House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit), Jan. 11, 2023 | Laina G. Stebbins
From Spartan Stadium to the speaker’s podium, Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) told the Michigan Advance during last month’s Mackinac Policy Conference that teamwork and compromise have served him well.
As elected officials and changemakers in the state converged on Mackinac Island in late May the Advance sat down with Tate to talk about his second year as House speaker as Democrats finish up the last months of the legislative session, the first bicameral Democrat- led legislature in nearly 40 years.
Being in leadership has been a challenge and a responsibility that Democrats have stepped up to, Tate said, adding that there’s several lessons that have carried him through to this moment from his time as Captain of the Michigan State University’s football team, competing in the NFL and his service in Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine.
Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) (L) and House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) (R) at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 30, 2024 | Anna Liz Nichols
“You can’t really get anything done significantly if you don’t work together and work together towards a common goal, and that’s hard. That can be hard at times,” Tate said. “You have to compromise, there’s a give and take because you’re working with other people all towards the common goal.”
But Republican leadership says they’ve been left out of decisions and their insight on legislation has been cast aside as Democrats have pushed through far-left laws. When two Democrats won mayoral races in their districts in November, leaving the House in a temporary 54-54 partisan split, House Republican Leader Matt Hall (, R-Richland Township) accused Tate of “taking his gavel and going home” for the legislature’s end of year break rather than working with Republicans on bipartisan legislation.
But in the last year and a half, the legislature has seen about 400 bills become law, Tate points out. Under Democratic leadership, Michigan has seen LGBTQ+ protections be added to the state’s civil rights laws, a nearly 100-year-old abortion ban be wiped from state law and several gun control bills become law.
“For me the important piece is what we’ve done is significant, [it’s] a lot, especially with the Democratic majority that I will put against previous legislative sessions when Democrats didn’t have the majority,” Tate said. “One of the largest tax cuts for working families and seniors, gun violence reduction… We’ve done a lot.”
Now lawmakers will finish up crafting the Fiscal Year 2025 budget before adjourning for a summer break to campaign in their districts as all House seats are up for grabs in the November election.
Several Republicans in March raised concerns over the 2024 budget earlier this year, months after the legislature had finalized it. In March a group of five Republican lawmakers got behind a resolution to censure Tate, saying he passed a racist budget where $10 million had been allocated to a grant program for minority-owned businesses and nonprofit business organizations. The resolution followed Tate taking disciplinary action against a Republican representative who was posting “Great Replacement” theory posts on social media.
Michigan state Rep. Steve Carra (R-Three Rivers) flanked by fellow members of the House’s Freedom Caucus calls on House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) to be censured on March 5, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)
As Michigan’s first Black Speaker of the House, Tate said he knows the responsibility to represent his constituents, but also the accountability each lawmaker has to their words and actions. And this understanding informs his role as a member of President Joe Biden’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans.
“It’s certainly been an honor to be asked and a responsibility because I’m trying to lend my voice. My experience as an American, as a Detroiter, a Michigander, so it means a lot to me,” Tate said.
As the commission looks to come out with recommendations on opportunities for Black Americans, Tate said he’s particularly interested in efforts to create pathways for entrepreneurship, creating access to success for those who may not have the same resources as others.
Reflecting on the $75 million Small Business Smart Zones and Business Accelerators initiative passed by the legislature in 2023, Tate said he can see how funding and supporting entrepreneurs to professional development and mentorship opportunities can make a big difference and he looks forward to seeing if any of the commission’s recommendations could be implemented in Michigan.
“Some of the things that we’re talking about, really getting down to that level of meeting people where they are, no matter what background, I think it’s something that we could probably take a page from,” Tate said. “We’re still working on developing those recommendations for the President and Vice President, but that’s one area I’m really interested in seeing if there are some things that we can take away from that sort of a final set.”
As for the rest of the legislative session, Tate said though the House and Senate versions of the budget so far are different, the values of leadership in both chambers are aligned and collaboration between chambers is already happening to finalize the budget. And Tate said he’s confident that as House Democrats embark on the long “job interview” that is knocking on doors in their districts ahead of the election that they will be successful and Democrats will keep the majority.
Tate added that the Democrats will be able to move past some of the longstanding priorities they had to pass first when they got the majority and will now be able to move on to additional measures for the betterment of families in Michigan.
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