YOU GO GIRL

Jody LaMacchia

Oxford resident Jody LaMacchia hadn't taken a shine to politics until shortly after Donald Trump was elected president. Now the north Oakland County Democrat is hoping to be the first openly gay woman elected to the Michigan House, she said in a recent Washington Post article, which focused on the influence suburban women are having on local and national races. LaMacchia is running to unseat Oxford Republican John Reilly from Michigan's 46th District House seat – a position that has been held by Republicans for decades. LaMacchia also helped found the 600-member North Oakland Women Making a Difference (NOW-MAD) group that supports Democratic candidates. The group and LaMacchia's campaign are evidence of the growing influence that suburban women are having at the state and national levels – notably flipping two Oakland County congressional districts blue in 2018, along with the state's governor, secretary of state and attorney general positions. While Reilly, a hard-line Republican, was re-elected in 2018 by more than 10 percentage points, LaMacchia is hoping the pink wave that washed over Oakland County and Michigan in 2018 will repeat again in 2020 as other women in traditionally conservative districts seek to bridge the current partisan divide.