Gary Glenn - A Valiant Christian Soldier

It is with the deepest sorrow that I learned today of the passing of my dear friend, Gary Glenn.  Gary is an inspiration to everyone who knew him, and he was a powerful instrument for good in his home state of North Carolina, in Idaho, and in his adopted home of Michigan.  He fought his public battles for the right to work, parental rights in education, morality in public institutions, religious liberty, affordable energy, and so many other worthy causes so effectively, that many of us thought that he would defeat the cancer that ravaged his body too.  Sadly, after a very long battle the cancer won, but even in this struggle, Gary showed how to face one's mortality with courage, grace, and abiding trust in God.  Gary Glenn was a patriot not unlike those who founded our country and shepherded it to greatness.  We are all in his debt.

To his wife, Annette, and the family he loved so very much, please know how much we share your grief and be assured of our love and prayers.

Former Michigan State Rep. Gary Glenn, husband of former State Rep. Annette Glenn, both of Midland, died July 27, 2023 after an extended and inspiring battle with stage 4 cancer diagnosed in 2016.

Glenn was an Eagle Scout and father of four Eagle Scouts. He did both football and track in high school and college, was captain of his high school’s conference champion track team, and captain of his high school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes and FCA Athlete of the Year. He was a starting wide receiver for the undefeated Lenoir-Rhyne University-Hickory Football Club, which won the North Carolina state championship and the Coal Bowl in 1979.

He earned a BA with Honors in Political Science from Lenoir-Rhyne University in 1981, winning the school’s Political Science Award. He served in the North Carolina Student Legislature and L-RU’s delegation to the National Model United Nations, and interned for former U.S. Senators James T. Broyhill and Jesse Helms of North Carolina.

Before even graduating from college, he was hired as executive director of the Idaho Freedom to Work Committee, and led a successful effort to enact that state’s Right to Work law, prohibiting compulsory union membership or financial support as a condition of employment. For his leadership of a 1986 statewide ballot campaign in which Idahoans voted overwhelmingly to keep the law, Glenn and epic Hollywood actor Charlton Heston were named co-recipients of the "Freedom Fighter of the Year" award by the Center for the Study of Market Alternatives, a free market think tank, located at the College of Idaho.

In 1983, he served as a Congressional lobbyist for the National Right to Work Committee in Washington, D.C.

He later served as executive vice president of the Idaho Cattlemen’s Association and two terms as an Ada County Commissioner in Boise, Idaho, during which he also ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for U.S. Congress in 1992.

Glenn enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves during the Persian Gulf War buildup in 1990 and served eight years in the Reserves and Army National Guard, including the 1/183 Attack Helicopter Battalion in Boise, Idaho, and the 1460th Transportation Company in Midland, Michigan. He was named an honor graduate of both Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training, earned two Army Reserve Component Achievement Medals, and was honorably discharged at the rank of Sergeant in 1998.

Glenn was recruited to move to Michigan in 1998, serving as president of School Choice YES, which promoted the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s “Universal Tuition Tax Credit” proposal. Later, he served as the center’s School Choice project manager.

In 1999, Glenn became president of the American Family Association of Michigan, a Christian pro-family organization dedicated to preserving traditional Judeo-Christian values. He was a co-author and leading spokesman for a 2004 statewide referendum in which voters overwhelmingly approved a Marriage Protection Amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

In 2011, Glenn was a founding board member of the Michigan Freedom to Work coalition, which successfully advocated for Right to Work legislation in that state; in 2015, the National Right to Work Committee presented him its highest honor, the Senator Everett M. Dirksen Award for advocacy of the Right to Work principle.

In 2012, he ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for one of Michigan’s U.S. Senate seats.

In 2014, Glenn was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives representing the cities of Auburn, Linwood, Midland, and Pinconning, the village of Sanford, and thirteen suburban and rural townships in Bay and Midland counties.

His first year in office, Glenn was named “Freshman Legislator of the Year” by the Michigan Information and Research Service, the state Capitol’s oldest daily news service, which cited his leadership and impact on energy policy and civil asset forfeiture reforms.

After being elected to a second term with 60 percent of the vote in 2016, he served as Associate Speaker of the House Pro Tem and chairman of the House Energy Policy Committee. He also served on the House Communications and Technology, Insurance, and Military and Veterans Affairs committees. In the 2015–2016 session, he served as vice chairman of the House Energy Policy Committee, on the House Commerce and Trade, Military and Veterans Affairs, and Tax Policy committees.

He received a 100 percent score from Americans for Prosperity–Michigan and from the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business. He won the American Conservatives Union's "Award for Conservative Excellence" for the most conservative voting record in the Michigan House in 2015, 2016, and 2017. In 2016, he was named "House Member of the Year" by the Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan and received NFIB's "Guardian of Small Business" award. In 2017, he was named "House Member of the Year" by the Michigan Propane Gas Association. In 2014 and 2016, the Abolitionist Roundtable, an organization of conservative African-American radio talk show personalities in the metro Detroit area, named him the recipient of its annual "Champion of Liberty Award" for his work towards economically and socially conservative policies. In 2011, he was named "Citizen of the Year" by Citizens for Community Values.

He ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate in 2018.

