Holland, MI – Although the conventional wisdom is that Michigan’s 2nd Congressional district will be an automatic win for the Republican candidate, Fred Johnson, the Democratic nominee for the seat, believes the pundits haven’t taken all the data into account. “No one owns this district except the voters,” says Johnson, who teaches history at Hope College and was the nominee in 2008. Johnson points out that the Senate seat held by the late Senator Ted Kennedy for nearly 47 years was flipped recently to newcomer Scott Brown despite widespread predictions to the contrary, adding “if that can happen, no district is a safe district.”
Johnson earned more votes against popular incumbent Pete Hoekstra than any other Democrat in previous races. This year, with Hoekstra out of the picture due to his unsuccessful run for governor, there is no incumbent to beat. Historically, an open seat has made a change of party three times as likely. And Johnson Campaign Manager Lance Penny says the voters of the second district are just not as uniformly conservative as they’re portrayed, “President Barack Obama came within 2000 votes of winning here and Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) has won it.” The Lakeshore district has several Democrats in the state legislature as well.
Johnson insists that as a Marine Corps veteran he doesn’t retreat and will battle for the seat straight through to November. And Johnson says he’s kept his powder dry for the big battle, “we were able to win the nomination decisively with a very small expenditure and I think voters appreciate the fact that I am not beholden to big money donors and corporate special interests.”
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