The Holland region has elected a Democrat to serve in the 86th Michigan House district - a region that for decades has elected Republicans.
The district includes Holland and portions of Allegan and Ottawa counties.
Joseph McClusky, 29, managed to unseat 72-year-old Republican incumbent Nancy DeBoer in a close race.
Speaking to Stateside Host April Baer on Monday, McClusky said he attributes his win to his campaign's willingness to go directly to voters.
"We knocked on 70,000 doors, and a lot of people that we talked to had never had a Democrat step foot on their front porch (and) ask them what's on their mind," he said. "It opened the door a little bit to be able to talk about what a Democrat actually is and what the Democratic Party can be."
Nearly a decade before running for the seat, McClusky most closely identified with the Republican Party. Growing up in a conservative family in Burton, he said the first thing he did when he started undergraduate school at Hope College in Holland was join the Hope Republican club.
"I remember one of the nights at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in 2016, as a guest of the Michigan Delegation, hearing people like Ted Cruz saying, 'Vote your conscience,' and being booed off stage," he said. "For a while, I thought I could still be in the party and just disagree with the head of the ticket, but what I saw at that convention was the party and the man becoming one."
That year, Cruz, a U.S. Senator from Texas, challenged Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, but Cruz's criticism of Trump and the growing support for Trump among Republican leaders at the time contributed to the end of his campaign.
McClusky's affiliation with the Republican Party didn't happen overnight. He said as he sought more opportunities on campus and came out as gay, he realized he could no longer endorse the values of the Republican Party.
"I still stay true to the values that I was raised with: to work hard, tell the truth, love my neighbor as myself," he said. "More often than not, those values are found more in the Democratic Party than the Republican Party."
The freshman state representative campaigned on lowering the cost of gas and groceries, tailoring his message around his personal experience relying on government assistance during parts of his childhood.
His dad was injured on the job, and his mom went from being a stay-at-home mom to working in his school cafeteria.
"I know what its like to be in a family that's one emergency, one injury or one setback away from the edge," he said. "And how important it is to have leaders who understand that the decision made in Lansing are not abstract but hey affect whether we can afford rent for groceries."
On the campaign trail, McClusky also told voters about his experience renting.
"My spouse and I are currently renting," he said. "We would love to own a home and we both work hard, we're both saving but it just feels out of reach and being to talk about my experiences resonated with with a lot of voters."
Looking ahead, McClusky said he's hoping to focus on passing legislation that "gets government back on track, makes life more affordable and government more accountable."
"Whether you voted for me or didn't vote for me, my job is to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to protect you from overzealous corporations, from an overreaching federal government, making sure that I'm bringing money and resources back to the district," he said.
McClusky will be sworn in at the beginning of 2027.
Full interview with Joseph McClusky
April Baer: We've been talking a lot lately about elections and the size of the blue wave that swept over Michigan. One of the biggest surprises came in West Michigan's 86th District, where Democratic challenger Joseph McClusky, age 29, flipped a West Michigan state House seat in a region that for decades has elected Republicans. This district includes Holland and portions of Allegan and Ottawa counties. We've joined Joseph McClusky to talk to us today about his campaign and everything that came through it.
Joseph, welcome to Stateside. It's good to have you.
Joseph McClusky: Thank you. April, it's great to be here.
Baer: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? I know that back in college you went to Hope, which is the liberal arts college in West Michigan, and I think you were involved in campus Republicans while you were there, is that right?
McClusky: It's true, it's true. I grew up on the east side of the state in Burton, Michigan, just outside of Flint, in a working class family. My dad was a radiology technician, and my mom stayed at home with me and my two older sisters, and later went on to work in the school cafeteria. Came out to West Michigan to go to Hope College, where I studied political science. And having grown up in a very conservative and Republican environment, the first thing I did when I got to campus was join the Hope Republicans.
Baer: I read somewhere that you even attended the 2016 RNC when the Republicans were gathering in Cleveland. How did you end up sort of deciding that that wasn't for you and ultimately getting into Democratic politics?
McClusky: I've always been a politics nerd and I enjoyed going to campaign rallies for both parties. But it was actually going to that convention and some of the conversations I had with friends as Donald Trump came onto the political scene, that I no longer saw those values that I was raised with in the Republican Party. I remember one of the nights at the Republican National Convention there in Cleveland in 2016, as a guest of the Michigan Delegation — hearing people like Ted Cruz saying, "Vote your conscience," and being booed off stage.
For a while, I thought that I could still be in the party and just disagree with the the head of the ticket. But what I saw at that convention was the party and the man becoming one. And I thought to myself, if that's the direction that this party wants to go, it's one that it's a path of destruction and I don't need to be a part of it.
Now, I didn't become a Democrat overnight. I went on a longer journey, had conversations, sought out more opportunities on campus through conversation. It's been a slower journey, but I still stay true to the values that I was raised with: to work hard, tell the truth, love my neighbor as myself, and more often than not, those values are found more in the Democratic Party than the Republican Party.
Baer: So fast forward 10 years, it's 2026 and you're campaigning for state representative. You talked a lot on the trail about lower costs for gasoline and groceries. Were there things about your own experiences that you think resonated with voters you talked to?
McClusky: I grew up in a working class family, and when I was in middle school, my dad was injured on the job. Our family realized firsthand what it means to need help and how important it is to have people stand with you in a hard moment, and we relied on government assistance to put food on the table and keep our family afloat. So I know what it's like to be in a family that's one emergency, one injury or one setback away from the edge.
