Working Class Party Chooses 11 Candidates in Michigan

Working Class Party candidates for 2018. Back row: Gary Walkowicz, Sam Johnson, Mary Anne Hering, Logan Smith, Louis Palus, Andrea Kirby. Front row: Thomas Repasky, Larry Betts, Philip Kolody, Kathy Goodwin, Hali McEachern.

Results are in for the November 6 election

They are as follows, by order of district:

• Kathy Goodwin (5th Congressional District) – 12,645 votes or 4.57%
• Adrea Kirby (9th Congressional District) - 6,862 votes or 2.25%
• Gary Walkowicz (12th Congressional District) – 6,691 votes or 2.29%
• Sam Johnson (13th Congressional District) – 21,978 votes or 11.35%
• Philip Kolody (14th Congressional District) – 4,702 votes or 1.80%
• Hali McEachern (3rd State Senate District) – 2,089 votes or 2.93%
• Larry Betts (5th State Senate District) – 3,879 votes or 4.35%
• Thomas Repasky (18th State Senate District) – 2,954 votes or 2.34%
• Louis Palus (29th State Senate District) – 1,313 votes or 1.20%

And for State Board of Education, which is a state-wide vote:

• Mary Anne Hering – 125,171 votes or 1.74%
• Logan R. Smith – 90,670 votes or 1.26%

The Working Class Party issued a statement regarding these results – published here.

WCP issued the following statement when it nominated its candidates.

Our practical goal for the 2018 election was to have more candidates than in 2016, when we had only three. Although it was our first year on the ballot, we got almost a quarter of a million votes. This year, with 11 candidates, we hope to reach more people. Just as in 2016, our aim is to let people use their vote to say they want the working class to build its own party.

The basic ideas of the 2018 campaign are similar to those in 2016: that is, that working people need their own party, a party that would organize a fight to answer the problems working people face today: the lack of decent, well-paid jobs; lack of education for their children; lack of public services that could provide safe water and decent living conditions for all of us.

We said then, and we say now, that until the working class is ready to fight to put its hands on the wealth that today is concentrated in the grasping hands of a greedy capitalist class, there is no way to address these problems.

The other basic idea, common to both campaigns, is that the working class needs unity. We need to resist all those who try to divide us, whether they sit in the White House or in the boss’s office. The working class needs all its strength to fight – divisions weaken us.

We need our own party, a party of black and white, immigrant and native born, women and men, young and old. We need a working class party. 

The working class will not have the party it needs just because we put Working Class Party on the ballot. A working class party is something we will have to fight for. But with Working Class Party on the ballot, we can at least show that part of the population is fed up with being led around by the bosses’ two parties; a part of the working class wants its own party. With our vote, we can show each other how many of us there are. We can encourage all those others who think today they are alone.

These are our 11 candidates:

• Mary Anne Hering, for the State Board of Education
• Logan Smith, also for the State Board of Education 
• Kathy Goodwin in the 5th Congressional District 
• Andrea Kirby in the 9th Congressional District
• Gary Walkowicz, 12th Congressional District
• Sam Johnson, 13th Congressional District
• Philip Kolody, 14th Congressional District
• Hali McEachern, 3rd State Senate District
• Larry Betts, 5th State Senate District
• Thomas Repasky, 18th State Senate District
• Louis Palus, 29th State Senate District

We will continue to post information on this website.
But you can also contact us by email at: contact@WorkingClassParty.org
Or write us at: Working Class Party, Box 2033, Detroit MI 48202.