After that, Brixie pushed Stivers, encouraging her to apply for the Meridian Township Zoning Board of Appeals. After that, Stivers moved up to the Planning Commission. Stivers attributed her time serving on these local boards as helping her develop a relationship with her community and learn about challenges they face. (28:28)

Then, in 2018, when there was an open seat for the Ingham County Board of Commissioners, Brixie encouraged her to go for the position.

Now, Stivers is looking to run for a different office. She is running as a Democrat to represent the 75th District in the State House. Stivers said that she is running because she believes that there need to be more mothers who are making policy at the Capitol and more people who understand how governing happens at the local level.

“A lot of the challenges we face at the state level, we’re also facing at the county and municipal levels,” Stivers said. “As an Ingham County commissioner, we’ve had a lot of money coming into the county through the American Rescue Plan and through the infrastructure bill from the federal level.”

Stivers said the Ingham County Board of Commissioners was able to distribute pandemic relief funds through public-private partnerships and through partnerships with non-profit organizations. She said it was vital to talk to the communities in the county to decide where the money was most needed. She wants to help bring that decision-making to Lansing.

“I think that experience at the county level is something we need at the state level,” Stivers said. “We need legislators who understand how things work at the local level and know how to allocate the funds, know what the priorities are and precisely what the troubles have been during the pandemic and where the money is most needed.”

There are three issues Stivers has centered her campaign on, with education being one of them. She points to Republicans as having caused a divide between educators and parents of students, but she said it does not need to be that way and that she would like to make sure that the two groups are working together to benefit the students moving through the schools.

Stivers believes the best way to do this is through creating, filling and giving good pay to support staff at schools, like social workers and counselors.

She also said that she would like to see more investment in higher education, specifically in public colleges and universities. She supports income-based assistance programs, which already exist, but Stivers said she wants more funds allocated to the program. She supports student-loan forgiveness but acknowledges that there is little to be done on a state level for something like that. 

The next issue Stivers focused on was infrastructure. With the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act in November 2021, among other infrastructure issues, Stivers believes that it is time to make sure everyone in the state has access to affordable broadband internet. In particular, she would like to make sure that rural communities outside of major populated areas are able to access the internet.

“The pandemic really brought to light the importance of connectivity across the state,” Stivers said. “More and more people are working remotely; more and more people depend on virtual learning and virtual working and the internet for so many different aspects of our lives. And that there are some places in our state where you don’t have access, where you don’t have fast enough access. … It's hurting people.”

Stivers said that this is an issue because not only is it holding back education from children, but because broadband companies can go in and monopolize access to the internet and charge whatever they wish.

The last priority of Stivers’ campaign is protecting the environment. Stivers would like to see plans come together to ensure a septic system cleanup, which is a source of pollution in rivers and the Great Lakes. According to a report for the Environmental Protection Administration, or EPA, septic systems, which are commonly used in local areas, will end up leaking into local drinking water wells and water sources if they are not cleaned or updated regularly.

Stivers said it is important to look to electric cars for the future. She supports the production of more electric cars and more use of green energy. She drives an electric car and said while the car does not work for long road trips, it works well for driving local distances.

Stivers is excited that more companies are choosing to manufacture electric cars in Michigan, but she believes that companies need to move away from only manufacturing large vehicles.

“I really want to encourage those companies to go back to producing some of the smaller vehicles like the Spark, like the C-Max,” Stivers said, referencing Chevy and Ford's electric sedans. “They’re not the huge money-makers that the big trucks are for the car companies, but there’s a market for them and I think we can increase that market and encourage more people to choose a small efficient vehicle. They don’t really need a giant SUV or pickup truck.”