Our Favorite Progressive Candidates in 2026 - Katrina Manetta, Michigan House of Representatives District 58

At a time when most state legislatures are dominated by a single party, Michigan stands out. In 2022, Democrats flipped control of the House of Representatives after 12 years of Republican control. However, Republicans re-gained the House in 2024 by flipping four seats. Now in 2026, if Democrats flip four seats, they will control not only the House but also the Senate (depending on the results in November).

District 58 is one of the swingiest districts in Michigan. Currently running is Katrina Manetta (she/her), a working class organizer. Katrina has a history of activism, from going to Washington DC to lobby for anti-human trafficking bills, to co-founding her county’s Indivisible chapter, Macomb Defenders Rising, to attending Public Service Commission hearings to push back on corporate data center deals that benefit the corporation over residents. Katrina’s campaign focuses on three areas: affordability of utilities, affordability of health care, and keeping corporate money out of political campaigns.

Where are you based?
Shelby Township, Michigan, in Macomb County. I was born and raised here; I went through Utica schools, and I still live in the house I grew up in. This community shaped who I am.

What position are you running for?
Michigan State Representative in House District 58, which covers Shelby Township, Utica, Sterling Heights, and Warren. The seat is currently held by a Republican, and it is one of the most flippable districts in Michigan; the path to a Democratic majority in our state House runs through Macomb.

How would you briefly summarize your platform?
Government can and should work for everyday people, and right now it does not. My platform comes down to affordability and accountability. Affordability means lowering utility bills by taking on the monopolies that keep raising rates, and it means healthcare you can actually afford to use. Accountability means a government that answers to voters instead of donors; my campaign takes no corporate PAC, utility, or dark money, because I cannot take on the industries profiting from these problems while they help fund my campaign. I will also defend reproductive freedom and workers' rights to bargain, because both are about who holds power in this state.

What inspired you to run?
Honestly, my own life. My mom has been the full-time caregiver for my disabled aunt since I was five years old, so I grew up watching what it takes to hold a family together inside systems that weren't built for working people. I lost my sister to late-stage cancer because she didn't have health insurance and waited too long to go to the hospital. And for the last 8 years, I waited tables in this district, budgeting week to week and watching most of my customers do the same.

Building Macomb Defenders Rising is what turned all of that into running. I kept seeing people in this district doing everything right and still getting passed over, while Lansing answered to everybody but them. At some point, organizing from the outside wasn't enough, and the work needed somebody to carry it inside. The community asked me to run because of what we built together.

What change are you hoping to bring to your district and country?
I want this to be a district where working hard is enough again: where you can cover the bills, see a doctor without doing math first, and buy a home in the community you grew up in. I am 32 and I cannot afford to buy a house in my own hometown, and most of my friends cannot either. Flipping this seat also helps flip the Michigan House, and that changes what is possible for the whole state. And I want young women to look at this race and see that a waitress and community organizer can do this, and then run themselves. Somebody made room for me; I intend to keep making that room.

What do you consider to be your major accomplishments so far?
In about a year, I grew Macomb Defenders Rising to almost 1,600 members with a 24-person leadership team, and we turned that energy into results: we helped rescind the 287(g) immigration enforcement agreement in Center Line, and when federal SNAP cuts hit, we created a resource to help neighbors find food. On the campaign side, I united the Democratic field by bringing my former primary opponent onto the team, and we have earned more than 70 endorsements, including EMILYs List, the Working Families Party, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, MEA, the Michigan Nurses Association, the AFL-CIO, UAW Region 1, AFSCME Michigan, the United Steelworkers, IBEW Local 58, the Michigan Building Trades Council, Michigan LCV, Sierra Club Southeast Michigan, Equality Michigan, Emgage, CAIR, the Committee to Protect Health Care, and state legislators and community leaders across Southeast Michigan. All of it without a dollar of corporate money.

What do you feel are the most important issues right now, why, and how do you plan to tackle them?
The cost of living is the one I hear at every door. Food, utilities, and housing are all going up at once, and paychecks are not keeping up. Utility bills are the sharpest piece of it, so I will push for a rate freeze and real ratepayer protection.

Healthcare is right behind it. People here are skipping doctor visits because the copay is too high, and premiums jumped when the federal ACA tax credits lapsed. I will work to fully fund Medicaid, lower prescription costs, and expand state Medicaid coverage of abortion, because access should never be determined by income.

Underneath both is money in politics. You cannot fix utility rates or healthcare while the people making the decisions are funded by the industries profiting from the problem, which is why closing that loop is where the rest of the work starts. And with everything happening federally, Michigan has to hold the line on voting rights and the basic dignity of our immigrant neighbors. I have been doing that work in Macomb for 2twoyears already; I plan to keep doing it in Lansing.

How would you hope to bridge the divide with your constituents to better unite Americans?
I believe most people want the same things: safe neighborhoods, bills they can afford, and leaders who tell the truth. The division gets manufactured from the top, because it is profitable for somebody. My answer starts with listening. I have knocked on doors across this district for people of every political stripe, and when you start with what someone is actually living instead of a label, the conversation changes.

I am also not afraid of tough conversations; in my experience, that is usually where the deal that moves things forward gets made. I will compromise where needed to get results, and I will never back down on people's rights. And I plan to be available in a way people here are not used to. I will come directly to my constituents instead of waiting for them to find me. I will get information out so people actually know what is happening in Lansing. I will meet people where they are and pull them with us. The most powerful response to extremism is participation.

How do you see your unique identity and background to be an asset in office?
Most of the people writing Michigan's laws have never had to depend on tips to make rent, and I come from a caregiving family, so I know what these systems ask of working people because I have lived it. I have completely volunteered my time over the past year and a half without the expectation of a paycheck, because I just cared about my community, and now I am running this campaign unemployed because I didn't expect to be laid off. This is the life of a working-class candidate. It's not easy, but I'm cutting my own budget wherever I can to make this work, and running a state budget takes the same discipline: knowing what working families actually need to thrive, funding that first, and standing up for the people who could use a hand instead of the corporations that don't need one.

The deeper asset comes from what I survived, because it shaped exactly how I plan to govern. I went through a period of loss and grief that taught me how to sit in some of the most uncomfortable conversations and emotions a human can face. And that is exactly how you move from tough to a win, which is what legislating really is: staying in the room when the conversation gets hard, until it turns into something that helps people. I also have firsthand experience with narcissism from a past relationship, and it taught me how easily justifications can wear away at your own values, because for years I kept accepting less. That matters in Lansing, because that is exactly how good people end up owned: one small justification at a time that pushes the norm into us expecting less of our government. I did a lot of work to understand what I went through, and I learned my lessons. Sometimes compromise works, and sometimes it doesn't, and I can tell the difference now. I know how to move people without stepping on toes, and I know which lines should never move; people's rights are one of them. Most of all, I cannot and will not be bought. When you have rebuilt your life from loss, you stop being afraid of powerful people; there is not much left to threaten you with.

I will walk into Lansing owing nothing to anybody except the people of HD 58.

What is your motto in life?
Creating a world where nobody is left behind. My dad used to tell me that was the world he wanted, and I heard it from him years before I ever thought about politics. He is gone now, so for me this is about following his legacy and actually taking action on it. That is what this campaign is.

Where can we find out more about you?
katrinamanetta.com, and @katrinamanetta on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and Threads.
Instagram: @katrinamanetta
Facebook: Katrina Manetta for State Representative
Bluesky: Katrina Manetta
Threads: @katrinamanetta