Gary was a member of Midland Baptist Church for over two decades, and a life member of the National Rifle Association.

Gary loved his children and grandchildren deeply. No doubt he fought hard for every extra minute possible with them before being called home. Gary was a huge Boise State Bronco fan and was blessed to attend many games. His love of history and this country had him plan and execute many family vacations to visit national parks and historical sites, which his kids jokingly called “required field trips”. He loved chess and basketball and was often found playing both with his kids. He loved a good steak. His favorite shows included Star Trek and The Chosen, having donated to the latter many times.

He and Annette were married in 1983 and had five children and nine grandchildren.

He is survived by Annette, sons Heston (Celeste), Harrison (Aleksandra), Hunter (Cat),

and Jefferson (Jacie) and by daughter Reagan Rios (Alejandro), plus grandchildren Sophia, Connie, Michael, Jubilee, Aria, Mila, Lily, Mateo, and Samuel, and his mother Johnnie Glenn Melton and sisters Susan( Phil), Janice, Lola (Bill) Terri, and Angela (Pat). Many beloved nieces, great-nieces, nephews, great-nephews, brothers- and sisters-in-law and related by love Heather, Elizabeth, Cam, Savannah, Reece, Theo, Leo, and Neo.

Gary was preceded in death by his grandparents, his father, James R. Glenn, a World War II Marine who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and two more years in the Pacific theater of the war and stepfather John Melton, a WWII Navy Veteran.

A funeral service will be held at 11:00am on August 5th, 2023 at Midland Baptist Church with Pastor Jim Payne officiating. Friends may visit with the family from 5:00pm – 7:00pm on August 4th, 2023 at Smith-Miner Funeral Home and from 10:00am until time of service at the church. Immediately following the funeral service, a graveside service will take place at Midland City Cemetery. Military Honors will be under the auspices of the United States Army and Midland County Veterans.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Life Clinic 4818 Saginaw Road Midland, MI 48640 or www.givesendgo.com/thankfulforgaryglenn.

Smith-Miner Funeral Home is honored to be serving the Glenn family; to share a special memory please visit www.smithminer.com.

Gary Glenn's Greatest Battle

Gary Glenn

You have read about Gary Glenn on these pages before.  We believe he is one of America's most promising political leaders.  

Gary was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in November 2014, representing the 98th House District serving Bay and Midland counties. He serves as vice chairman of Michigan's House Energy Policy Committee and on the House Commerce and Trade, Military and Veterans Affairs, and Tax Policy committees.  In 2015, the Michigan Information and Research Service, Lansing's oldest daily legislative news service, selected Gary from among 55 first-term state representatives and senators as its MIRS "Freshman Legislator of the Year".  In the current session of the Legislature, the Republican House Caucus selected him as Associate Speaker of the House Pro Tem.  But it was in this past year, while never missing a vote, committee meeting, or caucus in the state House that Gary, with God's grace and the help of a loving wife, waged the greatest battle of his life.  Following is the story of that battle and the testimony of a valiant soldier of Christ.

Life changed one year ago today, January 15, 2016, when I stopped by Mid-Michigan Medical Center on the way to my son's basketball game for a quick MRI to locate what was expected to be a herniated disk that was causing severe pain in my leg. Never made it to the game, as they walked me from the MRI to the Emergency Room instead after what the MRI found was stage 4 "metastatic" cancer -- specifically, a tumor that had eaten away an entire vertebrae and broken my back.

Further tests indicated that the tumor had originated in my prostate, with a very high PSA score of 348 (anything over a 4 being considered a warning sign of cancer). After five heavy radiation treatments over the next six days, the PSA score had dropped to 100. My personal physician called that a "near miracle."

In the days that followed the front page news of my diagnosis, we know thousands of prayers were offered on my behalf -- from Midland Baptist (my church) to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to a Catholic mass in Washington, D.C., to dozens of other churches in Michigan and beyond that wrote to say they'd put my family and me on their prayer lists.

The House Republican caucus didn't just pray, but laid hands on me and prayed. And five weeks after being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, the University of Michigan Cancer Center told me the cancer was in remission, with a PSA score of 0.2. (If dropping from 348 to 100 was a "near" miracle, what was dropping four weeks later to 0.2?)

The first night in the emergency room, the neurosurgeon said he'd have to perform surgery to insert a titanium cage into my spinal column to replace the destroyed vertebrae, and fitted me with a back brace -- to hold me together? -- in the meantime. But as we watched the X-rays over the next four months, we saw the black hole in my spinal column where a vertebrae used to be start filling in again with white. A new vertebrae has since grown back out of nothing. (Since multiple doctors told me that doesn't happen, and it caught a brain surgeon by surprise, what do we call that?) In May, he told me to take off the brace, work my way back into normal activity, and he didn't need to see me again. A few weeks ago, I played basketball again for the first time in over a year.

But all that was the easy part. After they told me I was in remission, UM Cancer Center said they still wanted me to undergo five months of chemotherapy to help ensure the cancer doesn't start growing again, or least delay the time until it does. That was the brutal part, worse than the cancer itself. Steroids. Hormone drugs. Chemicals whose purpose was to damage and destroy my cells. Incomprehensible weakness. Gaining nearly 60 pounds and ten inches on my waist in three months.

