Trump Michigan Campaign Leader Running for U.S. Senate

Lena Epstein, a businesswoman from Bloomfield Hills who co-chaired President Donald Trump’s Michigan campaign, has announced that she will seek the Republican nomination for the right to challenge U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow in the 2018 midterm elections. Epstein, 35, said Michigan’s support for Trump in the 2016 presidential election shows that voters are ready for another political outsider.

“Politicians have failed us, and Michigan citizens are looking for another way,” Epstein said in a statement. “Michigan spoke loud and clear in the last election — we want an outsider with business leadership skills who can inspire the people of Michigan with a bright vision for the future. I will speak for those who have not been spoken for. I will represent those who know, deep down, that their government has failed them and their families.”

Epstein is a third-generation co-owner of Vesco Oil Corp., a large distributor of automotive and industrial lubricants based in the Detroit suburb of Southfield with about 200 employees and revenues of about $175 million annually. The first Republican to officially announce a challenge to Stabenow, she is relatively new to politics, but was appointed in 2012 by Gov. Rick Snyder to serve on the Michigan Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board.

Earlier this year, Republicans eager to reclaim Stabenow’s seat bandied around the name of Kid Rock as a challenger to Stabenow, and Ted Nugent said he might also consider a run, but neither was regarded as a serious candidate. However, Republicans U.S. Rep. Fred Upton of St. Joseph and former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Young Jr., both are said to be considering campaigns for the Republican nomination, The Detroit News reported.

Epstein said in her announcement that she will “take the fight directly to Debbie Stabenow because she has failed the people of Michigan after almost two decades in Washington with no major accomplishments.”

“Twenty years of nothing is more than enough,” she said. “Michigan deserves better.”

Stabenow, 67, of Lansing, is Michigan’s senior U.S. senator, having served since 2001. She represented Michigan’s 8th District in Congress from 1997-2001. Prior to that, she served in the Michigan Legislature.

Stabenow spokesman Matt Williams told the Associated Press the senator is “focused on doing her job and what is best for Michigan," whether it is protecting the Great Lakes or lowering the cost of health care and prescription drugs.”

Stabenow has opposed Trump’s proposed cut in Great Lakes funding and his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to replace Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. She has said modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump wants to rewrite, is “long overdue.”

Epstein graduated cum laude from Harvard Business School with a bachelor’s degree in economics, and earned her MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. According to her website, she serves on the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Detroit Historical Society and the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan.

It’s not clear how much personal money Epstein would bring to the campaign. Stabenow had $4.3 million cash on hand in a March 31 report to the Federal Election Commission.

Photo via Lena Epstein U.S. Senate campaign