I know how important it is to have leaders who understand that the decisions made in Lansing are not abstract, but they affect whether we can afford rent for groceries or build a stable future for our families. Right now in our own community and across the state, too many families are doing everything right and still falling behind, and too many of our politicians are simply not showing up and meeting this moment.
My spouse and I are currently renting. We would love to own a home. We both work hard, we're both saving, but it just feels out of reach, and being able to talk about not just my upbringing, but the experiences that my spouse and I are experiencing right now trying to own a home — I think resonated with a lot of people.
Also when we talked to young people, we hear a lot from older politicians who talk about going back to a pre-Trump era. I'm not interested in having that conversation because so many of my peers don't know what a pre-Trump era is. So I have been more interested in coming together and sharing what we want to see. Let's dream about what we want to see for our future, and how can we come together and try to build that in the midst of all of this destruction.
Baer: Joseph, you and your partner, Stephen Rumler, have been married since 2023, and I wonder if that is part of what you mean when you say you're not necessarily interested in going back? I mean, was was there a time when you thought that that being gay meant that you would not have a place in politics?
McClusky: Certainly, there was a time when I thought that meant I wouldn't have a place in politics, wouldn't have a place in the church. My spouse Steven is a church musician, and there has been along with that political journey, also a faith journey as well. That's what's grounded me in this community. This is a strongly faith based community, and so I tell people: I'm not running to change Holland into something it's not, but to bring forward the Holland that we know to be true.
Just like in my own story, it's similar to Holland's story that those values that we have do not need to be abandoned, but they can be expanded to include more people. So that's sort of the message that we've been carrying across the line. I've had so many people reach out to me since since our victory Tuesday night, people who grew up in Holland, who left and said: 'I'm never going back there,' who are now thinking about returning, or people who were thinking about leaving now say: 'Wait, maybe I have a spot in this community.' That's meant so much to me.
Baer: This was not your first campaign. You were part of the campaign staff for Bryan Berghoef race for the 2nd Congressional District, which was not successful. You also managed Larry Jackson, who is also a Democrat, in his run for this district, the 86th. That was the year that Nancy DeBoer won. What did you want to be different in your campaign? Were there lessons, things that you learned in those earlier races that shaped the way you approached this one?
McClusky: Certainly, the race with Bryan Berghoef, I think was most impactful because that was my first campaign. First exposure really to working in politics in the Holland area, and what I saw was a lot of people who cared about their neighbors, a lot of excitement, a lot of financial resources. I saw that a lot of those pieces were here, but I had not seen the kind of campaign that was able to pull all of those pieces together. So then in 2022, I did manage the race against Nancy DeBoer. At that time, I did not think that she was reflective of where the community was based on the mayoral election of 2019 that she lost. That gave me an opportunity to get to know a lot of folks in this community, a lot of the volunteers that I had worked with previously on the congressional race to continue working with them. So many of those volunteers that I got to know in 2019 and 2020 and 2022 were a core part of this campaign here in 2026.
In 2024, I was the regional political director for the Michigan House Democratic Fund. So I worked with ten state House campaigns across West Michigan and as I heard other state reps talk about the programs they were fighting for the money that they were delivering for their district, I thought to myself, 'I've never heard my representative talk about what she's fighting for, talk about the money that she's delivering for the district.' What I took away from that was we need more representatives who are fighting for us, who are delivering results, and that's when I started to have the conversations of: 'Is it time for me to step out from behind the curtain and put my own name on the ballot?' And I'm so glad that I did.
Baer: Joseph, the DeBoer name has carried weight in West Michigan for a long time. Her family's been very involved in the community. Her name recognition is very high, and her husband teaches in in public schools. What was it like for you during the campaign? Did you find some people just didn't know what to expect from a Democrat?
McClusky: Yes, especially knocking [on doors]. Over the course of the campaign, we knocked on 70,000 doors. We did four passes through the district. A lot of people that we talked to had never had a Democrat step foot on their front porch, ask them what's on their mind, and a lot of people just had not interacted with a Democrat at all.
There were a few people who would say, 'Oh, well, Democrats are communists,' and I'd say, 'Well, I'm not a communist,' and they're like, 'Well, no, I know you're not.' And it opened the door a little bit to be able to talk about what a Democrat actually is and what the Democratic Party can be and how sometimes at the national level, national Democrats, the loudest Democrats make it difficult for local Democrats to cut through.
Baer: The thing about swing districts is they certainly do have the capacity to swing back the other way. There were a lot of pro-business groups who lined up behind your opponent, and a lot of people who had not been involved in other elections, like Latino voters in the district, who were all in. How are you thinking about representing the people who did vote for you, as well as some of the people who did not?
McClusky: I think we have to show right out of the gate that this time it's different, that we were not just talking to Latino voters because we wanted their vote, that we actually want them to feel like they are a part of this community. Right now, we have neighbors who feel unsafe going to the grocery store. We have neighbors who feel unsafe going to school to pick up their children, who are relying on other families to pick up their kids. That's not the kind of community that I want to see. That's not the kind of state I want to see. That's not the kind of country that I want to be in.
So I think we have to be clear from the very beginning that we have your back. Whether you voted for me or didn't vote for me, my job is to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to protect you from overzealous corporations, from an overreaching federal government, making sure that I'm bringing money and resources back to the district. Whether you voted for me or not, my interest is in getting our government back on track, making life more affordable and government more accountable; and that's regardless of of political identity.
Baer: Joseph McClusky is the newly elected state representative in West Michigan's 86th House district, and he'll be headed to Lansing in January. Joseph, thank you very much for your time.
McClusky: Thank you. April, it's a pleasure to be here.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and content.
