Question 1): If elected on November 3, Abdul El-Sayed would become the first Muslim senator in United States history. Beyond that, the national exposure following El-Sayed is drawing quick comparisons to another budding Midwest Democratic U.S. senator a few years back. He also had a non-Anglo last name.
In January, 2005, U.S. Sen. Barack OBAMA (D-Illinois) was sworn into office and quickly established himself as a national celebrity who was catapulted into presidential conversation in 2007. He was elected President the next year, less than four years into his senatorial term. The turnaround would be even tighter for El-Sayed if he decided to run for president in 2028 — only two years into his senatorial term. For what it’s worth, El-Sayed says he has no intention of running for the presidency, and, of course, his political career might be aborted next month if he loses to Republican Mike Rogers.
But there are a number of other possible presidential contenders with Michigan ties. In fact, Michigan seems to boast more such aspirants than any other state. Gretchen Whitmer? Elissa Slotkin? Pete Buttigieg? Who might be the most likely to run?
Answer 1): Pete Buttigieg is running for sure. Although he’s never been elected to any public office in Michigan, he’s made Traverse City his home because that’s where his husband, Chasten, hails from. Indeed, the only office Buttigieg has ever won is mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He made a strong impression running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, but ultimately lost to Joe Biden, who subsequently appointed him to be U.S. Secretary of Transportation. This year, out of office, he’s been busy building campaign infrastructure and endorsing Democratic candidates for the Michigan Legislature.
Most political speculators think Elissa Slotkin is positioning herself to run for president because she’s been so outspoken in her criticism of Donald Trump and has been busy barnstorming throughout the country for various Democratic Congressional candidates, particularly in Blue states with early presidential primaries. She claims it’s because she’s been asked by these candidates to show their voters how someone like Slotkin can win even while Trump has carried the same state. A self-described moderate, Slotkin won three terms in the U.S. House in a marginal mid-Michigan district, knocking off a Republican incumbent in 2018. If she ran for president, her electoral track record would be a selling point, but her policy calling card would be national security because of her background as a Pentagon adviser and intelligence officer in the G.W. Bush and Obama administrations.
Whitmer almost certainly won’t run, if she ever intended to. Her stock has plummeted in Michigan and nationally over the past 20 months, not just with the general electorate but with her own fellow Democrats. Her job rating is its lowest ever, and her personal approval is underwater and may go lower before the end of the year.
There is no credible Republican from Michigan on the presidential horizon.
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Question 2): Shakespeare’s Juliet asked the question: “What is in a name?” Is there such a thing as a bad township name? And if its residents want to change it, how difficult is that to do? Are there any such proposed changes on the ballot anywhere in Michigan on Nov. 3?
Answer 2): In Flint Township west of Flint, quite a few residents think their moniker is a big negative, but changing it can be hard to accomplish. Nevertheless, the township board is giving it another shot in little more than a week, the only known such effort in Michigan this year.
Flint Township has tried at least four times to not only change its name but also convert to city status to protect it from annexation by the City of Flint. The last effort made by Flint Township was when voters back in the 1970s were asked to create the newly-named City of Grandview Heights. It failed.
Supervisor Miller appointed an ad hoc committee to explore once again the possibility of a name change. The panel held nine meetings on issues like zip codes (there are seven different zip codes in Flint Twp, with four different post offices), insurance rates, whether to convert to a city, taxes, etc. Bottom line: the committee did not want to convert to a city, but to simply change the township name to eliminate confusion. Legally, the township can now do that if it wants to; believe it or not, that was illegal in Michigan before 2021, when a new state law was passed to allow a township to take such action. Before then, cities, villages, and counties could all change their names, but not townships unless they became cities. Now they can.
The committee believed the name change would have an impact similar to what occurred a couple of decades ago when Pontiac Township converted to Auburn Hills, and East Detroit became Eastpointe. One result of a name change, with the opprobrious word “Flint” removed from sight, might be rising property values. However, that might also mean higher property taxes, which gives suspicious homeowners a reason to vote against the change.
Eventually, the township board agreed with the committee so that, this past July, it voted 5-1 to put the name change question on the general election ballot. One caveat: even if voters vote in favor of the name change, the township board would still have to approve it, and there is some doubt that there are four members (out of seven) who would do that unless the margin of victory on 11/3 is overwhelming. If the general election verdict of the electorate is a majority “No,” the proposal is dead. The cost of a name change might be as high as $150,000 (re-lettering, signage, etc.)
