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Shane Hernandez, the current Representative for Michigan’s 83rd District in the Michigan House of Representatives, was endorsed by the Michigan Farm Bureau’s AgriPac Committee as a “Friend of Agriculture,” in his bid to serve as the next U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 10th Congressional District.
Rep. Hernandez, serving in the Michigan House of Representatives since 2017, was elected by his peers to serve as chair of the House Appropriations Committee in 2019. He fully intended to run for re-election — until current Congressman Paul Mitchell announced his retirement.
“I believe strongly that we need a true and proven conservative to represent us in Washington, and many of my family, friends and supporters encouraged me to run,” Hernandez said. “After prayerful consideration with my wife, I decided that this was the path I was called to take and launched my campaign.”
Michigan's 10th Congressional District, located in the easternmost region of the “Thumb,” includes all of Huron, Lapeer, Sanilac, and St. Clair counties as well as portions of Macomb and Tuscola counties.
Hernandez says his experience representing the 83rd district — home to some of Michigan’s most fertile farmland — involved working closely with Sanilac and St. Clair county Farm Bureaus as well as Michigan Farm Bureau to advance state-level policy that allowed the ag sector to grow.
A 2000 graduate of Croswell Lexington High School, Hernandez obtained a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Lawrence Technological University. Before being elected to the Michigan House, he worked 12 years for SyDesign Architectural Firm, first as an architectural designer, and then as vice president of design.
During that time, Hernandez got involved in politics, serving as chair of the St. Clair County GOP from 2013-2014, executive committee of the 10th District GOP 2013-2016, and on the MIGOP State Committee 2013-2016. His motivation for running, according to Hernandez, is one of concern for the future.
“Like every American, I am concerned about how our country will move forward, particularly now given the new challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic which threatens our economy and very way of life,” Hernandez said. “We need to ensure that the path forward to bring our country back is grounded in fiscal conservatism, and policies that embrace our values and put our people first.”
Applying that philosophy to Michigan agriculture, said Hernandez, means fighting the overreach of government regulation by requiring that any regulation that impacts the economy must first be approved by Congress as a “check on the out of control bureaucracy.”
“The biggest issues facing agriculture never seem to change — access to stable markets, access to adequate labor, a reliable safety net to protect investment, fair trade rules, adequate infrastructure and protections against government overregulation,” Hernandez said. “For agriculture to thrive, we can’t focus simply on one — we must work on them all.”