NPI alum Garlin Gilchrist II set to become the next Lieutenant Governor of Michigan

Last Tues­day, vot­ers in Michi­gan select­ed the Demo­c­ra­t­ic tick­et of Gretchen Whit­mer and Gar­lin Gilchrist II to lead the state dur­ing the next four years, end­ing near­ly a decade of Repub­li­can con­trol of the Great Lakes State.

Whit­mer and Gilchrist’s vic­to­ry means a lot to us here at the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute because Gar­lin served on our staff from 2007–2009 pri­or to mov­ing back east to take a posi­tion with the Cen­ter for Com­mu­ni­ty Change.

After serv­ing the Cen­ter for Com­mu­ni­ty Change as New Media Direc­tor, Gar­lin worked for MoveOn.org for sev­er­al years before join­ing the City of Detroit as Deputy Tech­nol­o­gy Direc­tor for Civic Com­mu­ni­ty Engage­ment and Direc­tor of Inno­va­tion & Emerg­ing Tech­nol­o­gy. Last year, he ran for Detroit City Clerk, and lost by just 1,482 votes. Ear­ly this year, he found­ed and served as the ini­tial Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan’s Cen­ter for Social Media Responsibility.

A few weeks ago, Demo­c­ra­t­ic guber­na­to­r­i­al nom­i­nee Gretchen Whit­mer asked Gar­lin to be her run­ning mate. He accept­ed. The Whitmer/Gilchrist tick­et has so far received 53.34% of the vote in Michi­gan’s gen­er­al elec­tion (2,256,791 votes).

A dis­cern­ing thinker and gift­ed writer, Gar­lin authored many posts here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate while a fel­low and Senior Pol­i­cy Ana­lyst (Tech­nol­o­gy) — like this one cham­pi­oning uni­ver­sal broad­band. We are very thank­ful for his con­tri­bu­tions to our work dur­ing his time on staff, and we are proud to be asso­ci­at­ed with him.

Gar­lin and his wife Ellen have two twins: Gar­lin Gilchrist III and Emi­ly Grace.

We’ve always believed Gar­lin would make a great elect­ed leader one day.

We’re thrilled that Gretchen Whit­mer select­ed him to be her run­ning mate and that the vot­ers of Michi­gan have cho­sen the two of them to lead.

Soon all of Michi­gan will ben­e­fit from Gar­lin’s lead­er­ship abilities.

As in most states, the Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor of Michi­gan has three prin­ci­pal responsibilities.

The L.G. serves as Act­ing Gov­er­nor when the Gov­er­nor is out of state, pre­sides over the State Sen­ate, and suc­ceeds the Gov­er­nor in the event they become unable to serve due to death or incapacitation.

Statewide offices in Michi­gan, includ­ing Gov­er­nor and Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor, are lim­it­ed to two con­sec­u­tive two-year terms.

In Wash­ing­ton, the Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor is elect­ed sep­a­rate­ly from the Gov­er­nor by the vot­ers, but in many oth­er states, like Michi­gan, the two posi­tions are paired togeth­er just as the U.S. Pres­i­den­cy and Vice Pres­i­den­cy are.

We can’t wait to see Gar­lin in action as the pre­sid­ing offi­cer of the Repub­li­can-dom­i­nat­ed (for now, any­way) Michi­gan State Sen­ate. Michi­gan’s Sen­ate, inci­den­tal­ly, is one of just a few full time state leg­isla­tive bod­ies in the Unit­ed States.

Of all of the results of last Tues­day’s elec­tion, I think this one just has to be our favorite result from beyond the Pacif­ic North­west, our home turf.

It’s so won­der­ful to see one of our own receive the oppor­tu­ni­ty to gov­ern. Con­grat­u­la­tions to Gov­er­nor-elect Gretchen Whit­mer and Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor-elect Gar­lin Gilchrist II. Your elec­tion means that Michi­gan can final­ly move past the dis­as­trous Rick Sny­der era. We wish you all the best as you take office.