MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – Voters in Michigan’s 109th District have elected Democratic candidate Anna Aho Rink to represent them at the state capitol.
She spoke with WZMQ 19 Wednesday with some takeaways on the race and her hopes for the future.
“It has been a privledge to work and live in this community that I’ve grew up loving,” she said. “To be able to fight for it on this whole new level is exciting to me.”
The former healthcare worker began looking at a campaign run when the Marquette Planned Parenthood shut its doors in 2025, due to violations of the president’s DEI executive order in the beginning of his term. Now, Aho Rink looks to use her healthcare experience to push back in Lansing.
“Because of the state of our healthcare system, everyone working in healthcare now has to be aware of healthcare policy,” she explained. “You see every day how the system is broken and can be made better. My hope is to bring that experience into the legislative body.”
In a battle against Republican Incumbent Karl Bohnak, she took the seat by over three thousand votes. She says heavy amounts of negative election ads this year may have turned the tide.
“People are tired of the disingenous comments and things that don’t matter to them,” she said. “Democrats did a really good job as a group to focus on what mattered to people in our districts, and I think that was a struggle to the Republican party as a whole.”
Aho Rink is one of many across the nation to flip districts and overtake incumbent republicans this election. She says says her next plans are to head to Lansing later this week to begin work as early as she can.
