Some politicians talk about what a community needs. Jan Maino has spent her entire life actually building it.
The daughter of an Air Force veteran and a small business owner, Maino’s roots in Jackson run deep. She grew up here, went to school here, and raised her two boys here. Before she became a licensed social worker and a nonprofit leader, she was a UAW member working as a tool crib attendant at Kent Dashmoore—which is where she met her husband right on the plant floor.
Maino knows what it means to put in the sweat equity required to make a community thrive. Now, as the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s 46th House District, she is ready to take that lifelong commitment to Lansing.
Here is a look at how Maino’s background and priorities are resonating with voters who want a representative focused on real, common-sense solutions.
A Champion for Michigan’s Students and Educators
As a mother of two children educated in public schools and a 13-year veteran of the East Jackson School Board, Maino knows exactly what our classrooms need. Serving as board president, she didn’t just talk about education—她 brought people together to deliver results.
Maino is running to ensure every Michigan public school is funded fairly so they can afford smaller class sizes and the better starting pay required to attract and keep the best educators. Crucially, she believes in preparing students for the real world. In Lansing, she plans to aggressively expand career, technical, and apprenticeship programs, giving every Michigan student a debt-free path to a six-figure job in high-demand fields like manufacturing, biotechnology, and healthcare.
Tackling Healthcare and Mental Health on the Frontlines
Maino isn’t waiting on Lansing to solve the healthcare crisis—she’s already been doing the work. As a social worker, she saw firsthand how desperately families needed mental and behavioral health care. That’s why she helped lead Project Access in Jackson, a groundbreaking initiative that recruited hundreds of local doctors to provide free, critical treatments to patients who otherwise couldn’t afford them.
In the state legislature, Maino is ready to take the fight to pharmaceutical companies. She is pushing a concrete plan to cap the costs of insulin, inhalers, and other life-saving drugs. Furthermore, she plans to fight back against the billion-dollar corporations that price-gouge consumers, ensuring everyday Michiganders can afford the care they need to survive and thrive.
Revitalizing the Local Economy
You don’t have to look far to see Maino’s footprint on the local economy. She serves as a leader with Drive Jackson, a community-driven strategic initiative formed by the Chamber of Commerce. Her goal? To build up the community by creating parks, arts, and recreation, while attracting new businesses, industry, and jobs. Jan also wants to invest in revitalizing the housing stock and attracting new homeowners to Jackson.
She has already been instrumental in bringing the Art 634 facility to downtown Jackson and is currently working to transform the former Wall Prison into a thriving Farm Stop space.
Holding the Powerful Accountable
Maino’s blue-collar background means she knows the government should listen to working families, not wealthy corporate lobbyists. She is running on a staunch platform of accountability to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in Lansing.
Her agenda includes:
- Banning Corporate Favors: Stopping elected officials and state employees from directing contracts to organizations where their family members have financial interests, and banning politicians from trading stocks of companies that have business before the state.
- Reining in Utility Monopolies: Maino will fight to stop monopoly utility companies from passing the costs of their corporate advertising, executive bonuses, and private jets onto working families and ban them from donating to politicians.
- Protecting Consumers: As new data centers eye Michigan, Maino supports strict regulations to ensure our air and water are protected, big corporations pay their fair share of taxes to fund our infrastructure, and the massive energy costs of these centers aren’t passed down to local consumers.
The Bottom Line
Whether she’s standing up for UAW workers on the plant floor, fighting for students on the school board, or recruiting doctors to provide free healthcare, Jan Maino has always been a builder. Now, she’s ready to build a brighter future for the 46th District in Lansing.