Randy Bruce
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Randy Bruce (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent District 37. He lost in the Democratic primary on August 4, 2020.
Bruce completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Randy Bruce was born in Detroit, Michigan. He earned a bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. from Wayne State University in 1985, 1988, and 1993, respectively. Bruce’s career experience includes working as a clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist, rehabilitation psychologist, and co-owner of Aspire Rehabilitation Services, LLC.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 37
Samantha Steckloff defeated Mitch Swoboda and James Young in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 37 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Samantha Steckloff (D)  | 63.9 | 34,590 |
 | Mitch Swoboda (R) | 34.1 | 18,464 | |
 | James Young (L) | 2.0 | 1,092 | |
| Total votes: 54,146 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 37
Samantha Steckloff defeated Michael Bridges and Randy Bruce in the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 37 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Samantha Steckloff | 48.8 | 8,994 |
| Michael Bridges | 30.6 | 5,635 | ||
 | Randy Bruce | 20.7 | 3,814 | |
| Total votes: 18,443 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 37
Mitch Swoboda advanced from the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 37 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mitch Swoboda | 100.0 | 6,669 |
| Total votes: 6,669 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 37
James Young advanced from the Libertarian convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 37 on July 18, 2020.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | James Young (L) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Endorsements
To view Bruce's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
- LEAP Forward[2]
Campaign themes
2020
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released June 25, 2020 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Randy Bruce completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Bruce's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
I am a 34 year resident of Farmington Hills. I am employed as a licensed psychologist, neuropsychologist and board-certified rehabilitation psychologist, and have worked in health care for 40 years. I have a BS, MA and Ph.D. degrees from Wayne State University, and also taught at Wayne State for several years as well. I am a 25-year business owner and currently co-own Aspire Rehabilitation Services, employing over 50 people. I served on the Farmington Hills City Council for 16 years, and as Mayor-Pro-Tem for three years. Prior to that, I served on the Zoning Board of Appeals for eight years, was the president of two homeowners' associations and I'm on the board of my current association. I was a member of the National League of Cities (NLC) for 14 years, and served as an eight year member of the Human Development Steering Committee, and served as vice-chair and chair of that National Committee, working on national policy on issues including healthcare, education, and veterans affairs. During my time on the NLC, I was able to take part in meetings with congressional leaders and the Obama Administration. During my tenure on council, I was known as the consensus builder and was able to get through many important accomplishments, including the City water tower that is now saving the rate payors over $3 million per year, and founded the Intergovernmental Task Force between Farmington, Farmington Hills and the Farmington School district, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. I a
- I have a record of significant achievements from 16 years on City Council
- I have significant leadership experience at the local and national level
- I am able to work with people to get important issues resolved and things accomplished
Featured local questionI believe that public education funding needs to be our priority. Investing in our future by making sure we have an educated and well-trained workforce is critical for helping to move people out of poverty and into financial independence. We have underfunded education even in good financial times, and our achievement gap between Michigan and many other states continues to rise. Supporting our working families is critical. With record numbers of people losing their jobs and their healthcare, we need to keep the current expansion of unemployment benefits to families to help them meet their basic needs, until the economy recovers sufficiently. This will also help stimulate the economy as people spend those dollars in their local communities which help support small businesses throughout the state. We also need to fully fund revenue sharing with local governments, which have been cut drastically over the last 15 years, and have forced many cities and townships into financial crisis, with several communities forced to cut public safety and other critical services. We must continue to fight to protect our environment by fully funding EGLE to pursue polluters, for lead and asbestos abatements in schools, controlling nutrient runoff into the Great Lakes, and lead service line replacements. Our aging infrastructure is crumbling, and we see the direct results of this in our roads, bridges, and the recent Edenville Dam collapse. This takes a tremendous toll on our citizens in terms of direct and indirect damage, higher repair costs, and insurance rates.
