• Along with Blue Cross Blue Shield, DTE spends more money buying our elections than any other corporation. I am proud to have never taken money from DTE or any corporate PAC and I have spent my time in Lansing taking on DTE. Here’s how we’ve been working to take on corporate influence in our politics:

    • Banning DTE from buying elections: In 2022, 138 out of 148 (93%) of Michigan legislators took money from DTE.We introduced legislation that would ban corporations like DTE from pouring money into our elections. It has been three years since this legislation was first introduced, and leadership from both parties in Lansing has refused to even have a hearing on the bills. Despite this, a coalition has worked to gather over 600,000 signatures to put the question to voters statewide. I am in full support of the MOP Up Michigan ballot initiative which would ban corporations like DTE from buying elections. 

  • Instead of fixing our grid, DTE pockets 16.7% of our electric bill as profits for shareholders. We’re paying the highest energy rates in the Midwest while suffering the worst service restoration times in the entire country. Meanwhile, DTE hasn’t paid federal income taxes for twelve years straight despite $1.54 billion in profits and endless rate hikes. The money we pay DTE for our electric bills should be spent fixing our grid, not lining the pockets of shareholders. Wall Street shouldn’t own our power, we should. Here’s what we have been working on to beat DTE:

    • Passing a Ratepayers’ Bill of Rights: I am a proud cosponsor of legislation that would: 

      • Guarantee Michiganders the right to fair compensation when the power goes out.

      • Ensure residents no longer pay the highest energy costs in the Midwest for some of the worst service in the country.

      • Protect residents from paying for CEO bonuses and private jets while being left in the dark.

      • Ban political contributions to state lawmakers from the utilities they’re supposed to oversee on behalf of the people.

      • Ensure residents can generate their own reliable energy through solar arrays on their homes or with their neighbors.

    • Utilities owned by the people, not Wall Street: Services like electricity that we need to survive should be owned by us, not shareholders trying to make a profit. We can instead choose a proven system in which utilities are municipally owned, cutting out billionaires and corporations so that we can secure cheaper, more reliable electricity for all. 

  • Billionaires admit that they want to use AI to concentrate even more wealth and power in the hands of the elite. AI will worsen wealth inequality by eliminating jobs and creating an economy in which workers are even more desperate.Hyper-scale data centers needed to power AI are being built without public input, raising our DTE bills and putting our clean air and water at risk. This past year, I have been leading the fight against AI data centers in Lansing.

    Here’s what we have been working on to protect workers and families from runaway AI:

    • Ending tax breaks for data centers and blocking construction: Public money should be spent for the public good. In 2023, I voted against giving use and sales tax exemptions to data centers. Since this passed, dozens of projects have flocked to our state. As they have in other states, these projects are likely to raise our DTE and water bills and will pollute our air and water. I promise to fight AI data centers in Lansing and in our district, like when I stood with Inkster residents to demand that the Inkster City Council vote against approving a data center.

    • Passing a statewide moratorium on data centers: Our current laws are inadequate for protecting our air and water from data centers. We need a statewide moratorium to stop AI hyperscale data centers from coming to our state. Passing a moratorium is a step towards slowing the advancement of AI technology that will likely steal millions of working class jobs. 

    • Heavily regulating AI: There are almost no laws regulating AI. According to NPR, “AI companies are offering products to record workers’ computer screens, track their mouse and keyboard movements, and see when they take breaks.” I am proud to cosponsor legislation that would regulate AI workplace monitoring in Michigan. No one should be subject to high-tech surveillance anywhere in their lives, including at work.

  • Three billionaires own more wealth than the entire bottom half of our country and 40% of Michigan families struggle to meet basic needs. Local Trump-supporting billionaires like Matthew Moroun and Dan Gilbert rake in tax handouts from our state legislature.

    In a country with so much wealth, I believe that there is enough for everyone to have good housing, healthcare, education, and food. These are all human rights, but we can’t provide them to people when Democrats and Republicans continually vote to give massive tax breaks and handouts to corporations that already pay some of the lowest taxes in the Midwest. Our taxes should be used to provide for human needs, not to pad corporate profits.

    Here’s what we have been working on to tax the rich and fund ordinary people’s needs:

    • Blocking handouts of taxpayer money to wealthy corporations: Voted against legislation totaling over $6 billion in corporate tax breaks, more than any other House Democrat in Michigan history.

    • Taxing corporate profits to protect and improve public education: Introduced legislation that would raise corporate taxes to fund schools. 

    • Ending wealth hoarding by billionaires: We are working on a wealth tax that would help fund schools and infrastructure.

