Muskegon has two new City Commissioners as voters Tuesday elected both Rachel Gorman and Rebecca St. Clair to City Hall.
Rachel Gorman, the Director of Development at Pioneer Resources, becomes the first female of Asian descent ever to be elected to Muskegon’s City Commission. She says, she has a message to those who voted for her, and for those who did not
”I’ve been saying from the beginning, Muskegon’s days are still ahead. I am so grateful for the opportunity, and to those who voted for me, I say, ‘thank you,’ thank you for your honesty, we had some difficult conversations, and to those who did not vote for me, I am still here for you, and I can’t wait to go to work for you.”
Meanwhile Rebecca St. Clair is HealthWest's clinical supervisor, and is a senior fellow. She says her win demonstrates how “ordinary people” can get involved in politics, can win at the polls, and hopefully make the change they want to see in their community.
“I’ve had a conversation with a lot of people who say ‘I could never do this, you are so brave, I could never do this,’ and my response has been ‘you know what, six months ago, I said the exact same thing. Governance happens best when it happens by the people who are invested and involved in their community.”
Muskegon now has two more women on the City Commission, a historically male dominated group. The women replace two men---current commissioner Dan Sybenga who lost his re-election bid, and current commissioner Ken Johnson, who vacated his seat to run for Mayor, a race he won.
