MONDAY, AUGUST 5 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
Politics & the Nation
BY JENNA JOHNSON
AND GREG JAFFEoxford, mich. — On a quiet
cul-de-sac across the road from
Glass Lake and not far from her
subdivision’s golf course, Jody La-
Macchia was doing something
th at o nly a few years e arlier would
have seemed unthinkable: asking
strangers for money.
“I am running to be your state
representative in 2020,” she told a
small group in this Republican-
leaning suburb of Detroit. “I am
tired of all the toxicity in our poli-
tics.”
Down the hall, a half-dozen
campaign volunteers were com-
plaining — in often alarming
terms — about the Republicans
and Trump.
To Katie Weston, LaMacchia’s
best friend, who typically v otes f or
Republicans, the d oom and g loom
seemed a bit too dramatic, espe-
cially when the economy is surg-
ing and unemployment i s so l ow.
“It’s stuff like this,” Weston
whispered with a shake of her
head.
Where women like LaMacchia,
47, and Weston, 49, come down in
2020 is likely to play a decisive role
in whether Democrats hold the
U.S. H ouse and win the p residency
or Trump reigns again. Suburban
women were a big part of why
Democrats romped in M ichigan in
2018, taking the governor’s man-
sion and flipping two congres-
sional seats in a state that was key
to Trump’s 2 016 win.
Now, n early a year later, LaMac-
chia and Weston were trying to
find some steady ground a mid the
Democratic Party’s l eftward lurch
and Trump’s attacks on lawmak-
ers of color — and looking for a
presidential candidate they could
support.
LaMacchia threw herself into
Democratic politics shortly after
Trump moved into the White
House. In 2018, she even persuad-
ed Weston to vote for Democrat
Elissa Slotkin, a CIA veteran who
bested a Republican House in-
cumbent by promising to work
across t he aisle and restore civility
to Washington.
Both friends kept a n eye on this
week’s debates in Detroit. LaMac-
chia’s newfound activism landed
her tickets for her and her wife.
Weston, who lives two doors away
from LaMacchia in a house with a
matching floor plan, watched the
debates on television until she
said she c ouldn’t t ake any more.
Weston was looking for some-
one steady who wouldn’t disrupt
the country’s economic success
under Trump. “He does have some
good ideas,” she said of the presi-
dent, “but his points get washed
away when he opens his mouth
and s pouts off.”
LaMacchia was looking for a
candidate who could speak to the
same Democratic and independ-
ent voters whom she has been
trying to reach i n her f ledgling run
for t he Michigan House.
“We need someone who can ap-
peal to everyone,” LaMacchia s aid,
“not for strategy’s sake, b ut f or the
sake of unity.”
LaMacchia’s j ourney to this m o-
ment began on election night in
2016 as she watched in shock as
the r eturns c ame in f or Trump. F or
the next week, she said, she was
too d epressed t o do anything more
than go t o work and sleep.
“I ate SpaghettiOs with Parme-
san cheese for dinner in bed,” s he
said.
Weston was shocked, too. “I
thought: ‘You know what? This is
going to shake up all of Washing-
ton. Nobody is going to be happy
about this,’ ” she said. “A nd in
some ways, I didn’t necessarily
think that was b ad.”
LaMacchia attended the Wom-
en’s M arch on Washington t he day
after Trump’s inauguration and
then helped start NOW-MAD —
North Oakland Women Making a
Difference — to work on behalf of
Democratic candidates in her
largely Republican suburb.
To day, her group boasts more
than 600 members, and LaMac-
chia is trying to upend a four-
decade Republican victory streak
in her state House district. Since
January, LaMacchia has raised
$31,000. Twice a week, she and
eight to 10 volunteers canvass her
district in search of the 25,000 to
26,000 votes she figures she will
need to win.
Often they focus on new subdi-
visions, which have drawn inde-
pendent and Democratic voters to
the district. Her opponent, state
Rep. John Reilly (R), is a hard-line
conservative who vowed to op-
pose any new taxes until the gov-
ernment eliminates waste and h as
suggested landlords should not
have to rent to gay people. He won
reelection i n 2018 b y more than 10
percentage p oints.“I am a small-government per-
son,” h e said recently. “I want more
liberty. I want people making
more personal decisions. I want
less taxes.”