  • Under capitalism, corporations, landlords, and billionaires have stolen control of our government and economy from the working class and are hoarding the wealth that we created.  As a democratic socialist, I am committed to organizing with our community so that we can take back our power. Working class people should be running our country, not billionaires and corporations.

    Throughout American history, actual change has always come when ordinary people organize together and remake the country from the bottom up. I learned this lesson when, as a public school teacher in Arizona, I helped to organize a statewide teachers’ strike that took on a Republican-held state legislature and won, bringing in a new $400 million investment in public schools. Since being elected I have continuously supported striking workers on the picket line, providing support for UAW auto workers and SEIU nursing home workers. 

    Withholding our labor is the working class's most powerful weapon. It is only through the labor of working people that companies generate their profits – so when workers stand together, withhold their labor and demand more, the elites have to listen. Only workers can organize themselves, but Lansing can make this task easier by passing legislation to protect workers’ rights to organize, strengthen unions' collective bargaining rights, and shift the balance between workers and corporations.

    Here is what we’ve been working on to undo years of anti-worker legislation and rebuild a fighting labor movement for Michigan:

    • Backing striking workers: Supported UAW auto workers, SEIU nursing home workers, and MNA nurses on picket lines and beyond. 

    • Fueling the union movement: Voted to repeal “Right to Work” and expand collective bargaining rights. 

    • Expanding wages paid to trades workers on state construction projects: Voted to reinstate the Michigan Prevailing Wage Act.

    • Fighting to protect One Fair Wage: Stood against bipartisan legislation that weakened Michigan’s paid sick time and minimum wage ballot initiatives.

    • Protecting workers: Introduced and cosponsored legislation to ban anti-union captive audience meetings, ban workplace surveillance, and repeal the ban on local preemption laws so that cities can raise local minimum wages. Introduced legislation to raise Michigan’s minimum wage. 

  • In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, our government bailed out the big banks that triggered the economic disaster and left homeowners to fend for themselves, causing millions to lose their homes through no fault of their own. The same investors responsible for the crisis are using it as an opportunity to buy up one of every four single-family houses sold and turn them for profit. As a result, the average cost of a home has increased from $173,100 in 2001 to $415,400 in 2025 and the average age of a first-time home buyer has hit an all-time high of 40 years old.

    People have been forced by corporate greed into becoming permanent renters. Wall Street has found a way to exploit this as well, as single family rental homes owned by hedge funds are projected to increase from 5 percent in 2022 to 40 percent by 2030 and rent increases are outpacing wage increases.

    Here’s what we have been working on to fight back against Wall Street and corrupt landlords: 

    • Prioritizing homeownership for people, not Wall Street: Introduced and voted for legislation that bans private equity firms from buying single-family homes. 

    • Building renter power against greedy landlords: Co-sponsored the Renters' Bill of Rights to guarantee the health and safety of tenants

    • Demanding dignity and equal rights for our unhoused neighbors: Co-sponsored the Homeless Bill of Rights to protect against employment and medical care discrimination based on housing status. 

    • Guaranteeing housing as a right, not a commodity: Pushing for historic investment in housing owned and managed by the public, not by private corporations for profit.

  • Michigan public schools are underfunded by billions of dollars. We need to fully fund our public schools, and stop stealing money that was meant for Michigan’s K-12 public schools to offset cuts caused by giving corporations tax breaks. Did you know that the most recent education budget was a giveaway to online charter schools? Thanks to the bipartisan education bill, these schools now enjoy the same per-pupil funding as public schools, even though they have little physical overhead and don’t have to be transparent with the public about where their money goes.

    Universal public education is a human right, and Michigan students and teachers deserve the respect and resources they need to learn and teach. As a former high school teacher and union leader, I fought for my students, coworkers, and our entire school community, and I carry the same fight with me every day in Lansing. 

    To provide Michigan students with the best possible education, we need to tax corporations and the rich, make universal education free from pre-k through college, and make teaching a respected, well-supported, and high-paying career to attract and retain the talented teachers our students deserve.

    Here’s how we can transform public education for all students:

    • Tax the rich to fund schools: Supported Invest in MI Kids ballot initiative to increase taxes on households with incomes over $1 million per year to fund public schools, which could be on voters’ ballots in 2028. Introduced legislation to raise taxes on corporations to give teachers a $20,000 raise.

    • Feed our children: Voted to give students free breakfast and lunch at school.  

    • Make public universities tuition-free: Supported legislation that creates a more equitable school funding formula and makes community college free. 

    • Universal public pre-K for all: Supported expansion of universal pre-K. We need to go further to ensure that these programs are funded and offered at all of Michigan’s public schools. 

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Dylan Wegela is a teacher, union organizer, and democratic socialist proudly representing the 26th district in the Michigan State House.

Click on an issue below to learn more about Dylan’s platform.