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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