LONG DAY’S NIGHT

She grew up in both Rochester Hills and Birmingham, graduated from Seaholm High School, and campaigned for both Hillary and Obama, watching the returns election night at the Javits Convention Center in New York City, earning her bonafide Democratic stripes. Now, Haley Stevens has returned home, angered by the recent election and emboldened by a summit in Nashville in December to become part of the solution by exploring a run against U.S. Representative David Trott (R-Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Rochester Hills) for the 11th District. Recently featured in a Time magazine spotlight on “new generation Democratic candidates to watch,” Stevens has stepped away from her day job at a national workforce development company for a national research lab to explore the run, which she believes “is going to take a lot of hard work, commitment, ingenuity, and willingness to listen to people from all sides.” It’s also going to take a lot of big bucks – in his first race, in 2014, Trott prevailed over incumbent Republican Kerry Bentovolio (The Accidental Congressman) in the Republican primary, 201,000 votes to 182,000 votes, and then over Democratic opponent Bobby McKenzie, 140,435 votes to 101,681, by raising a total of $5 million, of which $3.6 million came from his own pocket. Currently, Stevens has raised just shy of $29,000 on Crowdrise.