He also has been a staunch
backer of the president, calling
Trump a “passionate uniter” who
has been “remarkably patient
with his opposition.”
LaMacchia, who would be the
first openly gay woman elected to
the Michigan legislature, is bet-
ting that her increasingly wealthy
suburban district is looking for a
different kind o f unity.
To s ucceed, she w ill need v oters
like Weston, who says she is social-
ly liberal and f iscally conservative.
Weston bristles these days when
LaMacchia refers to her as her
“Republican f riend.”
“Drives me insane. I’m not your
Republican friend. I’m not your
po ster child,” s he told LaMacchia
recently. “I’m very middle-of-the-
road.”
Weston could not bring herself
to vote for Hillary Clinton, whom
she viewed as insincere and cor-
rupt. She liked Trump’s policies
but n ot his o ver-the-top rhetoric.
Asked whether she voted for
Trump, Weston said, “I withheld.”
Even though Weston has donat-
ed to LaMacchia’s campaign andplans to vote for her, their conver-
sations about politics remain
fraught.
“We’re not trying to start a
fight,” Weston recalled them
agreeing before one recent con-
versation about politics. “We’re
just talking.”
The women met 15 years ago at
the Oakland County courthouse,
where they help parents navigate
high-conflict custody disputes.
They bonded over the collapse of
their first marriages, raising boys
and their stressful jobs. To day,
they are co-workers, neighbors
and b est friends.
Recently, they were sitting at
the fire pit in LaMacchia’s back-
yard when she unloaded on
Trump.
“Well, it’s time to go,” Weston
said after a few minutes before
walking home.
LaMacchia quickly regretted
her outburst.
“It doesn’t help anything,” she
said. “It doesn’t g et u s anywhere.”
Instead, she said, she has
learned to “plant seeds,” inviting
her friend to come along with her
to check out m ore-moderate Dem-
ocratic politicians. She has also
learned t o avoid particularly emo-
tional topics, such as the humani-
tarian situation at the southernborder.
“Some things, I think when you
hear them,” she said, “you can’t
un-hear them.”
LaMacchia and her wife, Sa-
mantha, were in their seats at the
Fox Theatre in Detroit by 5 p.m.
Tuesday, three hours before the
moderator posed the first debate
question.
Back in the suburbs, LaMac-
chia’s volunteer campaign staff, a
group of suburban moms she had
met through the Women’s March
and her party activism, gathered
at a bar in a converted church to
watch the d ebate.
The talk at the debate turned to
the cost of the government-run
health-care programs proposed
by the Democratic Party’s liberal
wing. The rifts on the stage
matched the divisions in the sub-
urban bar.
Eileen Nolton, L aMacchia’s vol-
unteer canvassing director, was
willing to pay more in taxes so
everyone would have access to
health care. In 2008, her husband
was l aid o ff f rom his job a t General
Motors, and the sole plan they
could afford was one that covered
only catastrophic illness. That ex-
perience opened her up to the
need for big change, she s aid.
Her husband, now b ack a t work
as a design engineer at GM and
sitting next to her at the watch
party, disagreed. “It’s going to cost
everybody more m oney,” h e said.
At the s ame table, Tricia K ohler,
the volunteer campaign manager,
listened intently as Pete B uttigieg,
the mayor of South Bend, Ind.,
described being approached by a
13-year-old who was “shaking and
crying,” fearful of gun violence in
his school.
Kohler, a mother of two daugh-
ters whose path to politics began
with the 2018 Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School shooting,
looked as if she might cry, too,
before Nolton broke the tension.
“This debate makes me want to
stress-eat,” Nolton said.
After the debate, LaMacchia
felt overwhelmed by the choices.
“It’s really a l ot to take in,” s he said.
The crowd in the debate auditori-
um responded most enthusiasti-
cally to Sens. Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.), but LaMacchia worried
their ambitious proposals to raise
taxes and remake capitalism
would not go over well with her
neighbors.
“I feel l ike Mayor Pete speaks in
a way that could reach a lot of
people in my district,” she said.
