First-term Democratic Rep. Betsy Coffia is defending her seat in the state House against Lisa Trombley, former chair of the Grand Traverse GOP.
The 103rd District race is set to be one of Northern Michigan’s most competitive, and could help decide the balance of the state House.
The hand-shaped district covers the northwest corner of the lower peninsula, including all of Leelanau County and parts of Benzie and Grand Traverse Counties, including Traverse City.
In 2022, Coffia defeated incumbent Rep. Jack O’Malley in one of the closest races in the state, a difference of less than 800 votes in a race with over 55,000 votes cast.
With the House split 56 Democrats to 54 Republicans, the GOP would need to flip just two districts to regain the majority.
Coffia, a former social worker and grand traverse commissioner, has argued that a Republican majority could work to reduce abortion access in Michigan.
“The overturn of Roe v. Wade really has reintroduced the fear that our politicians and our government at the federal level, and yes, even at the state legislative level, are looking to strip away basic bodily autonomy and decision making for half the population,” Coffia said.
Michigan voters approved Proposal Three in 2022, which amended the state constitution to protect abortion through fetal viability, or around 24 weeks.
Trombley, a former government contractor, says that she respects the wishes of those seeking an abortion.
“That’s not a right the Legislature can infringe upon at all,” she said. “I feel for women who might find themselves in the situation of an unwanted pregnancy, and we need to support the choice of life as much as we support the other choice that was put into the constitution.”
A constitutional amendment coming from the Legislature would need to be approved by two-thirds of each chamber and receive support from a majority of voters in the subsequent election.
Still, the legislature could place some restrictions on access if justified by a “compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”
The candidates also weighed in on a proposal to raise the state minimum wage and phase out the tipped wage, which will be implemented in February following a Michigan Supreme Court decision.
“It’s bad for business. It’s bad for the employees,” Trombley said. “It’s going to wreck havoc with our communities and across our communities. The unintended — well, I don’t even know that they were unintended —consequences will be quite devastating to our small businesses.”
Coffia also expressed concerns about the policy and said the Legislature should get involved.
“I am very much advocating that we listen to servers and find, perhaps, find a way to delay that implementation, or do something to make sure that servers don’t lose their tips, because some of them make really, really good tipped wage,” she said.