Not only pretty devastating physically, but certainly a lifestyle shock to a guy who'd kept in shape, worked out, chopped wood for weeks every fall, played basketball twice a week, and otherwise held the old man body at bay through age 57. But, praise the Lord, at least I'm still standing. And I hope to call back the mental toughness and discipline of Army basic training and football and track practices of years past to work my way back to the condition I was before.

Through all the above, I never missed a vote, committee meeting, or caucus in the state House, but only because my wife Annette drove me back and forth to Lansing for five months when I was, literally, unconscious. The steroid high of the chemotherapy would keep me on my feet for the legislative session days Tuesday through Thursday, then I'd crash hard when the steroids wore off, Annette would drive me home to go to bed each Thursday night, and I wouldn't get up again until the following Tuesday morning to go back to Lansing. Only by God's grace and provision of strength, "lest any man should boast" -- and Annette's sacrifice of the time she'd planned to spend at home with our youngest child the last year he'll be living with us -- was I able to continue to do the job to which I'd been elected.

Now, six months after the last chemo treatment in late July, my hair is growing back, my strength is slowly returning, I've lost some of the weight and inches, and the PSA score is now less than 0.02, the lowest it's been yet.

I'm thankful. To my wife. To my children. To my mother and sisters. To my friends. To my pastor and my church. To legislative colleagues who helped hold me up. To all of you who prayed for and encouraged us over the last twelve months. To all the doctors and nurses and technicians at Mid-Michigan Medical Center and the UM Cancer Center.

And most of all, for the healing power of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, called down by thousands of prayers on my behalf, Whose faithfulness sustained and strengthens me for the challenges ahead. I look forward to discovering whatever work for which He's kept me this side of heaven, because I believe we are all here for a purpose, and so long as the Lord gives me breath, I intend to fulfill mine.

Please continue to keep my family and me in your prayers, and may God bless and keep us strong for the fight!

Gary Glenn Named Freshman Legislator of the Year

Rep. Gary Glenn

Rep. Gary Glenn has been named Freshman Legislator of the Year by the Michigan Information and Research Service (MIRSNews.com).

Glenn’s selection from among 44 first-term state representatives and 10 first-time state senators was announced on MIRS Monday, a weekly podcast featuring a round table discussion by MIRS state Capitol reporters that focused primarily on Glenn’s bipartisan leadership on this year’s energy policy debate in Lansing.

Glenn, R-Midland, is vice-chairman of the Energy Policy Committee in the state House of Representatives.

“It’s been a long time since I was a ‘freshman’ at anything,” Glenn said, jokingly. “But in all seriousness, whatever honor this recognition may be, it simply reflects the very serious commitment I’ve made to work and study hard and do the best, most conscientious job I can for the people of Bay and Midland counties and our entire state. I’ve also taken very seriously a speech by Dow CEO Andrew Liveris, who said that if we want continued expansion of Dow operations in mid-Michigan in the future, we have to have a more forward-looking energy policy that produces more competitive electricity rates.”

Read more at Midland Daily News >>

Gary Glenn Receives Top National Right To Work Award

We were pleased to support a great American patriot, Gary Glenn, when he ran for the United States Senate from Michigan in 2012.  Since then he has been elected to the Michigan House of Representatives where he has been a dynamic vice chairman of the House Energy Committee and also serves on the Commerce and Trade, Tax Policy, and Military and Veterans Affairs committees.

Recently, Gary's lifetime of work on behalf of right-to-work legislation has been recognized by the National Right to Work Committee.  The Midland Daily News has the story:

State Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, on Friday was named recipient of the Senator Everett M. Dirksen Award, the highest honor bestowed annually by the National Right to Work Committee to an individual “making the most outstanding contribution to public awareness and understanding of the Right to Work principle.”

The annual award is named after the Republican Minority Leader from Illinois who in 1966 led a filibuster in the U.S. Senate that blocked President Lyndon B. Johnson’s effort to repeal the section of federal law that empowers states to enact Right to Work legislation. Twenty-five states — including Michigan and Indiana in 2012 and, just last month, Wisconsin — have enacted laws prohibiting compulsory unionism as a condition of employment.

Read more at the Midland Daily News >>

Michigan Becomes Key Battleground in Defense of Marriage

American Family Association of Michigan President Gary Glenn debated a liberal attorney Thursday night who filed a lawsuit asking a single federal judge to overturn the Marriage Protection Amendment (which Gary coauthored) that was overwhelmingly approved by 2.7 million Michigan voters on the ballot in 2004.

Fox 2 News Headlines

A federal judge will hear the lawsuit next week in Michigan's Oakland County.

Homosexual activists have also announced a petition drive to put repeal of Michigan's Marriage Protection Amendment on the ballot in November 2014, and they say they'll raise $10 million to pass the repeal. (Grand Rapids Press, Jan. 31, 2013)

AFA-Michigan is on the front line in defending Christian culture in the United States and their success is important to us all. Please stand with AFA-Michigan today to support and defend marriage.

