It’s a muggy Tuesday night in downtown Traverse City but the AC is blasting inside Minervas Restaurant & Bar.
Karen Bolin drove in from Leelanau County. She’s talking fiscal policy over an ice cold drink and a steaming plate of nachos when a friend walks in.
“Hi! How are you? I saved a seat for Janet, but I didn’t realize you were coming.”
It’s the end of July. The Grand Traverse County Republican Party is hosting its monthly happy hour open mic, where any Republican candidate can come talk about why voters should elect them.
This is the last event before the Aug. 6 primary.
When asked who she’s planning to vote for in the 103rd District state House race, Bolin points to a woman a few seats away at the long table.
“I like her,” she says. “I like Katie.”
Katie Kniss is one of three Republicans heading into the August primary hoping to win and challenge State Rep. Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City) this fall.
“I like, oh, most everything [Katie Kniss] stands for. She stands for pro-life. She stands for limited government. She stands for — just everything that I like. That's my gal,” says Bolin.
There are a handful of local races the entire state has its eyes on this election season. The 103rd District’s State House seat – which represents Leelanau County, plus portions of Benzie and Grand Traverse counties – is one of them.
In 2022, Rep. Betsy Coffia flipped that seat by a margin of fewer than 1,000 votes.
It was one of the closest State House races in Michigan, and Coffia is the first Democrat in decades to represent Traverse City in Lansing. But in a purple district, her seat is vulnerable. Three local Republicans are vying for a spot to challenge her, including Katie Kniss.
Kniss was born and raised in northern Michigan. She got into politics a few years ago. She says she’s been asked to run by members of the populist Michigan House Freedom Caucus.
“We have to beat Betsy Coffia at the end of the day, we have to take back the House majority in Lansing. That is priority number one– Well, priority number one is getting Trump back in office. Priority number two is taking the House Majority back in Lansing,” Kniss said.
Kniss wants to slash property taxes and bring back Right to Work, a policy that was repealed last year by the state legislature. It gives employees the ability to opt out of union dues and membership even if they’re in a unionized workplace. She’s pro-guns, pro-life and anti-DEI in schools.
Kniss is the youngest of the three Republicans running. She first ran for office in 2022 unsuccessfully. If anything, though, her outsider status is a bonus for lots of potential voters. Several people at the Minervas event said they were planning to cast their vote for her.
Tripp Garcia, one of Kniss’s opponents, spoke at the event, too. Garcia says he’s a lifelong blue-collar worker with time spent in local fire departments. He also wants to get rid of property taxes and bring back Right to Work. Plus, he talked about lowering the cost of living.
“One of the big things that I really want to try and fight for is lowering insurance, health insurance, car insurance– my gosh, it's just coming out of our pockets,” he said.
According to his campaign website, Garcia wants to expand Medicaid coverage and improve access to affordable prescription drugs.
The third candidate, Lisa Trombley, wasn’t at the event. But she’ll likely be Katie Kniss’s closest competitor in the primary.
Trombley says she and Kniss are aligned on a lot of issues like limiting government overreach, securing elections and protecting the Second Amendment.
So, what’s the main difference between the two? Trombley says it’s her decades of experience earned as a government contractor in Washington D.C before moving back to Michigan.
“I’m the only candidate with extensive experience at the scale of Lansing. I’ve worked with all of government, from EPA, to Health and Human Services, to DoD doing cybersecurity, national security, and quite frankly, even working with lobbyists,” Trombley said in a phone interview. “I had a lot of different roles, but at the end of the day my main job was making sure that government did what it was supposed to do.”
That’s led some voters to see Tombley as the establishment candidate. But she argues she brings valuable insider knowledge without the baggage of being a politician.
“I understand the good, the bad and the ugly with government,” she said. “I come armed with knowing where government can go off the rails, but I truly am an outsider. I have never been involved in politics.”
Trombley says she decided to get into politics after becoming involved in several nonprofits in northwest Michigan.
Both Trombley and Kniss say they have a shot at unseating Democratic Representative Betsy Coffia for a couple reasons.
For one, Kniss says Proposal 3, which enshrined abortion access in state law, brought more blue-leaning voters to the polls in 2022 – voters who might not show up this time around.
And Trombley says Coffia ran on a moderate platform last time but has signed off on liberal policies, which some constituents are frustrated by.
Rep. Coffia didn’t respond to requests for comment in time for this story.
But whichever Republican comes out on top in the primary, this will be one of the most closely watched races in the state.
It could mean the difference between maintaining a Democratic trifecta in state government or returning the State House to a Republican majority.
During the event at Minervas, though, one thing is clear. Local Republican voters are fired up about former President Trump’s re-election campaign. And many want someone who reflects him – with conservative, anti-establishment values – to represent them in the 103rd state House seat.
After the candidates are done speaking, Traverse-area resident Wally Juall stands up and says to the audience, “If we lose this one, the ball game – I guarantee – is over. It’s over. So it’s our responsibility now to fight, and if we don’t fight, we’re done.”
“And pray,” someone echoes back.
“And pray,” Juall responds. “Amen.”
Registered voters can cast their ballot early or vote next Tuesday, Aug. 6. Eligible residents can register to vote and cast their vote until 8 p.m. on election night.
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