Benzie, Mason, and Oceana Counties, as well as parts of Muskegon and Manistee Counties, make up Michigan Senate District 32 (SD-32). This November, the district will elect a new state senator, since incumbent Jon Bumstead (R-Newaygo) is ineligible for another term. Voters will choose between Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole, the Republican candidate, and newcomer Rebecca Amidon, the Democratic candidate.
The ‘Gander interviewed Amidon about the issues central to her campaign: affordable childcare, bipartisanship, supporting workers’ unions, and conservation. Cole filled out a Likert scale questionnaire on iVoterGuide, a Judeo-Christian faith-based candidate research organization, detailing several of his beliefs on the same issues.
Many of Cole’s stances on key issues offer a far-right contrast to Amidon’s.
Different futures for reproductive rights under Amidon, Cole
In 2021, Amidon attended a reproductive rights rally at Manistee City Hall, where she said that being pro-choice doesn’t mean being pro-abortion, but rather “pro-a woman’s right to choose her own path.”
In a second interview with The ‘Gander, Amidon expanded on this position.
“I believe that all women should be able to make choices about their own body and their own healthcare,” she said. “I think we should trust women to know what is the right thing to do for them, and I also believe that government doesn’t have a role to play in that and that it should be between a woman and her doctor and her spiritual or religious advisor.”
The first item on Cole’s iVoterGuide questionnaire reads, “Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive taxpayer funds from federal, state, or local governments (including Title X grants).” Cole responded “Strongly Agree” and explained that “Many taxpayers, including myself, have deeply held moral and religious objections to abortions.” He added that the US should instead be “supporting life” by funding “prenatal care and maternal health.”
However, Planned Parenthood’s annual report for 2025 showed that just 4% of medical services it provided were abortion services. STI testing and treatment, contraception, and cancer screenings made up most of the remaining 96%. Defunding the organization would complicate access to those services. In 2025 alone, Planned Parenthood provided 5.5 million STI tests and treatments and 389,000 cancer screenings and prevention services.
Cole’s other answers on the subject cement his anti-choice position. He said that elective abortions should only be permitted to protect the life of the mother, agreed that “human life deserves legal protection from conception until natural death,” and affirmed that human embryos produced by artificial means should be protected from destruction.
However, since the fall of Roe v. Wade, some medical providers have grown increasingly hesitant to provide life-saving care for pregnant people, fearing that a legal investigation would find them liable for the death of the fetus. Meanwhile, banning the destruction of embryos could effectively end In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and the hopes of the 100,000 sets of parents in the US who make use of it per year.
Amidon was the Vice Chair of the Manistee County Democratic Party when Roe v. Wade was overturned. At the time, reassurances were made that medical procedures like abortions could take place if the life of the mother was at risk. However, Amidon noticed a quick rise in debates over what qualified as “at risk.”
“We should just listen to women, and that’s why I will always fight to ensure that women’s voices are heard and that they have the rights that they should have,” she said.
Cole takes aim at LGBTQ+ rights
Further down the questionnaire, Cole said he disagreed with the statement “Individuals and businesses should be required to provide services even if it would violate their moral and/or religious beliefs.” He commented that although “civil rights protections against discrimination should be respected …no businesses should be forced to violate their sincerely held moral or religious beliefs.”
However, “religious freedom” legislation has been criticized for providing a legal excuse to discriminate against LGBTQ+ Americans. This includes laws allowing child placement agencies to refuse to provide adoption and foster care services to individuals based on the employees’ or executives’religious beliefs.
Cole also agreed with the following statement in the questionnaire:“Marriage is a God-ordained, sacred and legal union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to alter this definition.” He commented that as a person of faith, he believes the “biblical description of marriage.”
Since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, all 50 states plus Washington, DC legally recognize marriage equality. The Obergefell ruling was supplemented by the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022.
Amidon supports both.
“Everyone has a fundamental right to live their authentic lives and to love who they want to love,” she said. “We want to make sure that we have safe protections in our state and in our country to ensure that families that look all different ways are safe and protected.”
Finally, Cole used familiar conservative talking points and verbiage in the questionnaire to decry “biological males” participating in “women [sic] sports” and entering “women’s locker rooms, bathrooms, or any other place where a woman’s privacy and safety have been historically protected.”
On the other hand, Amidon stated that “all trans kids deserve to be treated with dignity, safety, and respect,” so long as fairness is considered in sports.
“We should create policies that are evidence-based and very transparent, and that are designed to protect all young athletes from discrimination or harm,” Amidon said.
SD-32 candidates speak on climate change
Near the end of Cole’s questionnaire, he said he disagrees with the statement, “Man-made climate change is a global threat and requires urgent political action.” He said, “We can protect our environment without a ‘one size fits all’ government mandates [sic].” He also qualified supporting “responsible environmental policies” with the necessity for “protecting affordability, energy reliability, and economic growth.”
There is an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community that man-made climate change is real, that it constitutes a major threat to people’s health, and that it is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Combating it will cost $5.5 trillion annually, an expensive but potentially species-saving endeavor, according to experts.
Amidon was open to moving away from fossil fuels, saying that she wanted to see progress on the fight against climate change and that the shift to cleaner energy would benefit the environment and humanity.At the same time, she emphasized that the transition to clean energy should ensure that Michiganders who work in other energy industries aren’t left behind.
“We don’t want to leave them unemployed,” she said. “We need to be able to have some type of workforce education for them to be able to shift.”
The midterm election will be held on November 3. Click here to check your voter registration, see your ballot, and get ready to vote.
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