Healthcare is one of the issues that I am most passionate about, as I have spent 40 years working in the field, 30 of which I have dedicated to providing mental health services. We need to help every family gain access to basic healthcare in Michigan, especially given the fact that we are in a healthcare crisis and many people have lost both their jobs and healthcare coverage. Mental health is just as important as our physical health. Unfortunately, the state has closed nearly all of the state hospitals leaving us with a deficit of 5,000 psychiatric beds. As a result, there is limited long-term treatment of people who have serious mental illness, and the wait times for a bed for ER patients is roughly three days and longer in many cases. Public education is another top priority of mine, as we have a long history of underfunding education, and using education funds to help plug holes in other areas of the budget. As a result, we are behind most other states in many areas of funding and academic achievement. And we must pay our teachers what they deserve, rather than funding for-profit charter schools at taxpayer expense. Our Infrastructure is long past the point of mediocrity and has blossomed into a public safety catastrophe that affects all of us. Without a complete overhaul, we will face numerous failures much like we saw with the Edenville Dam. Our poor infrastructure is a drain on working families due to the damage caused to vehicles by bad roads, and businesses.
I look up to people that put themselves at risk in order to expand our scientific knowledge to push society forward, and I follow the example of leaders who fight for improving society for all of us without selling out for profit or pandering. There are many examples of people throughout history who have done this, but one of my personal heroes is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He started a movement of nonviolent civil disobedience to protest racism and the Jim Crow laws of the South, which was the catalyst to usher in the civil rights movement. He and his family made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the people of this country. It was through their courage that made real change possible.
As a licensed psychologist for 30 years, I have the ability to listen to others and be able to understand their point of view. This allows me to be able to work with them and to find common ground so that we can create a win-win situation as much as possible, while staying true to more core beliefs. I have a strong belief in doing what is right and that justice must work for everyone. I am honest with people and believe in treating everyone with respect and dignity, and that no one is better than anyone else, no matter who they are. I am compassionate, and have the ability to empathize with others so as to understand as much as possible what others are going through and how their experiences are affecting them. As a trained scientist, I am able to look at data, and understand problems and challenges and to come up with workable solutions based upon the facts. I enjoy working on and creating good public policy, to improve the lives of our citizens. My 24 years of public service, including 8 years on the Farmington Hills Zoning Board of Appeals, and 16 years on the Farmington Hills City Council, including 3 years as Mayor Pro Tem, and national leadership with the National League of Cities, have helped to refine my leadership abilities, which have resulted in many accomplishments for the city, and have saved our families millions of dollars and improved their quality of life.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I love this book because it tackles our systemic racial inequality head-on, while thoughtfully and perceptively building the case against hatred and bigotry. The lessons of courage under fire, strength of character, and compassion for others are as relevant today as they were in 1960, the year of publication. It provides a succinct warning of the consequences of losing our way and the dangers of succumbing to the mob mentality.
The most significant difference between legislative chambers is the size of each district and the outreach capability legislators have with their constituents. Specifically, in House District 37 there are roughly 92,000 citizens, while in our state senate districts, there are nearly 270,000 residents. That is a significant factor in the capacity to communicate effectively with constituents. In my district, I have spent more than 30 years in the area and have built relationships throughout both Farmington and Farmington Hills, so I am able to have far more opportunities to hear directly from residents and attend local community events. In most cases, state senators are responsible for a much larger geographic footprint and must be responsive to constituents from areas they may not have much presence, making the connection with residents more difficult.
Yes, I strongly believe that previous experience is important prior to working in the legislature. Due to term limits there is a limited time to learn on the job. Being able to hit the ground running in Lansing puts this limited time to better use, and having the experience of working with others on creating good public policy and having the ability to work collaboratively in the process of policy making is critical. Previous experience also helps to educate prospective candidates on the political process and provides them with a realistic approach to working in the legislature. Being able to understand and navigate these challenges, as well as the competing and conflicting goals and ideologies inherent in politics is important to working successfully with others to develop and pass sound laws and policies.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 25, 2020
- ↑ LEAP Forward, "6. ENDORSEMENTS," accessed June 30, 2020
