F
ew state legislators
are well known, even
where they live. Twenty
years ago, few people, even in
Illinois, had heard of a state
senator named Barack Obama.
Nor, in 2003, did the average
Michigander know the name
of a young state representative
from East Lansing named
Gretchen Whitmer.
It was years before they
began to be noticed. But on
March 3, State Rep. Samantha
Steckloff of Farmington Hills,
in office barely two years, had
a nationwide audience on
CNN’s This Morning when she
was interviewed about death
threats she and other Jewish
lawmakers had received.
“
Absolutely!” she told
anchor Poppy Harlow after
she was asked whether she
now felt antisemitism was a
greater threat to her life than
the aggressive breast cancer
Steckloff, now 39, survived in
her early 30s.
“While I said breast cancer
was the most difficult thing
I’ve ever had to go through, it
[antisemitic threats] really has
been these last few months.
“Putting myself out there
openly as a Jewish represen-
tative was one of the scariest
things I’ve ever done. And
I know that even today, by
showing my face, speaking out
against this horrible tragedy
that could have been,” she
might be subjecting herself to
even more danger.
Days before, the FBI called
to tell her they were going to
arrest a man in Texas who had,
indeed, tweeted that he was
“heading back to Michigan
now threatening to carry out
the punishment of death to
anyone that is Jewish in the
Michigan govt if they don’t
leave, or confess.”
Jack Eugene Carpenter III,
who had worked for a decade
as a systems administrator at
the University of Michigan,
had a small arsenal of weap-
ons when was arrested; he is
now in detention in Michigan
awaiting trial on federal hate
crime charges. Michigan
Attorney General Dana Nessel,
who also was a target, called
Carpenter mentally disturbed.
But, for Steckloff, the real
problem is that regardless of
whether he is found guilty, that
man is far from alone.
“The fact that I was even
asked to do that, go on CNN,
is insane. We’re living in a time
when people are so open about
their racism and hate,” she said
over salad at the Stage Deli.
Last October, she noted, Ye,
the rapper formerly known as
Kanye West, tweeted a vow to
OUR COMMUNITY
State Rep. Samantha Steckloff first beat cancer,
now she’s fighting antisemitism.
JACK LESSENBERRY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
A Fighter in Lansing
Steckloff
speaking on
the floor in
Lansing.
Rep.
Samantha
Steckloff
14 | SEPTEMBER 28 • 2023
J
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