A Conversation with Curtis Hertel, Newly Elected Chair of MI Dems
The Mason County Dems, at our March 6th meeting at Safe Harbor Credit Union, Community Room, were thrilled to hear from Curtis Hertel, new Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party.
Curtis came to our monthly in-person meeting via Zoom, filling in on short notice with our scheduled speaker unable to attend. He brought news of what is and will be happening with the Michigan Democratic Party.
He began with a recap, highlighting when the Democrats gained control of the Michigan legislature for the first time in 40 years in 2022, and also expressing disappointment in how the lame duck session closed 2024. But he underscored how Democrats have made people’s lives better in Michigan.
“We passed the largest tax cut for working families in the history of Michigan, brought 30,000 kids out of poverty, ended the retirement tax, expanded the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act, ended the 1931 abortion law,” Curtis cited. “We passed the first real gun safety laws in Michigan history, which was personally important to me because my son was at Michigan State during the shooting Feb. 13, 2023. He was walking into the union when gunfire rang out and he called me in that chaos. He recounted the fear as a parent listening on the other end of the line, and he told of the courage of the students who marched the next morning to the Capitol.
“While before they were treated with thoughts and prayers, they were now treated with actual action,” Curtis said. “Gun safety laws that included safe storage laws and background checks and extremist protection orders. Right now, the MSU college Democrats is the largest chapter in the country. It’s because they saw their work turn into action. That’s the spirit we need to bring to the Democratic Party across the state."
Curtis underscored that we are living in dangerous times. “We have a billionaire who is advising the president who has access to all our personal information. We are seeing people fired from the Veterans Administration who are supposed to be taking care of our veterans. We’ve seen the chaos and nonsense. I listened to two hours of absolute insanity this week, and I don't remember him [Trump] talking about helping people with the cost of living or any of the things that he said he was going to do. So, we've got to step up and fight back. And that's why I ran for chair of the Democratic Party.”
As someone who has given his life to the Democratic Party, Curtis said that he believes Democrats are a force for good in the world. “You're not in a social club," he told our group. "You do this because you care."
Curtis understands the need for more organizers on the ground working throughout rural Michigan to have those one-on-one conversations with people. “At the end of the day, how we win is with local candidates and people from our own communities. We need to run candidates in every single race, and we need to provide a basic level of support to all those candidates. That doesn't mean that we're going to fund everybody's campaign, but it does mean we should be providing training for fundraising, communications, and help on building a ground game."
On the job for just nine days, Curtis has been doing media interviews across the state. The party is also in the process of hiring new organizers, making sure we have the boots on the ground as we head into the next election. “2026 is unprecedented in Michigan history. I know we always say the most important election in Michigan history, but it’s an open Senate seat, open governor's race, Secretary of State, Attorney General, every seat in the state House and Senate.”
Curtis underscored his commitment to help get Democrats elected up and down the ballot. He also honored the work local county parties, and their members do on the ground. "The Democratic Party doesn't mean anything if we don't have people willing to knock on doors in every corner of the state, make phone calls, and be a part of the fight against what's happening in this country. If we’re not the party fighting for water affordability, fair wages, lowering the cost of housing and prescription drugs, there will be no party in this country fighting for those things."
He told our group that the National Republican Campaign Committee put out a message to their members to avoid holding in-person town halls, literally telling them not to talk to their constituents. The MI Democratic Party will be working with county parties on things like "No Show" town halls.
Curtis also addressed what we can do locally on a daily basis to break through the noise. “Protesting is good,” he said. “People need to see the anger that is out there. It’s important to call your legislators and tell them how you feel about what’s going. And it’s really important to listen. That's one thing Democrats must get better at and one of the reasons I'm doing an 83-county tour, to listen better.”
He continued: “Dr. King didn't march in liberal northern cities, he went down and tried to convince people who didn't agree with him, and I know this is hard to have these conversations, but conversations are the only thing that's ever changed anybody's mind. I think we must go out and have the tough conversations.”
Curtis also believes the Democratic Party must deprogram people that have been lied to and poisoned. “My son goes to Wayne State University. His college roommate asked him if I drink blood because I'm a Democrat," he said. "That's not a normal thing to think, but he thinks that because he has seen YouTube videos and a pyramid of disinformation that has taken the Democratic brand and destroyed what it is for working and young people in this country. We've got to fight back against that. We’ve got to compete in the spaces that we're not competing in. We're working to do it as a party in a strategic way.”
Our voice is missing in a conversation that is 100% funded by Russian oligarchs and foreign countries trying to divide this nation, Curtis cited. “If we don't compete, and we don't find our own space in those places, we will continue to lose tough elections. The consequences are too great. So, we're going to make investments to fight back against the pyramid of disinformation.”
As Curtis sees it, Dems lost the last election because of the way we started the campaign, by saying the economy worked for people. It doesn't. “In 1960, the average CEO made 50 times what their employee makes. Now it's 360 times. It has become harder to raise a family in America. This generation is the slowest generation to buy a car, to buy a house, to start a family. That's the frustration that real people live every day. I don't think we recognize it by trying to tell them that it was getting better. Yes, the stock market was getting better, and unemployment was down. But we must talk about the real pain people are experiencing.”
Quoting a line from the movie, The American President, “if you don't give people water, they’ll drink sand,” Curtis said Trump is the sand. “He's bullshit, nonsense and division. But we’ve got to give people water. That's the party that we are. We’ve got to go out and make that case to the people. I do feel like we missed that in the last election, and I don't think we can let that happen again. We lost people making less than $50,000 a year for the first time in our history. Those are the people that we fight for every single day. We've got to go out and make the case to them.”
Curtis also underscored his commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. He mentioned that he has a non-binary kid, and that “they are who they are the most of anybody I've ever met in my entire life. The government doesn't get to decide if they exist. Neither does the president. We're going to make sure everyone is protected and has the right to be who they are in this country.”
Sometime in the coming months Curtis will visit Mason County as part of his 83-county tour, to meet with local party officials and members. We will provide information on that and other news from the Michigan Democratic Party on our website.
