On Tuesday, March 24, The Oakland Post sat down with Alex Hawkins, a candidate for the Michigan House of Representatives in District 55, to discuss the strategy that informs his campaign. 

Since announcing his bid for the Michigan House, Hawkins has received endorsements, including one from the College Democrats of OU.

This interview, conducted online, was edited and condensed for clarity. 

The Oakland Post: Can you please tell us about your experience working with then- Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin and Senator Gary Peters?”

Hawkins: “I worked for then Congresswoman Slotkin as my title was a green and gold congressional aide. It’s a program for veterans that is separate from active duty who are looking to work in congressional offices. And so I was doing a two-year fellowship, and I had a chance to work alongside her staff in Lansing doing field representative work. 

When I worked for her, I had a chance to do veteran casework and constituent work, as well as working with multiple veteran organizations across the state. It was the second most rewarding job I had, being able to help constituents fight federal agencies for the things that they’re entitled to and the things that they deserve, such as veterans who were being denied certain benefits. 

We had a gentleman who was getting kicked out of the army. He was trying to hit his 20 years [in active service] so that he could retire, but had to fight for his medical retirement. It was months of us working with this specific service member, pulling all of his medical records from the federal database and making sure that we had everything in line … civilian doctors that he had seen, and phone calls to the appropriate personnel in the Department of Defense at the time. We had a chance to make sure that he got the U.S. Army retirement that he deserved and medical retirement, which are two different things that he was able to achieve because of our relentless work. 

The way Senator Slotkin thinks about things and goes about things, it was always very constituent-first, and she was always on top of her entire constituent services team— making sure that we were delivering to the people of Michigan.

 I had a chance before that to work for Senator Peters. It was during the first Trump impeachment that I worked for him, and so I got to answer phones and talk to constituents—in a very different way than when I worked for Congresswoman Slotkin. I talked with people who were very upset [who expressed agreement or disagreement], and had to learn to de-escalate those situations. It was my job to hear them out and make sure that I was reporting that information to the Senator at the time so that he could make the strongest informed decision about what his constituents wanted.”

The Oakland Post: “Do you think we could identify an alternative source of revenue apart from the property tax— especially when it comes to funding schools?”

Hawkins explained that, while he supports property-tax reform, he believes it would be difficult to find another avenue to finance social services. Talks in the legislature of abolishing the property tax—introduced by Speaker Matt Hall—could lead to lost revenue for schools.

Hawkins: 

“I think this is correct, that there have been proposals to not require people without children to pay property taxes that would go towards schools. While I don’t have any children, I’m a product of the public schools here in Oakland County. And I think that as a society, if we want to have successful people, whether they go into the trades or whether they go into higher education or whatever it is, we can’t continue to kneecap our schools. But I think that property taxes in the city of Detroit are very different than the city of Rochester and the city of Bloomfield. How those numbers are calculated, and the services that are provided per municipality and where the money goes, could be far more equitable than it is.”

The Oakland Post: What would be your approach to keeping communities safe from ICE, drawing on your expertise in law enforcement? 

Hawkins: I’m a reserve, a reserve sheriff’s deputy. There’s been a few resolutions that the Rochester Democratic Club and the Oakland County Board Commissioners had presented to the Rochester City Council, that would encourage the cities and municipalities [like the Rochester Police Department, or the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office] to not enter contracts with ICE, saying that they will not participate in any activity that isn’t signed by a judicial warrant, or doesn’t meet certain criteria. 

Our argument is that normal people who have been here for five, 10, 15, 20 years, who have kids and families and jobs, are getting sent away to God knows where, and that we have the ability to control our local law enforcement, our county law enforcement, and our state law enforcement, to actually support the people that fund them, and that they are sworn to protect. 

The Oakland Post: “When it comes to getting more young people into elected office, what barriers do you think exist? How can we work towards supporting these candidates?”

Hawkins: “I think the first thing is making it accessible. Let’s say you’re double majoring and you’re working because you are trying to have less student loans—you don’t have time to volunteer, but maybe you do have time to come to a campaign event. 

I always have a free option or say, hey, reach out if you can’t afford it, because we have to make things accessible. And everybody, whether you have a million dollars or you’re in debt $50,000 you should be able to come to any event.

I’m also currently getting my master’s degree in public administration. And actually, my capstone focuses on how normal people can run for office. I think that it’s something that is incredibly difficult to break into because of the finances of having to buy exposure to people as well as supporting candidates financially, because a campaign cannot work without money. And money in politics is a huge issue. 

One of the things that we could do is champion and support public publicly funded campaigns. It gives younger people who don’t have the means or don’t have the ability to quit their job and run full time [or don’t have the network to raise $150,000 for a primary race] a chance.”

The Oakland Post: What distinguishes your approach from other candidates in the race?

Hawkins: “I think one of the things that distinguishes me is my drive to not stop. I’m out [canvassing door-to-door] when the sun comes up, and sometimes even after the sun goes down. I think the way that we did so well last cycle was by knocking on people’s doors, and I’m going to do that again. I think that as for my primary and general opponents, I know for a fact that I’m going to knock more doors than they will. 

It should not matter, but I think I fit the profile of this district. Well, it is a very purple, very moderate district. And you know, this district has voted for Elissa Slotkin and voted for the Republican who currently holds the seat right in the same year. And so I think being a military veteran, being a reserve law enforcement officer for Oakland County, having all my roots here in Oakland County, and growing up here and volunteering here at the park (the yearly Apples and Arts Festival). I think when all of those things come together in a purple district, it requires someone who’s going to put in all the work—which I know that I will—and has those roots, and has the experience already running in this district.I think when you put all those into one little bucket, it gives me the best possible opportunity to flip this seat. 

My job, ultimately, is to surround myself with people who have different perspectives, who have different thoughts, who have better ideas or different perspectives, to drive me and my decision making.”