Please send you tax-deductible contribution today to:

AFA-Michigan, PO Box 1904, Midland, Michigan 48641

Or by credit card online at: http://goo.gl/P6Soa

Gary Glenn Discusses Michigan's Right-to-Work Law on the Mike Huckabee Show

Gary Glenn with son, Hunter, and Governor Mike Huckabee

Click here to listen to Gov. Mike Huckabee's December 13th interview with Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, regarding Michigan's historic new Right to Work law.

The law prohibits compulsory union dues, protecting Christian and other employees from being forced -- under threat of being fired -- to contribute money to union officials who promote abortion on demand, so-called homosexual "marriage," and other causes that the individual employee opposes as a matter of religious conviction or conscience.

Gary was a founding member of the Michigan Freedom to Work Coalition that in June 2011 announced its push for passage of this new civil rights law prohibiting job discrimination on the basis of union affiliation or support.  From 1980-86, Gary was executive director of the Idaho Freedom to Work Committee and led that state's successful drive to enact the same law.

Union officials are expected to put an initiative on Michigan's November 2014 election ballot to try to repeal the new law and restore their ability to discriminate against and fire individuals who as a matter of conviction and conscience refuse to support Big Labor's partisan political agenda.  

Gary Glenn Addresses Ronald Reagan 2012 Dinner in Michigan

Concerned citizens throughout Michigan are working their hearts out to ensure that this good and gifted man represents them in the United States Senate.  But all Americans have a stake in this battle against well funded, establishment Republicans and the radical Obamunist, Debbie Stabenow.  If you can help and want to join Governor Mike Huckabee, the National Right to Work PAC and the Term Limits America PAC in supporting  a genuine Reagan conservative in one of the key races of 2012, please go to Gary's website and give what you can today.

Term Limits America PAC Endorses Gary Glenn for Michigan Senate

Fairfax, VA—Term Limits America PAC (TLA-PAC) urged Michigan Republican primary voters to support Gary Glenn for U.S. Senate.

Philip Blumel, chairman of TLA-PAC called Glenn, “A leading proponent for term limits who will be a strong advocate for citizen run government when he gets to Washington, D.C.”

Glenn, unlike his opponents in the race, signed the U.S. Term Limits Amendment Pledge which reads, “I pledge that as a member of Congress I will cosponsor and vote for the U.S. Term Limits Amendment of three (3) House terms and two (2) Senate terms and no longer limit.”

A Coalition of Michigan TEA Parties Demonstrate Power of 'We the People'

MI4CS TEA Parties put Glenn on top with historic petition drive for U.S. Senate

By Cindy Gamrat

With an entire grassroots volunteer crew, Michigan TEA Parties led the way in collecting over 27,000 Nominating Signatures in just a few short months. Glenn filed 27,227 signatures at the Bureau of Elections to gain a spot on the ballot for the United States Senate primary on August 7th. Although many were saying he would not gather enough signatures to even make it on the ballot, at the time of filing, Glenn led the pack by filing the most signatures of any of the Republican U.S. Senate Candidates.

Signatures for Glenn’s petitions were collected as the result of dedicated and selfless efforts of hundreds of grassroots supporters and TEA Party Patriots from all 14 congressional districts and all 83 counties throughout Michigan. Signatures were collected in every county and at least 500 signatures were collected in each district to show the statewide grassroots strength behind Glenn.

Michigan 4 Conservative Senate (MI4CS) helped assemble the all-volunteer coalition of TEA Parties and individuals from around the State of Michigan. These volunteers were trained through conference calls, one on one, and personal phone calls. "We have been told over and over that there is no way that we could gather the required signatures through an all grassroots effort in such a short time. We've been told that it has never been done before. Well, we just did it! We are Americans and we are serious about our freedoms! The TEA Party was integral to the foundation of this country, and will also be vital in saving it."

MI4CS credits the successful framework of the Hoosiers 4 Conservative Senate and the Indiana TEA Parties strong defeat of 36 year incumbent Dick Lugar. According to Freeland TEA Party activist Catherine Zemanek, “The grassroots supporters of Richard Mourdock blazed the trail for the people of Indiana to take back their government, and we strongly believe that if it can happen in Indiana, it can happen here in Michigan. The people in the Midwest are speaking up loud and clear, and we want our values represented by true Conservatives. We are going to save this country, one state at a time.”

Utilizing the framework of the Indiana TEA party effort, MI4CS TEA Parties vetted all of the Republican candidates prior to choosing one candidate to endorse and support. Glenn won the vote and endorsement, providing the "Boots on the Ground" necessary for the petition drive, the upcoming primary, and the ultimate defeat of incumbent Senator Debbie Stabenow in November.

“Politicians from both political parties have demeaned and slandered Patriots and Conservatives repeatedly with homosexual slurs, lies, and labels such as radicals and terrorists. But in reality, we’re just concerned citizens with traditional values that nearly all Americans lived by and took for granted as normal in the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Our parents raised us to be law-abiding, fiscally-responsible people just like most other Americans then and now, and we expect our elected representatives to act that way as well,” said Mi4CS 11th Congressional District Rep Tim Bos. “The status quo is unacceptable, and we’re willing to make the sacrifices required to change it. Getting a win for Richard Mourdock, and more than enough nominating signatures for Gary Glenn is further proof that we are not alone, we are not “dead”, we are not marginal, and indeed, we are a force to be reckoned with”. 

