Another conservative candidate has entered the race of trying to turn Michigan’s Eleventh Congressional District Seat red after Haley Stevens (D-MI-11) turned the district blue in 2018.
Eric Esshaki, who works as an attorney in Birmingham, Michigan, announced Thursday he is running for Steven’s seat with the goal of fixing a “broken” Congress who just “pander” to special interests.
“I am running for Congress because we need leaders who will stop playing political games and actually solve problems. These days, politicians don’t even attempt to have a reasoned conversation. They just spout talking points,” the attorney said.
In his announcement post on Facebook, Esshaki says Stevens “typifies the problems” of Congress and calls her “ a rubber stamp” of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
As a candidate, Esshaki supports lower taxes, less government regulations, growing the middle class and fixing the current healthcare system.
Nowhere in his announcement does he mention if he supports President Donald Trump or some of his policies.
“As a conservative, I value our Constitution. That means upholding all our rights. Those rights form the foundation of our great country,” Esshaki said. “They make our country unique and they protect the weakest among us. Just as importantly, they shield us from government overreach and ensure that we remain a government for the people and by the people.”
The first-generation Chaldean American will have competition for the Republican nominee. As The Michigan Star previously reported, Trump-supporting Whitney Williams began her candidacy in August. Unlike Esshaki, she made it known she supports border security along the Mexican border.
In 2018, Stevens won Michigan’s Eleventh Congressional Seat by less than 30,000 votes over Republican candidate Lena Epstein to become only the third Democrat to hold this seat since 1965. This district is changing with two Democrats being elected in the last 10 years.
Lately, the Michigan Republican party has gone after Stevens and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI-08) for their stances on impeachment. Both elected officials on Thursday voted for the impeachment inquiry into Trump.
Michigan GOP chairman Laura Cox released a statement after Thursday’s vote.
“Once again Elissa Slotkin and Haley Stevens have put the best interests of the Democrat party ahead of the best interests of our nation. For the past three years, Democrats have been trying to overturn the will of American voters, by re-litigating the 2016 election. Now, only a year before Americans head to the polls to vote on President Trump’s historic record, Democrats are trying to shamefully throw him out of office because they know they can’t beat him at the polls.”
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Battleground State News. Follow Zachery on Twitter.
Photo “Eric Esshaki” by Eric Esshaki.
