Michigan State Senator Hansen Clarke, who attended the launch of APAP's Detroit Chapter last year, has just announced that he is running for Congress. Clarke, who switches from his run for Governor, becomes the seventh South Asian to run for Congress this year. All of them are Democrats.

State Sen. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit, said today he's running for Congress to try to create jobs, setting up what could turn into another feisty primary fight for Democratic Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick.

 

"I want to bring prosperity back here," Clarke said in an interview. "I want to help create new jobs and help people reduce their debt and save their homes.

 

"We need a person in Congress who can create jobs in the region."

 

Clarke, born in Detroit, represents more than half of the 13th Congressional District, which stretches from Grosse Pointe Woods through Detroit to Wyandotte.

 

Kilpatrick, Michigan's only member of the House Appropriations Committee, has not filed for re-election, and her campaign didn't immediately respond to an inquiry about her plans.

The 64-year-old congresswoman has rarely missed votes in this Congress -- 3.6 percent -- and nearly always votes with the Democratic leadership, according to data compiled by the Washington Post.

 

First elected in 1996, Kilpatrick was recently in headlines when the House ethics committee cleared her of wrongdoing over two trips she made to the Caribbean for a trade summit.

 

In 2008, the veteran congresswoman experienced backlash from the text-messaging scandal engulfing her son, Kwame Kilpatrick, then Detroit's mayor. She found herself in a nail-biter of a three-way primary fight. She won, but with only 39 percent of the vote.

The 53-year-old Clarke, who is term-limited out of the Michigan Senate, will open a congressional campaign office this week.

 

According to his Web site biography, Clarke grew up in a working class neighborhood on Detroit's lower east side. He was 8 years old when his father died, and his mother supported him as a school crossing guard.

 

His artistic ability landed him a scholarship at Cornell University, where he received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in painting. He went on to earn a law degree from Georgetown University.

 

Elected to the Michigan House three times, Clarke defeated incumbent state Sen. Ray Murphy in 2002. Clarke was re-elected to the Senate in 2006.

 

Asked about the challenge of ousting an incumbent congresswoman, Clarke pointed to his defeat of the incumbent Murphy. He also dismissed campaign money advantages of incumbency.

 

He said he's raised "thousands," and expects to have no trouble raising enough money to defeat an incumbent.

 

Kilpatrick has raised $313,023 in this election cycle, according to her Federal Election Commission filings, and has $346,811 in available cash.

 

Clarke said he'll work to help businesses get loans. He also said that Michigan employers seek foreign skilled workers because of a lack of skilled workers in the state. He proposes drawing more heavily on community colleges to better prepare Michigan residents to be able to fill such jobs.

While it's always an uphill battle to unseat a sitting member of Congress, Clarke must've seen the writing on the wall with his race for Governor. We wish him well and will keep an eye out on his race.