Cindy Gamrat is founder and facilitator of Michigan 4 Conservative Senate.

Gary Glenn's TEA Party Army Shocks and Awes Michigan Political Establishment

Volunteers collect over 27,000 signatures for US Senate race -- more than Hoekstra, Durant, and Hekman, who paid staff to gather signatures

Gary Glenn

LANSING, Mich. – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn Tuesday submitted to the Secretary of State the signatures of 27,227 registered voters gathered by an all-volunteer army of TEA Party and other grassroots conservatives to place Glenn’s name on the August 7th GOP primary ballot. The total was thousands more signatures than submitted by GOP rivals Pete Hoekstra, Clark Durant, and Randy Hekman, all of whom had paid campaign staff gathering signatures.

“We witnessed a week ago in Indiana what it meant for a U.S. Senate candidate to have TEA Party support in a Republican primary election,” Glenn said. “Today is just the first example of what it means to have TEA Party support in the Republican primary here in Michigan.”

Glenn in February won the endorsement of Michigan 4 Conservative Senate, a coalition of 43 local TEA Party groups that has since grown to fifty, roughly 80 percent of all active TEA Party groups in the state. The coalition was modeled after Hoosiers for a Conservative Senate, whose support was considered decisive in state Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s upset defeat last Tuesday of six-term U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar in that state’s GOP primary election.

Glenn said he had collected only 1,500 signatures before receiving the TEA Party coalition endorsement on Feb. 25th, meaning TEA Party and other campaign volunteers gathered over 25,000 signatures in only eleven weeks.

“This is how a TEA Party-driven grassroots-intensive campaign can and will compete with and outperform the big-name, big-money campaigns of the two GOP establishment candidates,” Glenn said.

State law requires U.S. Senate candidates to gather a minimum of 15,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, the highest requirement in the nation, and 100 signatures from at least half of the state’s 15 congressional districts. Glenn far exceeded both requirements, submitting signatures from all 83 counties in the state and more than 500 signatures from all 15 districts.

In addition to the MI4CS TEA Parties endorsement, Glenn has also been endorsed by former Gov. Mike Huckabee and by the National Right to Work PAC. State Rep. Mike Shirkey, R-Jackson, is chairing Glenn’s campaign in Jackson County.

Number one issue: bring jobs to Michigan

“The number one issue in the U.S. Senate race is this,” Glenn said, “that in the time Debbie Stabenow has been in the U.S. Senate, Michigan has lost 800,000 private sector jobs, the worst job loss in America. It’s time to give someone else a try.”

To make Michigan and America more competitive and better able to attract and create new jobs, Glenn proposed:

• Repealing ObamaCare and other new regulations that have burdened American businesses under the Obama Administration.

• Passage of state and national Right to Work laws banning compulsory union membership or dues payment, which he said is not only an individual freedom issue but a major factor in where American and foreign companies locate new plant sites and create jobs.

• Dramatically reduce or ideally, eliminate, what is now the highest federal corporate income tax in the world, which discourages new investment in the U.S.

• Aggressively harvesting America’s estimated 1.4 trillion barrels of oil, which a study by Penn State University said will create 800,000 new American oil and gas jobs.

Directional drilling for oil beneath the Great Lakes

Glenn over the last week distinguished himself from both former Congressman Pete Hoekstra and charter schools executive Clark Durant on the issue of directional drilling from onshore for oil underneath the Great Lakes. Such technology involves a wellhead on shore at least 1,000 feet away from the water’s edge, drilling straight down roughly 1,000 feet, then drilling at an angle to access oil found nearly a mile beneath the bottom of the lakes.

In 1996, the Michigan Environmental Science Board, comprised of university and other scientists with environmental and natural resource expertise, concluded that “there is little to no risk of contamination to the Great Lakes bottom or waters through releases directly above the bottom hole portion of directionally drilled wells." http://www.mackinac.org/9712

In a debate last week in Oakland County, Hoekstra and Glenn both said they would support directional drilling for oil under the Great Lakes. Durant said he opposed it. But days later, Hoekstra reversed himself, telling the media he does not support such drilling.

“Apparently, I’m the only candidate,” Glenn said, “who’ll stand his ground and fight to bring high-paying oil and gas jobs, lower gas prices, and energy independence to Michigan, rather than run for cover as Pete Hoekstra did.”

“If every U.S. senator took the same ‘not in my backyard’ position Clark Durant does on this issue,” Glenn said, “we’d be stuck right where we are with high unemployment, high gas prices, and giving hundreds of millions of dollars for oil from countries that don’t like us and would like to blow us up.”

Congressional term limits

In a debate Monday night in Grand Rapids, Glenn also distinguished himself from Hoekstra and Durant on the issue of term limits. Glenn supports a Constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Congress. Durant opposes Congressional term limits, while Hoekstra in 2004 broke a term limits pledge he made when first running for Congress in 1992 that he would serve only six terms.