“But he’s so young, and I don’t
know if his being gay will be an
issue.” LaMacchia and her wife
turned onto the interstate, head-
ing b ack to t heir h ome by the l ake.
She wondered whether Weston
could vote for any of the candi-
dates. “I am always looking at
these events through the lens of,
‘What’s Katie thinking?’ ” s he said.
The next day, the two friends
met for l unch.
“So did you watch?” LaMacchia
asked.
“A l ittle, until I thought my h ead
was going to explode,” Weston re-
plied. She had been turned off by
Warren and S anders a nd their big-
government proposals. Buttigieg
seemed “bright,” she said, but
didn’t h ave enough experience.
“Just like going from being a
reality-television star to presi-
dent,” LaMacchia joked.
“Trump ran a business, too,”
Weston r eplied.
LaMacchia and her wife were
back in line at the Fox Theatre for
the second night of the debates.Weston was in the family room
with her 19-year-old son, Connor
Dopke, who was home from col-
lege and playing v ideo games.
Dopke was steering his video
game motorcycle down a digital
mountain trail and sharing his
limited-government philosophy
with his mother. The country, he
said, could get by just fine with
just 10 basic laws. All the others,
establishing things such as the
minimum wage, Medicaid and
Medicare, were unnecessary. He
even doubted the need for Social
Security.
“Oh, honey, now you’re worry-
ing m e,” his m other said.
The two briefly discussed affir-
mative action. Her son said it was
unnecessary a nd “another f orm of
racism.” Weston countered that
the g overnment h ad a responsibil-
ity to help the less fortunate and
address disparities in opportu-
nity.
“We are very blessed,” she told
her s on.
They switched the television to
the debate, which was entering its
second hour. Weston settled in to
watch, with her husband, To m,
joining later. On the stage, tech
entrepreneur Andrew Yang was
calling for a universal basic in-
come of $1,000 per month that
would make up for job losses
caused by automation.
“That is insane,” Weston said.
“A re you serious, d ude?” T he econ-
omy in Michigan is booming, and
companies are struggling to find
workers.
“I’m not paying for that,” her
son s aid.
No one in particular either
night j umped out to Weston or h er
son. Her husband, who voted for
Barack Obama and then Trump,
was drawn to Buttigieg. “I just
want a president who can bring
people together, be levelheaded,”
he said.
The candidates started in on
their closing statements. Wash-
ington G ov. Jay Inslee w arned that
the “survival of humanity on this
planet” was at stake if the country
did not move quickly on climate
change. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-
Hawaii) fretted about a possible
nuclear w ar.
Almost all of the candidates de-
scribed Trump as an existential
threat to a country facing a fright-
ening number of crises. Weston’s
husband flashed a look of mock
horror. “From global warming to
nuclear h olocaust,” h e said.
“That’s what I don’t like about
all of this,” Weston replied. “It’s
just doom and gloom, doom and
gloom.”
LaMacchia emerged from the
theater and was sorting through
her own first impressions of the
coming election, which she de-
scribed as the most important of
her lifetime. Former vice presi-
dent Joe Biden s eemed old and t oo
burdened by h is past.
“I loved him with Obama, but
he’s got so much to answer for in
his history,” LaMacchia said. She
liked Inslee’s clarion call for fast
action on global warming, but
doubted he could win. “Maybe
he’d b e good f or EPA,” s he s aid.
Her favorite on the second
night was Sen. Cory Booker
(D-N.J.), who hadn’t r eally b een on
her radar. She liked his positive
message. “He might appeal to
folks in my area,” she said. “Every-
one i s craving unity, someone who
can b ring b oth s ides together.”
She was eager to get back home
and a sk Weston a bout h im.
[email protected]
[email protected]Fretting over Democrats’ leftward lurch, beating Trump
MELINA MARA/THE WASHINGTON POST
TOP: Jody LaMacchia, left, is running for a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives. “I am tired
of all the toxicity in our politics,” she said. ABOVE: Volunteers write postcards to constituents of the
46th District at LaMacchia’s home. She faces state Rep. John Reilly (R), who was reelected in 2018.SAVE $
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