However, the township cannot proselytize in its posting about Nov. 3 ballot proposals, and the pro-name change committee has insufficient funds for any largescale advertising campaign to get out the “Yes” vote. The group can thank its lucky stars that there is no organized campaign against the proposal.
We’ll find out what happens in nine days.
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Question 3): U.S. Sen. Elissa SLOTKIN (D-Holly) has called for the United States to ban the importing of Chinese-made cars. Given the impact Chinese cars would have on our auto industry, do Michigan politicians have any choice but to share that position?
Answer 3): No choice, really. All Michigan politicians realize the electorate believes Chinese cars should be kept out of the country. Many voters think that not only would the importing of Chinese cars hurt Michigan’s overall economy, but it would give the Chinese Communist Party another way to spy on us. After all, we all connect our phones to our cars. It makes no sense to allow Chinese automakers to flood the U.S. market. We’ve invested in American manufacturing because we want to keep making cars here and keep those jobs here. Our trade policy should reflect that. To be sure, there is an argument against such thinking, which is that putting up walls between the USA and our competitors, at a macro level, rarely works, as evidenced by Donald Trump’s tariffs. Politically, there’s reason for supporting a ban, but the best policy would be for the federal government to partner with our domestic auto industry to be more responsive to consumers and develop more cost-effective products so that we can stand toe-to-toe with our competitors. Sadly, that takes effort and long-term thinking, neither of which we have in today’s political environment.
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QUESTION#1:Pete Buttigieg is a Rhodes Scholar and a great candidate – however several days ago he alienated Democratic Party insiders by endorsing an independent candidate over the Democratic Party nominee Alani Bankhead in a crucial U.S. Senate race in Montana. A conservative independent will split the GOP vote and the Dems think Bankhead – a progressive liberal critical of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and a pro-choice vote on reproductive rights – can take the seat with strong Democratic unified support.
Pete Buttigieg’s public stance – as of a couple of days ago – is that he would “consider” running for president in 2028.
Elissa Slotkin is a reasonable U.S.presidential candidate – however her pro-Israel stance and generally moderate political reputation is at odds with the political center of most young Democrats today. The Dems in Michigan and nationally at the grassroots level are more progressive now than ever before.
AOC is polling competitively nationally in the presidential race with top GOP contenders. A progressive liberal could conceivably obtain the presidential nomination in 2028.
QUESTION #2: Anything is better than “Flint” for a township name – it conjures up images of “Roger and Me” with destitute residents trying to survive economic ruin.
Michigan is known for horrible place names e.g. Hell, Hemlock, Bad Axe etc.
Question #3: Politically, Slotkin is pandering to UAW interests. The reality is that the U.S. industry no longer commands international respect as it did in 1960s and 70s. Ford is the only survivor that escaped bankruptcy through prudent cost-cutting measures. Japan, Korea and even Italy has surpassed U.S. automakers in both product quality and consumer preferences.
Malcolm Bricklin foresaw the rise of the Far East in the car industry in the 1960s when he signed a import distributorship agreement with Subaru – and later tried to bring Chery cars to America.
Buttigieg endorsed the independent candidate in Montana because Bankhead is viewed by many as a Republican. Former senator Jon Tester and numerous other Democrats in Montana are endorsing the independent candidate over Bankhead–some polls have the independent as leading the race. Good move by Pete.
There is NOTHING about Bankhead that is “Republican” – she supports impeaching Trump and has adopted a number of progressively liberal stances, including relief from student loan indebtedness.
Some prominent Montana Democrats have backed Seth Bodnar as the independent as they feel he has a better shot at beating the GOP nominee, Mr. Alme.
Nice article, Bill, but what did you do to piss off Google! Gmail sent this week’s TBR to trash! Time to break up Google!
QUESTION 1: No objection or concern with your choices.
As for Mayor Pete, I’m not sure if the Democrats want to nominate a Man from McKinsey to be their nominee. A friend of billionaires might not be a good sell.
As for El-Sayed, Obama had a prime speaking spot at the 2004 DNC convention BEFORE he ran for Senate, something the good doctor does not have. Should he win the Senate seat, I supect he will wait.
Absolutely right about Gretch. The only thing she has gotten done is fixing the damned roads, and that has taken over seven years to get to. Our schools suck, school scores suck, the prisons are a mess (too few guards, way too much OT) and the rest of state government seems to be in a holding pattern. Not exactly a record to run on, though it might get a seat or three of some corporate boards, maybe even BCBS! Like father like daughter?