Hoekstra’s record on deficit spending, the Brady Bill, and Right to Work

During the debate, Glenn also criticized Hoekstra for voting for the $850 billion Wall Street bailout, the $192 billion stimulus spending package, outrageous earmarks such as the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere, five times to raise the debt ceiling, the last time to $11 trillion, and for the Brady Bill gun control law.

He also criticized Hoekstra for being endorsed and funded in past campaigns by Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters, and as a result, opposing state and national Right to Work legislation. Hoekstra in 2007 also joined Stabenow and then-Sen. Barack Obama in cosponsoring a bill that would have, by federal mandate, forced all state and local governments in America to open their police, fire fighters, and paramedics to being unionized.

Stabenow on homosexual “marriage”?

Glenn said that President Obama’s recent endorsement of so-called homosexual “marriage” will help him hold Stabenow accountable in November for her opposition to the 2004 Marriage Protection Amendment defining marriage as only between one man and one woman, which Glenn co-authored.

The amendment won nearly 60 percent of the vote statewide, including majorities in heavily African-American Democratic strongholds such as Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw. Polls at the time indicated that two-thirds of African-Americans and two-thirds of union members voted for the amendment.

Between the Lines, a homosexual advocacy newspaper in Detroit, reported in 2004 that Stabenow --during comments to that year’s state Democratic Party convention -- “denounced the ballot proposal banning equal marriage rights which is slated to hit the ballot this November."

“We’ll be asking this fall whether Sen. Stabenow on that issue stands with Barack Obama or with the people of Michigan, including African-Americans and union members, two core elements of her party’s own base,” Glenn said.

Glenn has a 33-year history of fighting for the cause of limited government and conservative values. As executive director of the Idaho Freedom to Work committee, Glenn led the successful effort to pass Right to Work legislation in that state in 1986, prohibiting compulsory union membership. He is a founding member of the Michigan Freedom to Work coalition, which is pushing to enact such a law in Michigan.

As a county commissioner, Glenn 16 years ago authored the first Health Savings Account-based health care plan for county employees anywhere in America and was invited to testify before Congress, where a top Congressional staffer in a news report called him a national “pioneer” in free market healthcare reform.

As president of the American Family Association of Michigan for the last 12 years, Glenn has promoted traditional family values, including coauthoring Michigan's Marriage Protection Amendment defining marriage as only between one man and one woman.

Glenn was an Eagle Scout, captain of his high school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and served eight years in the Army National Guard, in which he won two Army Achievement Medals and was an honor graduate of both basic and advanced individual training. He attends Midland Baptist Church, and he and his wife Annette have five children and two grandchildren.

Michigan Senate Candidate Says He'll Oppose Top Abortion Provider's "War on Women"

Glenn calls for end to taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood

Gary Glenn

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn Wednesday called for an end to taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood’s “war on women,” pointing to the nation’s top abortion provider’s responsibility for one out of every four abortions performed in the U.S.

“While pro-abortion ideologues such as Debbie Stabenow support forcing taxpayers to violate their conscience, I will work to end taxpayer-funding of Planned Parenthood’s 40-year old war on women,” Glenn wrote in a statement to Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards in response to a May 1st letter inviting him to answer the group’s survey of candidates for federal office.

Glenn Endorses TEA Party Budget Plan

Gary Glenn

MIDLAND, Mich. -- Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn Saturday endorsed a bold plan to stop the debt, balance the federal budget within 5 years, repeal Obamacare and restore America’s economic vitality and leadership.

The plan, based on the grassroots-generated "Tea Party Budget" proposal, was unveiled Friday by Senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Mike Lee of Utah, all members of the TEA Party Caucus of the U.S. Senate.

Glenn called the plan “a blueprint to restore America’s freedoms, prosperity and leadership in the world.”

“This is a plan as big and bold as the crisis and despair which Senator Debbie Stabenow and Barack Obama have created for the working men and women of our country,” Glenn said. “I’m eager to join Senators DeMint, Paul, and Lee in taking action to save our country from the brink of socialism and financial ruin and ensure that its people are never again threatened by the radical far-left social and economic experimentation we’ve endured under Stabenow and Obama.”

Called “A Platform to Revitalize America,” the proposal would:

• make Medicare a premium support plan that would give seniors the same healthcare plan enjoyed by members of Congress, while saving an estimated $1 trillion over 10 years;

• restore discretionary spending to 2008 levels;

• freeze foreign aid spending;

• eliminate the Departments of Commerce, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, while privatizing the Transportation Security Administration;

• repeal Obamacare and the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act;

• permit construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and implement broad tax reform by establishing a 17 percent flat tax for individuals and corporations.

Glenn last month won the endorsement of the Michigan 4 Conservative Senate statewide TEA Party, a coalition of at least 43 TEA Party organizations in Michigan. He is also endorsed by former Arkansas governor, presidential candidate and current Fox News host Mike Huckabee and the National Right to Work Committee PAC in the Republican primary.

Glenn has a 33-year history of fighting for the cause of limited government and conservative values. As executive director of the Idaho Freedom to Work committee, Glenn drove the successful effort to pass Right to Work legislation in that state in 1986, prohibiting compulsory union membership. As a county commissioner, Glenn 16 years ago authored the first Health Savings Account-based health care plan for county employees anywhere in America and was invited to testify before Congress, where a top Congressional staffer in a news report called him a national “pioneer” in free market healthcare reform.

