The Grand Rapids Herald

Michigan state Democrats whose districts include Grand Rapids are allegedly “bullying” and threatening challengers from their own party into ending their campaigns in a push for uncontested primary elections, several office-seekers told The Grand Rapids Herald.

The pressure campaign has allegedly reached at least three local Democrats running for state office against incumbent electeds. Each candidate expressed concern for the impact on democracy posed by this behind-the-scenes jockeying.

Ivan Diaz

Former Kent County Commissioner Ivan Diaz is running for state Senate District 29, which current House Rep. Phil Skaggs is also vying for. That district includes Grand Rapids along with parts of Wyoming and Kentwood.

Diaz told The Herald he was subject to threats and intimidation from Rep. Skaggs’s office after launching his Senate campaign in 2023.

After he received a personal endorsement from Guillermo Cisneros, President and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (HCOC), a lobbyist working with Rep. Skaggs threatened to pull support for a pending $5 million grant for a new HCOC headquarters building if the group continued to support Diaz. Diaz said he responded by removing his social media posts touting the endorsement for fear of harming his community.

“We took down the posts because we didn’t want to damage the chamber,” Diaz said. “That was the biggest indication that I got that these establishment politicians were going to do everything in their power to ensure that somebody like me wasn’t elected.”

Diaz claimed such tactics are growing more common in state races and threaten the integrity of party primary races.

“It’s very clear that the entire community knows the antics that Skaggs uses corruptly by using his power in the state legislature to get everything he wants,” Diaz said. “It’s not a matter of somebody not knowing these things, it’s a question or a matter of somebody just choosing to willfully ignore them, because again, they don’t want to have outsiders coming into the system that are openly campaigning on changing the system.”

He also claimed state Democrats apply pressure on local news outlets to keep them from reporting on their behind-the-scenes moves.

“It’s this culture of intimidation and culture of corruption that people are sick of,” he said. “We don’t have many media organizations in the area who are willing to actually tell these stories.”

By campaigning for State Senate, Diaz said he hopes to upset the balance of power that continues to push people like him out of positions of authority.

“It’s my hope that in the next couple of years, perhaps we’ll be able to bring down this culture, this political mafia where a handful of politicians have so much power that they basically coerce entire communities into remaining silent,” Diaz said.

Rickie Kreuzer is running for state Senate in District 30, which includes Grand Rapids, Walker, and Ada. That race has him pitted against current state Rep. Carol Glanville.

Kreuzer told The Herald he has been subject to “reputational threats” and intimidation from the offices of both Reps. Glanville and Skaggs after launching his campaign. After their conversations devolved into name calling and mudslinging, Kreuzer said he was offered the opportunity to name a political price in exchange for his decision to drop out of the race, which he declined.

“When they asked me to drop out they said ‘ask for the moon’ because they want you out so bad you could probably get anything,” he said.

Kreuzer went public with many of the threats he received via his campaign Facebook page, likening them to “bullying” and a coordinated takedown of his campaign.

“They’re just throwing a bomb on the party, needlessly so,” Kreuzer said. “I think that could really be divisive, cause a lot of damage and push marginalized communities out.”

“I have tried to work with them, and they have not showed up in any meaningful way,” he added of Reps. Skaggs and Glanville. “They just tried to push us aside.” 

Abbie Groff-Blaszak, who is running for Senate District 29 against Diaz and Rep. Skaggs, also shared a public Facebook post in which she called out Rep. Skaggs for pressuring her against continuing to seek office.

“You will have no support, no endorsements and will raise no money,” she described one of Rep. Skagg’s threats. “You’re gonna be all alone out there—you’re not getting anyone you thought (to support you). No one even knows your name.”

Groff-Blaszak also alluded to the fact that she was offered a political price in exchange for her decision to bow out of the race.

“They asked if I would be willing to drop out in exchange for ‘a place to land,’” she wrote. “They argued that my candidacy wasted money and resources that should be spent on ‘more important campaigns.’ One shared that Phil had offered them a job in Lansing for trying to convince me to drop out.”

She added that the tactics used are leveraging a public perception that politics is a “broken” system.

“Like any system, politics is not broken,” she wrote. “Politics is working exactly as it was designed to work: to consolidate power, perspective and possibility. We cannot rebuild the political system in a way that works for all of us if we can’t be honest about what’s going on and how it has to change. We can’t have a fair and free democracy when the status quo is unchecked backroom politicking.”

Groff-Blaszak declined comment when reached by The Herald regarding her post.

Neither Rep. Skaggs nor Rep. Glanville responded to a request for comment from The Herald about the accusations.

Write to jackson@grherald.com.