Six interesting stories and people running for Congress

History was not made at last week’s filing deadline. Lansing’s Elyon Badger did not turn in the 1,000 signatures needed to make the August ballot in the 7th Congressional District.

Lansing already has plenty of options in the Democratic primary, of course, but none of them walk around in public with a black badger fursuit head.

In fact, no Michigan congressional candidate may be as interesting Samuel Smeltzer (aka Elyon Badger), but that doesn’t mean there aren’t interesting stories or people running across the state.

Quite the opposite. Here are six I found while researching for our MIRS Election Guide and Almanac.

1. If there’s been another non-binary congressional candidate in the 25 years I’ve covered in Michigan politics, it’s escaped my brain.

I will say with 100 percent certainty that Jaime Hill, a 45-year-old physician assistant at Corewell Health is the first congressional candidate to dye their hair in a cool rainbow swoosh. I WOULD have remembered that.

Hill is running in the rural, mid-Michigan  2nd congressional district as a Democrat against U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar.

2. Back in 1986, a 23-year-old Hope College student named Phillip Tanis ran and won an election to become the mayor of the city of Holland. At the time, he was the youngest mayor of a U.S. city in history. That distinction doesn’t stand anymore. An 18-year-old named Michael Sessions eclipsed that mark in 2005 when elected Hillsdale’s mayor.

Tanis is pushing 63 now and says he wants to give Republicans in West Michigan an alternative to U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga in the 4th District.

3. If you’ve ever seen Jar Head Salsa at a specialty market, you have Tom Smith to thank. Smith is the father of retired Gunnery Sergeant David Smith, who prepared meals for his squad of Marines back in the day. The story goes that David Smith didn’t like the salsa the military sent his way, so he invented his own.

His Marine buddies loved it. So, when David Smith retired from service, he worked with Dad to can and sell it.  Apparently, it’s got a unique lemon-lime base as opposed to a traditional tomato base.

Anyway, Tom Smith is now running for Congress as a Republican in the Flint/Tri-Cities-based 8th Congressional District.

4. Dr. Anil Kumar is the only candidate I know to not only switch party affiliations during an election cycle, but also districts.

The elected Democratic Wayne State University Governor donated to Mike Duggan’s gubernatorial campaign around the same time he was running as a Democrat in the competitive Macomb County 10th District.

In December, he dropped out of that race, only to get back into the 11th District race two months later as an independent. He said, “I like being a Democrat. I like the ideology. I am not so sure about the followers.”

5. Matthew DenOtter used his connections to have U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman host a fundraiser for his quixotic 2022 congressional run in a dark blue Southeast Michigan Congressional seat in 2022.

This year, the molecular diagnostic specialist is using a Boyne City address and is primarying Bergman in the U.P./Up North-based 1st Congressional district. I’m told the two didn’t have a falling out, that DenOtter simply feels that it’s time for a change in leadership.

One conspiracy theory is that Team Bergman is using DenOtter as a plant to siphon away anti-Bergman votes from a third-candidate, U.S. Army veteran Justin Michal. The DenOtter people insist that is not the case.

6. This guy may conflict with the constitutional ban (Article XI, Section 8) on crooks serving in office, but if he’s free and clear to run, Taras “T.P.” Nykoriak has a heck of a resume.

About 10 years ago, he made headlines for being convicted and sentenced to 16 months in federal prison for stealing U.S. savings bonds from a church. A couple of years ago, before he decided to run for the 13th Congressional district — this perennial candidate who claimed in 2014 that he fought with Ukraine against Russia — ran for … sheriff, of course.

(Kyle Melinn is the editor of the Capitol news service MIRS. You can email him at melinnky@gmail.com.)