MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. (WZMQ) – As political and business leaders from across Michigan gathered on Mackinac Island this week for conversations about bipartisanship and the state’s future, one Upper Peninsula candidate spent the day making the case that rural communities need a stronger voice in Lansing.
Anna Aho Rink, the Democrat running for Michigan’s 109th House District, said she came to the Mackinac Policy Conference not only to introduce herself to statewide leaders, but also to hear how Democrats plan to invest in the Upper Peninsula and how she can help shape that conversation moving forward.
Rink, a longtime physician assistant from Marquette, is running to flip the district back to Democratic control after Republicans won the seat in 2024, ending decades of Democratic representation in the central Upper Peninsula district.
During an interview with WZMQ 19 News, Rink said the issues dominating conversations at the conference — affordability, economic growth, infrastructure, and workforce retention — are the same challenges many families are dealing with across the U.P.
“Gas prices have gone up, the cost of food has gone up, energy prices going up, and people are struggling to find jobs, good-paying, reliable jobs that pay the bills for all of those things,” Rink said. “And so I am really in it to put in the strongest fight for the people of this district that I love so much.”
Before launching her campaign, Rink spent nearly 17 years working at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Marquette before it closed last year. She said she decided to run after years of working directly with patients across the Upper Peninsula and watching many struggle with rising costs and shrinking access to healthcare. The office had served patients from across the Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin.
She said the closure exposed just how fragile rural healthcare access can be.
“So many people came together immediately to try to see what we could do to help recreate that care and fill in those care gaps,” Rink said. “But it never should have been a problem in the first place. People should not be left without care, not anywhere in this state.”
Rink said that experience ultimately pushed her toward public office, arguing rural communities need leaders with firsthand experience navigating the challenges residents face daily.
Much of her campaign is centered around keeping younger generations in the Upper Peninsula long term.
“When I talk to folks around my district, a lot of people of retirement age, they’re like, ‘We had so much success here. We were able to raise our families here, and we want them to stay here,” Rink said. “Even hearing from graduating seniors in high school or college-age folks, they say this is such a great place and want to stay here, but finding a job is a real struggle.”
Rink said stronger investment in schools, infrastructure and economic development is necessary to create long-term stability in the region.
“We need to pull jobs into the area, really good-paying, lasting jobs,” she said.
The Mackinac Policy Conference this year has centered heavily around the theme “Quest for Common Ground,” with speakers from both parties emphasizing the need to reconnect with voters frustrated by political division.
Rink said Democrats also need to spend more time listening to rural communities, especially after losing ground in districts like the 109th during the 2024 election cycle.
One issue she specifically pointed to was energy policy.
Rink said many U.P. residents support clean energy goals in principle but remain concerned about rising utility costs and the realities of implementing energy transitions in a rural region with long travel distances and harsh winters. She acknowledged the mistakes of Democrats in the past and emphasized her plans to vote for the people in her district.
“Democrats learned the importance of listening to people in the district and meeting people where they are,” Rink said. “It is not gonna fly to tow the party line and vote with the party every single time. You actually need to listen to the people in your home district.”
Rink also acknowledged her background with Planned Parenthood could be polarizing for some voters in a politically mixed district, but said her approach has always been centered on caring for people regardless of political affiliation.
“I worked at Planned Parenthood because it aligns very much with my values of caring for people and meeting them where they are, no matter what,” Rink said. “I don’t even care what side of the aisle you stand on. I am here to be your representative.”
With control of the Michigan House expected to be one of the biggest political battlegrounds in 2026, both parties are expected to heavily target the 109th District as Democrats attempt to regain the majority in Lansing.
