Aric Nesbitt on leading Senate Republicans in the minority

Aric Nesbitt is in an unfamiliar position leading Republicans in the Michigan Senate: minority leader.

Until January, his party had a nearly 40-year run in control of the chamber. And during his time as a lawmaker — six years in the House, four in the Senate — he had been in the majority. Now Nesbitt, 43, is a GOP standard-bearer as Democrats fully take power across all three branches of state government.

As a legislator, he has helped to rewrite the energy law, overhaul the auto insurance law and oversee Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 response. He was Michigan’s lottery commissioner between legislative stints and previously worked as a legislative and congressional aide and advocate for lower taxes. He has a master’s in international business from the Norwegian School of Economics and a bachelor’s in economics from Hillsdale College.

BY | DAVID EGGERT

 What was your upbringing like?

I grew up south of Lawton, Porter Township, on a sixth-generation dairy and grape farm (that supplies the local Welch’s plant). My family’s been farming in Southwest Michigan for generations but in the same township for six. ... Deep roots. My great-greatgreat-grandma built the rst fence in our township, the township I still live in, and that was to keep the deer out of her outdoor kitchen. ... I was the middle of ve kids. (Our names) all started with As, so that’s where Aric with an A comes from. ... I was kind of the one that all the siblings could get along with, the peacemaker. ... ... If we’re going to take this car to school in the morning, we’d have to get up at 5:30 and do morning chores. ... Growing up, I’d read a lot of biographies. That was always my thing. Instead of Hardy Boys, I’d be reading Oliver North’s “Under Fire” or something. My parents were pretty apolitical, but they’d always vote. They weren’t really involved in any organized political stu , but my dad would always say, “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.” So my dad complained a lot. Dad served three terms in Vietnam. He’d always nd a way to get an interest in each of the kids.

 What was your interest?

With me, I was kind of always interested in current events and politics and what’s going on. All of a sudden I saw my dad ordering the National Review, The Washington Times National Weekly edition. He’d always take the opposite side or position of whatever I had. I didn’t realize it until I was probably later in high school that he was just trying

Rumblings

to make me a little stronger on the debate side. It wasn’t about his position. It was about how do you strengthen your own position, the beliefs that you have. ... My dad passed away three years ago. It was an Agent Orange presumption. It was a lung cancer. Figured it was Agent Orange coming back to kiss him 50 years later.

 Why did you run for o ce?

In 2010, I decided I had something to add because I thought Michigan was heading in the wrong direction. ... I thought I could add something to restart the economy. ... We worked with Gov. (Rick) Snyder to lower taxes, to eliminate the old Michigan business tax, scrap thousands of rules and regulations, concentrate on getting Michigan’s scal house in order, eliminate the $2 billion de cit, made the tough decisions to balance the budget and pay down long-term debt.

 What is the path back for Republicans?

At the end of the day, Michigan is a center-right state, both economically, culturally. The issues that we win back on are very just meat-and-potatolike. Don’t spend more that you have. Provide tax relief to all Michigan small businesses and workers. ...

Let’s create a system where we’re looking forwards instead of always backwards on things, such as paying down long-term debt that helps us balance budgets in the future and prioritize things such as infrastructure, education and law enforcement. ...

Let’s actually have expectations. Let’s actually have goals that third-graders should be able to read by third grade.

Let’s say that we have expectations in schools for basic reading, for math and writing instead of getting into some of this woke social policies that we’ve seen. ... It’s about empowering the individual instead of the government. It’s empowering entrepreneurs and challenging entrepreneurs to invest and grow in the state instead of closing them down. It’s really looking at what are those areas of getting back to basics on infrastructure, education, law enforcement, the economy and budgets. The Democrats knew that last year. They knew we’d win on all those issues. ... They spent tens of millions of dollars scaring people on that abortion issue.

 Minority Republicans recently caught Democrats unaware and adjourned session before an expected vote on major tax legislation. The majority responded by removing two Republicans from committees and eliminating one’s leadership position. It also threatened to end the longstanding requirement that there be a recorded roll-call vote to give a bill two-thirds support for immediate e ect, which would diminish Republicans’ negotiating leverage. What is your reaction?

Change the rules before you’re even out of the rst inning — it’s just not the right way to play the game. ... You should sit down with the other side and actually negotiate those rules. (When Democrats surprised Republicans and adjourned in 2021 during votes on voting bills, he said, then-Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey acknowledged being caught at-footed and the Senate voted the next day.) This goes back as old as legislative bodies go. (He said he used the maneuver in part because House members, including Republicans, were blocked from giving speeches on the tax bill that day before it came to the Senate.) The rules force you to actually sit down with the other side and negotiate. That’s not a bad thing. Is that a bad thing? Senate Resolution 12 (to change immediate e ect voting) is a nuclear option. Why do that? The last four years we negotiated. We got IE on some stu , didn’t on other things. On a policy bill they just become law the next year. On a budget bill, if both sides are serious about the negotiation, you usually get there.