About Brendan

Roots in District 26

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I was raised on my family’s dairy farm in Fostoria, right on the Tuscola-Lapeer county border. I went to Mayville Public Schools for elementary, St. Paul Lutheran in Millington for middle school, and was part of the Great Lakes Bay Early College program during high school. In 2019, I graduated from Delta College with my A.A.S. in Computer Programming.

I moved to Milwaukee in mid-2019, and by the end of the year, I had begun my career as a computer assembler at Dedicated Computing through the staffing agency Educated Solutions Corp. Less than three months into that job, COVID was getting serious globally, and the supply-chain disruptions out of China meant we literally ran out of the components needed to build the systems that were on order. Myself and the others hired along with me lost our jobs, and I watched virtually all of the entry-level listings in my field disappear overnight, many of them never coming back.

That’s only been compounded by AI changing, and continuing to change, what IT work and many other career fields even look like, but I’ve been doing my best to adapt along the way. Afterwards, I moved back to Michigan and eventually settled near Bridgeport in Saginaw County with my wife. I’ve spent most of my life in the Bay-Thumb region, and this is my home.

Raised to Work Hard

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I come from a family that taught me the value of hard work, honesty, and learning to do things myself. My dad is a third-generation Michigan union member, a retired union commercial carpenter who spent his career in the skilled trades. He taught me how to work with my hands, how to drive a manual transmission, and how to see a problem and not quit until it’s solved. My mom has always been an honest and supportive parent who helped shape who I am. I’m very grateful for both of them.

Growing up, I was an active Cub Scout. The Pinewood Derby and Soap Box Derby were two of my favorites, and I genuinely loved learning survival and outdoors skills. I made it through Webelos before other interests pulled me in different directions. I also went deer hunting with my dad and grandpa during rifle season, which taught me patience, responsibility, and respect for the land.

I drive a 2006 Toyota Corolla with a manual transmission and over 271,000 miles on it. I do my own maintenance and repairs: everything from oil changes and part swaps all the way down to replacing the clutch and flywheel. Learned most of it from my dad and friends.

I’ve worked as a grocery clerk, an IT technician, a construction laborer, a photographer, and a licensed chauffeur. I’ve done a little bit of everything, and when I talk about the rising cost of living in Michigan, I’m talking from personal experience. At just about every one of those jobs, I’d finish my tasks and start looking around for what else needed doing. I was told to slow down, not because I wasn’t doing good work, but because there wasn’t enough time to train me on everything I was willing to take on. That hands-on, dig-in-until-it’s-fixed mindset is what I’ll bring to the State Senate, whether it’s under the hood of a car or in the details of a bill. I believe in doing things right, not just doing things fast.

Civic Roots

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I’ve always been interested in politics, even before I knew the word for it as a kid. When I learned I could do even more than vote, I volunteered for Voters Not Politicians, the grassroots campaign that put Michigan’s independent redistricting amendment on the 2018 ballot. I gathered petition signatures and entered them into the database, small contributions that were part of the roughly 425,000 signatures that brought the amendment to voters. It passed with bipartisan support, and that experience showed me firsthand that one person really can make a measurable difference for good.

That’s what lit the fire in me, and now I want to do even more.

Why State Senate?

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I’m not running for this seat because it’s easy. I know this is a long shot — but long shots are how a kid from a dairy farm in Fostoria changes things. When I looked at this district and what the people here actually need from their senator, it felt like I’d finally found a job where I could put all of my energy and determination to work. The responsibility of it doesn’t scare me, it motivates me. I thrive when people are depending on me to listen, to make the right decision, and to follow through. I believe that when you do well with the responsibility you’re given, you’re trusted with more — and I welcome that.

I’m especially drawn to the constituent services side of the job. I genuinely want to spend my time helping people navigate our state government, cutting through the red tape, and making sure residents of District 26 have someone in Lansing who picks up the phone to listen and help, each and every time. This district deserves a senator who’s from here, who understands what it’s actually like to live here, and who will treat the job as a public service, not as just another stepping stone.

My Five Priorities for District 26