Two newcomers to state office races will face off in the 37th state Senate District Democratic primary race on Aug. 4, with the winner facing the Republican incumbent in November. The Ticker caught up with both candidates to hear more.

Kate Gallup of Cedar and Mitchell Treadwell of Traverse City are in the contested primary; the winner will face incumbent first-term Sen. John Damoose of Harbor Springs, who’s unopposed in the Republican primary.

Gallup, 40, is a Traverse City native who earned a degree in natural science and engineering from the University of Michigan, where she also attended graduate school. She’s worked as a patent examiner for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Virginia, specializing in business methods and e-shopping. She also worked as event coordinator for a Unitarian Universalist Center in Arlington. She returned to Michigan during the COVID pandemic, where she’s worked as a school teacher in Leelanau County. She also creates and sells art for her family’s Good Harbor Gallery in Maple City, and provides pet and animal care for local residents.

Gallup took an interest in state politics working with groups like Fund Mi Future and the Citizens’ Climate Lobby. She says her engineering background will be an asset in drafting effective legislation and understanding the impacts of government regulations.

“I think that people who are engineers can find solutions,” Gallup says. “A lot of those same things can be really good in crafting legislation for the long term.”

Gallup’s top priorities include reigning in escalating utility and health care costs. She’s concerned by the level of money and influence exerted by utility and health care companies on state lawmakers.

“I want to make sure the people in office are accountable to the people, and not the corporate interests,” Gallup says. “I just want to make sure elected officials are good stewards of regulation, and of taxpayer dollars.”

Gallup, who’s a third generation teacher in her family, also supports more money for public education, which she says is under funded by $4.5 billion. She says teachers aren’t earning enough to find housing and make a living in places like Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties.

“I want to make sure we are adequately investing in our schools, as well as investing in kids with special needs,” she says.

Gallup also supports a statewide septic code, as well as more money for emergency services for disaster response for flooding, snow and ice storms and other natural threats.

“I think with climate change, we’re going to continue to see these impacts,” Gallup says. “The reality is that it’s here, and we have to adapt.”

Treadwell, 37, is also a Traverse City native who attended Northwestern Michigan College and earned a degree in environmental biology from Michigan State University. He’s worked for the state Department of Natural Resources and has served for the past five years on the Traverse City City Commission. He also serves on the city’s Housing and Planning commissions, and chairs the Grand Traverse Commons Joint Planning Commission.

Treadwell says he attends numerous local government meetings around the area to learn about different issues facing those communities. That’s helped him understand how the state can better partner with local governments on wider issues, including housing, child care and transportation planning.

“I can do certain things in Traverse City as a city commissioner and I can try to network and connect with other local leaders,” Treadwell says. “But a lot of the issues are things that require state involvement…(it) requires more regional collaboration and state-level thinking.”

Treadwell says he will advocate changes to state law that would provide funding from state “pillow taxes” collected by Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs) like Traverse City Tourism to fund local infrastructure, public safety and related needs.

“We can say we support a change in that and lobby for that and we can unite with other tourist-centric communities across the state to say this would be a useful change for our communities,” Treadwell says. “But ultimately it requires the state legislature to act.”

He also supports improving access to housing, which he says is a challenge across the Senate district.

“The need for housing in different communities is slightly different, but virtually all the district is struggling to find enough housing for the people who are actually working in the community to live where they actually want.”

Treadwell also supports public transportation, non-motorized transportation, trails and better sidewalks and walkability, particularly in smaller communities.

“Traverse City has the ability to bond for $3 million to build new sidewalks, but other communities don’t necessarily have that,” Treadwell says. “(The state’s) funding has been mostly focused on how to increase traffic throughput, rather than listening to communities and finding what a village, city or township actually wants the road to look like, and what will help their community the best.”

Like Gallup, Treadwell also supports additional state resources for infrastructure needs to combat the impacts of climate change.

“Not just our roads, but our dams, our culverts, our bridges, our electric grid isn’t as resilient for those sorts of storms and disasters,” Treadwell says. “How can we make our communities successful in the long run?”

Treadwell also supports a statewide septic ordinance.

The 37th Senate District is the third-largest in Michigan and includes Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet and Cheboygan counties, plus parts of Chippewa and Mackinac counties in the eastern U.P.

The district has been a Republican stronghold in recent history. Damoose won the seat four years ago, collecting more than 55 percent of the vote. 

Michigan has an open primary system, where voters may vote in either party but may not split their ticket.