From Mark Yonkman

[Peggy Raddatz]

Dear Manistee Democrats and Supporters:

Happy 4th of July!

I’m proud of being a Michigander as we have always exhibited patriotism as a quiet, enduring commitment to freedom, equality, and the promise of a better future.

My family has a personal vignette that reflects this commitment. My great-great-grandfather was a private in the Prussian army and served as a personal aide to Archduke Ferdinand. When the Archduke was assassinated, igniting the First World War, loyalists to the former administration were systematically purged. Fearing for their lives, my great-great-grandfather and his wife fled the violence and sought refuge in the United States.

Like so many who came to this country seeking safety, he started at the bottom, taking the only job available in the coal mines of West Virginia. As a proud Prussian and a staunch abolitionist, he could not stomach living in a state that at one time had sanctioned slavery. As soon as he saved enough money from the mines to buy a homestead in a slave-free state, he chose Michigan.

Michigan was a deliberate choice. He knew that Michigan had been a fierce abolitionist stronghold since its earliest days as a territory. He knew that Detroit, known by the code name "Midnight," served as the final, desperate stop on the Underground Railroad for enslaved people making their last leap to freedom in Canada. That legacy of liberty and sanctuary drew him to purchase the homestead here in Boon where I still live today.

It is that exact same spirit—of standing as a beacon for freedom and doing the hard work to protect it—that animates my campaign today. Across all 16 of the counties in the 36th Senate District, we will keep that commitment to freedom, equality, and the promise of a better future alive for all of our hard-working citizens.

I am writing to you simply to say thank you. Thank you for your support, your organizing, and your dedication to my campaign. The road ahead requires resilience, but we are carrying forward a proud Michigan tradition, and I could not ask for a better team than you.

Mark W. Yonkman

996 W. 30 Rd., Boon MI 49618

231-878-5161

Yonkman Schoolhouse Farms