As president of the American Family Association of Michigan for the last 12 years, Glenn has promoted traditional family values and is one of two co-authors of Michigan’s Marriage Protection Amendment, defining marriage as only between one man and one woman, which was approved by nearly 60 percent of voters in the November 2004 general election.

Gary Glenn: On the Road to the United States Senate

Gary Glenn, Michigan Republican candidate for the United States Senate has been endorsed by Governor Mike Huckabee, National Right to Work and most recently by a coalition of 43 Michigan TEA Party organizations (MI 4 Conservative Senate).  National pundits assume that his challenger, Pete Hoekstra, a former congressman for 18 years, who supported TARP and bailouts; voted for debt limit increases, supported the Brady Bill; opposed Right to Work and was endorsed by Jimmy Hoffa, is the likely nominee based on name recognition and voter apathy.  They don't know the time in which they live and they don't know Gary.  If you want to see one of the most remarkable political upsets in the 2012 election cycle, just watch Gary.  To paraphrase President Kennedy speaking of Winston Churchill, Gary Glenn, more than anyone we know, mobilizes truth and sends it into battle.

Here is Gary Glenn interviewed this morning on a Michigan morning radio program:

Gary Glenn Interview 3/01/2012

(audio)

Gary Glenn Wins Backing of TEA Party/9-12 Patriot Groups for Michigan GOP Senate Nomination

Gary Glenn

Gary Glenn today won the unified support of more than 40 grassroots TEA Party, 9-12 and Patriot organizations gathered in a first of its kind convention in Michigan.  The coalition known as Michigan 4 Conservative Senate (MI4CS) pledges "boots on the ground" in his campaign to unseat the liberal and vulnerable Democrat, Debbie Stabenow.

With eight candidates on the initial ballot, in the first round five of the candidates were eliminated due to a tie with the lowest number of votes received. The three candidates moving forward to the second round were Clark Durant, Gary Glenn, and Pete Hoekstra. Pete Hoekstra lost in the second round of voting which brought the race down to a battle between Clark Durant and Gary Glenn.

Glenn Wins Kalamazoo Area TEA Party Vote

Gary Glenn

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn Thursday night won the support of the delegates a Kalamazoo area TEA Party group will send to a statewide convention of 55 such groups later this month where they will endorse and unite behind one candidate in the GOP Senate primary.

Glenn won the support of the VanKal TEA Party Patriots, who will send their delegates to vote for Glenn at the Michigan 4 Conservative Senate statewide TEA Party convention on Feb. 25th.

(Click here for Kalamazoo Gazette coverage)

Results of the voting were: Glenn 46 percent, Randy Hekman 20 percent, Clark Durant 16 percent, Peter Konetchy 8 percent, Scotty Boman 7 percent, and Pete Hoekstra 4 percent.

"There are thousands of TEA Party patriots across Michigan who deeply love America and are committed to the hard work that's required to bring our country back from the brink of socialism," Glenn said. "I will be both humbled and proud to fight alongside them to defeat one of the most liberal U.S. senators in the country and help preserve a free country to pass on to our children."

This week Glenn was endorsed by the National Right to Work Committee PAC in an email sent to the PAC’s supporters nationwide urging contributions to Glenn’s campaign.

(Click here for the endorsement)

The pro-Right to Work group’s endorsement comes as Glenn’s campaign is gathering steam on the strength of TEA Party straw poll wins and endorsements.

Last week, Glenn won the support of the Midland area TEA Party group “We the People of Mid-Michigan” – defeating Clark Durant 57-to-17 for the support of their MI4CS convention delegates.

In September, he defeated Washington, D.C. lobbyist and former 18-year congressman Pete Hoekstra and five other candidates in a straw poll of 500 attendees following a debate sponsored by three mid-Michigan TEA Party groups. He won the straw poll by double-digits following a TEA Party-sponsored debate in Richland attended by 300 in November, and won an outright majority among five candidates participating in a November debate sponsored by the Grand Traverse Republican Party.

Last month Glenn won the support of the Western Thumb TEA Party, in Vassar, and Clinton County TEA Party.

In December, Glenn was endorsed by Fox News host and former Gov. Mike Huckabee.

National Right to Work PAC Supports Gary Glenn for US Senate

The free and prosperous nation handed down to us by our parents and the generations that came before them is at imminent risk of being damaged beyond repair, and the monopoly stranglehold Big Labor bosses have on our federal, state and local government budgets -- and on most Democrats and too many Republicans -- is largely to blame.

Gary Glenn Reports on Surging Senate Campaign Against Washington Insider

Gary Glenn, candidate for the US Senate from Michigan, continues to make it look easy.  The pro-life, pro-right-to-work, TEA Party conservative has racked up wins in numerous debate straw polls against an 18 year incumbent who is backed by Jimmy Hoffa, voted for the Wall Street bailout, and supports gun control.

Here's the latest report from his surging campaign:

Dear Friends,

Our campaign continues to gather steam on straw poll wins.

