Less than two weeks after former President Donald Trump endorsed former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, Nikki Snyder has decided to jump races and instead seek the GOP nomination for mid-Michigan’s 8th Congressional District.
Nikki Snyder | State Board of Education photo
The 39-year-old Republican who currently serves on the Michigan State Board of Education, made the announcement official Friday on her Facebook page, just prior to campaign events in Grand Blanc and Saginaw — although a campaign website still had her U.S. Senate logo and information, as of 5:45 p.m. Friday.
“It’s real today. We are going to win the 8th Congressional District!” Snyder wrote.
Snyder is now the second state Board of Education member to drop out of the Senate race and vye for the 8th District, following Board of Education President Pamela Pugh, who is now among the Democrats seeking to replace U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint), after he announced last November he would not seek reelection.
Other Democrats running are state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City), Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley, former Flint Mayor and Obama Administration appointee Matt Collier and Michigan Association of Conservation Districts Executive Director Daniel Moilanen.
On the GOP side, Snyder joins Paul Junge, who lost to Kildee in the 2022 election, and trucking company owner Anthony Hudson.
At a January candidate forum at the Northern Michigan Policy Conference in Traverse City, Snyder said it’s time to send a “pissed-off mom” who’s willing to “fight tooth and painted nail” to the Senate.
A former nurse, Snyder has been a vocal critic of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID policies while on the state Board of Education, as well as opposed to offering students free lunch while at school and for universal preschool.
“So when we say free pre-K for all, we’re saying more government,” said Snyder at a forum in February 2023 which also featured a keynote speaker who quoted Adolf Hitler, and posited that both gay marriage and the teaching of evolution were connected to Satan. “When we say free school lunch for all, we’re saying more government. The other side’s goal is always more government, more power, more control.”
Snyder currently lives in Dexter in Washtenaw County, well outside the 8th District, which is made up of Genesee, Saginaw and Bay counties, as well as a portion of Midland County and includes the cities of Bay City, Flint, Midland and Saginaw.
Congressional candidates aren’t required to live in the districts in which they’re running. Snyder also ran for the former 8th District seat in 2020. Prior to the redistricting that went into effect in 2022, the district included Ingham County, Livingston County and northern Oakland County, which was closer to Dexter, but still didn’t include it.
Where is Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood?
At the time, she told the Detroit Free Press she would “probably” move into the district if she won. However, she eventually dropped out and the GOP nomination went to Junge, who ended up losing to U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin before losing to Kildee in 2022.
Slotkin (D-Lansing) is now running for the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) and is facing actor Hill Harper of Detroit and businessman Nasser Beydoun in the August primary.
On the GOP side in the Senate race, Snyder’s withdrawal still leaves a packed field. Along with Rogers, other candidates are former U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Grand Rapids); Libertarian former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash of Cascade Township; businessman Sandy Pensler; Alexandria Taylor, an attorney who has previously represented former Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo; Sherry O’Donnell, a former 2022 congressional candidate and Michigan state chair for U.S. Term Limits; conservative businessman J.D. Wilson; Sharon Savage, an educator who worked for the Warren Consolidated School District for 42 years, Ottawa County Commissioner Rebekah Curran; and Michael Hoover, who previously worked for Dow Chemical Co.
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authored by Jon King
First published at https%3A%2F%2Fmichiganadvance.com%2F2024%2F03%2F22%2Frepublican-nikki-snyder-drops-out-of-u-s-senate-race-to-seek-congressional-seat-instead%2F
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