As we approach Election Day on November 6, Stateside is interviewing congressional candidates around the state about the issues most important to them.
Jeff Jones is the Republican candidate challenging incumbent Democrat Debbie Dingell for Michigan’s 12th Congressional District. He lost to Dingell in 2016 by a 2-to-1 margin after receiving around 96,000 votes.
Jones has never held political office, but he points to his 30 years in executive upper management and 35 years of ministry as experiences that qualify him for a seat in Congress.
One of Jones’s top priorities if elected to office would be to put an end to omnibus bills, which are proposed legislation that touch on a range of different, often unrelated, topics within a single document. Jones wants to see a switch to "one item legislation."
“I think that omnibus bills [are] the perfect plan for lobbyists and politicians to hide how they’re invested or the debt they have to pay back. If we could look at it line by line, it would give us a lot more ability as citizens to see how it’s actually being voted because, again, who has time to read 1,500 pages at 7 o’clock in the morning and you’ve got a vote in two hours? That’s part of the covering that’s been taking place for years and that’s what I hope to do, is take the cover off,” Jones said.
Listen above to hear more about what Jones has heard from voters in his community, his thoughts on the importance of upholding Constitutional rights, and his views on the potential for government to become “tyrannical.”
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