ESCANABA — Three candidates who seek to represent the Upper Peninsula at the state level by serving the 108th District in the Michigan House of Representatives were in Escanaba Wednesday for a voter forum at Escanaba’s city hall.

The three candidates present were currently-seated Representative Dave Prestin (R) and challengers Christiana Reynolds (D) and Kayla Wikstrom (Libertarian).

Each of the three candidates used their opening remarks and the first question — which asked what each candidate could bring to the position that was unique — as an opportunity to introduce themselves.

Prestin referenced his prior legislative work, his purchase of the Cedar River Plaza, his time as a county commissioner and his work as an EMT. He pointed to times he “pushed back” on legislation that he felt was harmful to the Upper Peninsula, such as statewide septic and energy reform.

“My life has been such up here of giving back to the Upper Peninsula and trying to leverage my knowledge, and I continue to do that down in Lansing, making differences, pushing back on things that are antithetical to the U.P., that will essentially hurt us in the end,” he said.

Reynolds pointed to her being a teacher and mother as reason she would be equipped to address issues like teacher shortages. She said her priorities in office would by childcare, housing, education, and the economy.

“I am running so that our area can realize its potential. I’m deeply invested in our area and my dream is to create a U.P. that’s full of opportunity for all of our residents especially our young people,” she said.

Wikstrom described herself as a foster care survivor and two-time teen mother who avoided falling through the cracks to a nurse. She repeatedly referenced the high rate of infants born addicted to drugs and the incarceration of non-violent offenders in her statements, credited God and the Bible for her running for office, and said that her primary objective would be the separation of the U.P. from the rest of Michigan.

“Every single person who goes down to Lansing from the U.P. should have the number one objective of making the U.P. it’s own state. We literally have zero representation down there. We get four representatives and one senator, maybe two. We need to be our own state and that should be the number one objective and that’s my number on objective. Individual liberties and freeing the Upper Peninsula,” she said in her opening statement.

An early question for the candidates was how they would address the shortage of available housing through legislation.

Reynolds said that increasing the housing supply would require looking at multi-family options and not just single-family homes and for the state to support localities in their efforts to create affordable housing.

“I love our historic areas, our historic single-family homes. I think it’s iconic for the 180. I live in one of those historic homes — but single-family homes is not for everyone. So we also need to look at the diversity of housing,” she said.

Prestin argued that ending energy optimization code requirements for things like windows, insulation, and doors would help bring down the cost of new construction. He also said that workforce availability and inflation were hinderances to increasing the housing supply.

“When you’re talking about putting up a home right now, between the financing, bringing in the contractor to build the home, and then materials that are used in the home, a lot of builders right now are upside down on the home’s value on the open market. You can’t affordably build anymore,” he said.

Wikstrom said she hadn’t thought about housing as an issue.

“I guess I didn’t really realize that there was a major housing crisis,” she said.

Wikstrom went on to say that if the cost of housing was a concern it was an economic issue that was “outside, really, a legislature’s position,” that it may come down to “the quality of people in the community,” and that it was a “luxury to fight about” rather than focusing on prisons and addiction.

When the line of questioning shifted to issues in the prison system and how to solve them, Wikstrom said her primary focus was on how to have fewer prisoners.

“I don’t understand how you put people in a prison cell who are not a threat to themselves or anyone else in society. I don’t know how you put people in jail when they’ve never been convicted of a crime. You know, how are you innocent until proven guilty? That doesn’t actually work in our system. So I think that we even lock up people who are not a threat to society (and that) is a huge part of our issue,” she said.

Prestin said the corrections system was in crisis, that officers were being regularly assaulted, and that if something was not done it was “just a matter of time” before there was an issue that would require multiple law enforcement jurisdictions to handle.

“At the end of the day, these corrections officers need some certainty in their career because it’s really not being looked at as a career anymore. We definitely need to consider and vote back in the pension system for them, a look at health care and a considerable step up in pay,” he said.

Reynolds agreed that pay should be increased for corrections officers and the incarceration rate needed to be looked at.

“I think we really need to think about it holistically, from beginning to end, and then address it as we work through it,” she said.

One issue where the candidates differed was on the issue of abortion. Prestin said he was pro-life “unapologetically,” with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Wikstrom said she was pro-life but suggested that current abortion providers did not do enough to support women who had undergone the procedure, saying “the clothes hangers” were at Planned Parenthood.

Reynolds said she was “very pro-choice,” that the government should not be involved in conversations between women and their doctors, and credited Planned Parenthood with providing her with medical care that allowed her to have her second child.