Top of the Ticket

Conversations with Michigan’s candidates for governor.

a year to fix their cars. Meanwhile, the roads get worse
because we’re not rebuilding them the right way.
We can keep fixing our cars or we can get serious
about a real infrastructure plan. And that’s what I put
on the table, a real plan to fix problems.
Q: Do you support privatization of mental health
care?
GW: I’m skeptical of privatization. We’ve seen that
experiment play out in our criminal justice system, vet-
erans’ affairs and education. I just hate to see us experi-
ment with a for-profit model.
We don’t have a mental health expert at the cabinet
level now, which is something that I think is important.
Q: If you were governor and the Senate and the
House passed a bill that expanded the Elliot Larson
Civil Rights Act to provide identical protections for the
LGBTQ community, would you sign it?
GW: Not only would I sign it, but I’ll be a proponent
of it and push for the legislation to get to my desk. For
me, it’s simply the right thing to do and long overdue.

Frankly, not doing so is hurting our ability to lure talent
into the state of Michigan. People look at us and think
that we’re backward in a lot of ways, that we don’t have
basic civil rights protections for everyone who calls
Michigan home.
Q: What ideas do you have to retain and attract peo-
ple to the state?
GW: The great legacy of Michigan is that this was
where people came to for a good path into the middle
class, where you could find a good job, raise a fam-
ily and retire. You knew your kids would have great
schools; you knew the water was safe to drink, and you
could drive on the roads. We’re dangerously behind on
all these measurements. By addressing those gaps, we"ll
make Michigan a place where people will come for
opportunity.
There are some good things going on in the state.
[Detroit] Mayor Duggan’s seen a lot of people wanting
to move into the city of Detroit and that’s exciting, but
until we have mass transit or safe roads or affordable

car insurance, it’s going to be harder to get the kind of
concentration of people we want to see in this state.
Q: If the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v.
Wade, what would be your strategy as governor when it
comes to Michigan women’s reproductive freedom?
GW: If Roe v. Wade is rolled back, I would lead the
effort to change the [state] law, on the books since 1931,
which would revert Michigan to a state that outlaws
abortion and criminalizes medical providers.
I will need a legislature to work with me, and I’ll
use every ounce of leverage I have as the governor to
do that. I also want to make sure we continue to fund
Planned Parenthood and comprehensive sex education
for young people and ensure that birth control is acces-
sible.
Q: What are your plans related to healthcare?
GW: We made great strides with Medicaid expansion
and I’m proud to have worked with Gov. Snyder to get
that done. Step one is protecting it.
I’m hopeful that we can bring down the cost of pre-

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will do as governor. If an expansion of the Elliot Larsen
Act has these principles — that we don’t discriminate
against anybody, period, whether it’s ethnicity, sexual
orientation, religion or gender — that’s the spirit in
which I would sign a bill.
Q: If the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v.
Wade, what would be your strategy as governor when it
comes to Michigan women’s reproductive freedom?
BS: First, I think that is a long way down the road.
Legally, I’ll decide when that happens. I am pro-life.
That’s what I am. I don’t believe that women should be
punished or penalized for choosing abortion; but that
would be up to the legislature to pass a law. Again, we’ll
see what happens. You’ve got to take this step by step.
Q: Describe your plans for healthcare? Mental health
care?
BS: Our No. 1 goal is to have affordable and acces-
sible healthcare for citizens of Michigan. The federal
government hasn’t quite done the job. We’ve seen the
failures of the Affordable Care Act when you couldn’t
choose your doctor and premiums went up.

The Healthy Michigan [Medicaid expansion] law is
not going anywhere. It’s here to stay. I’ve always been
in favor of covering pre-existing conditions, covering
children until they’re 26 years of age and portability of
insurance across state lines. These are important. So is
the right of people to choose their own doctors. I think
we ought to have a private sector injection in healthcare
to manage it better.
I believe in a work requirement for Medicaid so that
we encourage able-bodied individuals to get a job and a
paycheck. The Medicaid budget is a significant portion
of the state budget, about a quarter of it roughly. It [a
work requirement] also frees up money for those who
have chronic illnesses, mental health problems and
behavioral health problems.
There’s a mental health crisis in the state and this
country, but I think it needs to be solved locally, not by
Lansing or Washington, D.C. I think the federal gov-
ernment should provide federal block grant funds to
the states and let the states decide how to use it.
Q: How would you address the opioid epidemic?

BS: I’ve been engaged in the taskforce on the opioid
issue and have looked at how we can accelerate and
modernize Michigan’s automated prescription system.
I’ve gone to recovery groups and know the opioid crisis
does not discriminate. Yes, we should crack down on
heroin dealers, but we can’t arrest our way out of this.
This is about education, treatment and awareness. It’s a
genuine, serious issue.
Q: Early in your candidacy, you touted being the
only Donald Trump-endorsed candidate among the
Republicans in the primary. Will you be inviting
Donald Trump to come to Michigan to campaign with
you prior to Nov. 6?
BS: I’m going to welcome every Republican to the
state to help me. If President Trump wants to come in
and help me, I would appreciate it. Perhaps he could
come to the Warren truck plant so we can talk about
bringing production back from Mexico.
Q: During a recent automotive conference, it was
said that tariffs could cost the industry 200,000 jobs.
What do you think about tariffs?

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October 18 • 2018

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