Primary Election Overview: 86th House District

Liz Gullett

Jun 09, 2016

Through the primary election on August 2, on every Tuesday and Thursday on the MLC Blog we will be highlighting races for which the primary is the key race due to the voter base. Candidate’s website and professional information is listed when available.

District Overview

The 86^th House District includes portions of Ionia County and Kent County on the west side of the state. It is almost exclusively a rural, farming district and it’s 68.79% Republican base is the third highest in the state.

Commentary

State Representative Lisa Posthumus Lyons is serving her third and final term in this seat. There aren’t any currently elected candidates running for the seat and the candidates are relatively unknown individuals throughout the district. Given this, there isn’t a clear frontrunner at this time. Both Jeff Johnson and Katherine Henry have received the endorsement of the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors.

Democratic Candidates:

Lynn Mason – Four term County Commissioner, former public school teacher.

Republican Candidates:

Thomas Albert – Marine Corps Veteran, investor for the State of Michigan Retirement Systems.
Katherine Henry – Attorney working as a mediator and guardian ad litem, former Assistant Public Defender for the State of Minnesota.
Jeffrey Johnson – Attorney.
Bartholomew Lower – Sales and marketing.
Matthew VanderWerff – Farmer and accountant.

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