January 8, 2018.
Part of her decision-making process to run for state rep. involved talking to her friend and mayor of Ypsilanti, Amanda Edmonds, who encouraged Quast-Lents to run.
“She’s an amazing, amazing woman and I am inspired to be like her when I get (popular),” Quast-Lents said.
If she wins the position, she understands that her voice won’t be as loud at the state level, and to know what will be happening in Lansing a year from now, is impossible.
“It’s hard to say what exactly I’ll be working on,” Quast-Lents said. “I want to help make communities stronger.”
While legislation is important to her, Quast-Lents believes the most valuable thing she could do as state representative is to express the wants and needs of her district at the state level.”
From the district’s infrastructure to it’s schools, she wants to help rally behind teachers, entrepreneurs and the organizations that exist in each community.
“There are all these things, and we have people in our community that we are rallying behind – the homeless population, this population in our community that are living in poverty – but to really affect change in the people, we have to help get some of the road blocks out of the way,” Quast-Lents said. “So — how can I be that person?”