QUESTION 2: Flint Township would like a new name, well I have no comment on that. It couldn’t hurt, but it may not help. I will leave that determination to thgose who live in and around Flint, City and Township.
QUESTION 3: I have a few comments here. Tariffs do work, or other countries would not use them. In the long run, reciprocal tariffs are probably best. The right wing delusion that free trade is the best trade ignores common sense, history, practical economics, and the long-term economic health of a country. A country that does not make things is in deep doo-doo. As for Sen. Slotkin, a good call and probably an action designed to avoid getting the Haley Stevens and Jordan Acker treatment from her party. Even she should know that if she ran for an open senate seat this year she would not have won.
What she did not address is the ongoing trade dispute with Canada. The Canadians walked away from what we thought was an agreement with a last-minute effort to get medium and heavy-duty trucks, specifically the Ford F-350 and F-450 which Ford apparently wants to build in Canada– which were not included during the negotiations – be treated as cars that were included in NAFTA 3.0 (or whatever we are calling it now). This happened because the Canadians thought a couple of things would happen – in the past, the US has always allowed this stuff to happen; and they thought that Trump was desperate for a deal. Oops. This is an issue because Ford wants to take advantage of the currency discrepancy between the US and Canadian dollars. As of today, the Canadian dollar (the Loonie) is worth $0.71 US, or if you prefer, the US dollar is worth $1.40 Canadian. That is pay $0.71 for product build in Canada while charging a full dollar here in the States. And as medium and heavy-duty trucks have military applications, the US trade team decided this was not a good idea, not just leaving military equipment dependent on a foreign country, but having Ford try to extract, steal or extort (choose your preferred verb) out of the American taxpayer to enhance their stock price, dividends, executive pay and bonuses. One good note is that if there is no NAFTA 3.0 (or whatever we are calling it), the Japanese transplants, if their Ambassador to Canada is to believed in what he told CTV, those plants will leave as most of the cars they build (they like the currency discount) are sold here. There is good news. Pablo Salapantan wrote in the September 25, 2026 edition of Autoblog that Honda was looking to expand (build new factories) in Ohio.
Sorry for the short detour, now back to the basic argument. Canada’s official reason for walking away is that we wanted to step on their national sovereignty. The first thing they said was that we were going after the French language in Quebec – a tactic to win more votes in Quebec by-elections (special elections here in the states). And when that was exposed as 100% pure and undiluted BS, then nothing. Strange. Even stranger, no word from us as to Canada’s reasoning (more on this later). There are three big suspects for this affront to sovereignty since the French language thing has been debunked. The first one is that the US wanted to go after their dairy cartel where we can import a small amount of dairy products tariff free if we go through enough hoops to make a contortionist dizzy then our dairy goods are subject to more than 200% tariffs. Number two is their interprovincial tariffs on food and alcohol. That’s right, Ontario can tariff food and alcohol from other provinces. Until Trump retaliated for Canadian provinces excluding US alcohol from their provinces, it was easier to buy wine from British Columbia here than it was in Ontario or Quebec. These tariffs, along with the dairy cartel, notably add costs to the average Canadians. The third, and in my opinion most likely reason, is that Prime Minister Mark Carney is super keen on better trade with China. To get one year’s worth of canola oil into China, he lowered the tariff on Chinese EVs from the 100% levied by Trudeau to only 6% for five years. Not a real good trade if you ask me. There is also Chinese steel entering Canada. There is a well-founded fear that this steel will be considered Canadian and do to our car and steel industries what is happening in Germany to Volkswagen.
As for teaming with our domestic partners, it means the Ford, Stellantis and GM need to get their collective heads screwed on straight. They’ve basically abandoned sedans and entry level vehicles, not because they lost money but that they did not make ENOUGH money per unit. If you lose the entry level buyers, odds are they won’t buy you more expensive stuff. So teaming up with them requires that the auto companies get a massive transfusion of common sense and realize short term gains do not guarantee long-term survival.
As for the later comment made two paragraphs ago, if we haven’t gone into great detail, it is because we still think we can get a deal. I suspect that Howard Lutnick still has some fond memories of Mark Carney when Carney toiled for Goldman-Sachs. I have no such memories. When Mr. Lutnick comes around, Canada will be screwed and a good chunk of their industries will head south where nearly 90% of the market is. And that would make an interesting series of TBRs.