Just last week I won the endorsement of the TEA Party group We the People of Mid-Michigan, defeating Clark Durant on a 57 to 17 vote. I’ve won straw polls following TEA Party-sponsored U.S. Senate debates in DeWitt and Richland, as well as straw polls (so far) by the Western Thumb and Clinton County TEA Parties.

In case you missed it, here’s news coverage of the Ottawa County TEA Party debate last week in which I confronted Washington, D.C. lobbyist and former 18-year congressman Pete Hoekstra about his voting record in Congress:

GRAND RAPIDS PRESS — “Glenn continually chastised Hoekstra’s voting record on major TEA Party issues, such as the Wall Street bailout and raising the debt ceiling, during his time in the U.S. House. ‘If you vote for the $850 billion Wall Street bailout and raising the debt ceiling to $11 trillion, then he’s the same as Debbie Stabenow,’ Glenn said, referring to the Democratic incumbent.

. . . Allegan County Tea Party member Kathy Kibby believed Glenn scored some points while challenging Hoekstra. ‘I believe Gary (Glenn) was speaking the truth,’ Kibby said. ‘Pete has to stand on his record, and there’s a lot there we don’t agree with, and Gary was bringing it out.’”  Read more here

I hope you’ll consider attending my campaign fundraiser this Saturday, Feb. 4th in Lansing at Tony M’s Restaurant. Enjoy dinner and a fun evening with Revolutionary War hero “Patrick Henry” and me. Click here for more details and to purchase tickets.

This week I’ll be speaking to the Jackson, Brighton, and VanKal TEA parties. Click here for the complete calendar of our campaign events.

Most importantly I must have your financial support to be able to quickly fund the direct mail, phone banks, petition gathering, and grassroots organization necessary to win the primary.

Please contribute whatever you can to my campaign today by clicking here, and please urge your family, friends, and others you know to also contribute by forwarding them this email.

Thank you so much for your generosity, your support, and your prayers.

Respectfully,

Gary Glenn

Michigan GOP US Senate Candidates' Debate

 
Mich. tea partiers seek consensus Senate pick

From The Examiner

By Kathy Barks Hoffman

Many of Michigan's tea party activists are trying to coalesce behind one of the eight Republicans running for the chance to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, but the infighting over whether a unified effort is the way to go could harm GOP chances to deny Stabenow a third term.

The movement is patterned on successful efforts by Indiana tea party groups that have rallied behind Richard Mourdock as the tea party challenger to Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar. In Michigan, more than 50 tea party groups have joined under the name Michigan 4 Conservative Senate, or MI4CS for short, to try to avoid dispersing their clout in a field crowded with conservatives.

The group is sponsoring a Senate debate Saturday at Central Michigan University and plans to return to the Mount Pleasant campus on Feb. 25 to hold a straw poll and decide which candidate will get the group's backing leading up to the August GOP primary.

Mike Huckabee Rallies Conservatives to US Senate Candidate Gary Glenn

On November 9th, Mike Huckabee endorsed Gary Glenn's candidacy for US Senate.  Today the former governor of Arkansas flew to Michigan and joined Gary Glenn and hundreds of supporters at a rally in Birch Run.

Glenn is one of eight candidates in the race for the Republican nomination in Michigan, but recent straw poll victories, a viral web ad and Mike Huckabee's endorsement has helped fundraising.  Tea party and GOP leaders across Michigan have taken notice of Glenn's surging campaign.

Governor Huckabee told the mid-Michigan crowd that "Gary Glenn is not a person who needs this job, but he's a person who this job needs." Huckabee praised Glenn as a man whose votes will be guided by eternal principles he's always had ... he won't be a part of their club, he'll always be a part of yours."

Learn more at www.GaryGlenn.US

Gary Glenn for US Senator from Michigan

Gary Glenn

In every Congressional election cycle a few key races become the focus of national attention because of the power of the personalities involved, the contrast in policy positions, or because of what is at stake in the control of the House or Senate. I am convinced that Michigan is going to be a critical battleground next year for those reasons and more.

In the Michigan Republican primary for the nomination to challenge Senator Debbie Stabenow, Gary Glenn is facing a former Republican Congressman who supported TARP, the Brady Gun Control Bill, opposes Right to Work legislation and has the strong support of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. The other Republican establishment retreads challenging Gary are not much better.

Stabenow is considered the most vulnerable Democrat Senator running in 2012, and her defeat or reelection could determine which party controls the Senate in the years ahead.

I have been privileged to know Gary for the past 14 years. He is an extraordinarily good and gifted leader with a spark of greatness our country desperately needs right now. In his twenties, Gary led the successful statewide initiative that made Idaho a Right to Work state. No less than Charlton Heston was so impressed with Gary's leadership of that effort, he agreed to make TV spots for the campaign and was a friend and supporter of Gary for the rest of his life. Gary also led a School Choice ballot initiative campaign in Michigan and for the past 13 years has transformed the state affiliate of the American Family Association into one of the most formidable advocacy groups in that state. Gary and the American Family Association of Michigan have faced down the American Library Association and ensured Internet filtering in libraries; they have taken on major hotel chains over in-room pornography and won; and they have been a bulwark against efforts to impose the radical homosexual agenda through city ordinances and in the state legislature. Gary is also a founding member of the Michigan Freedom to Work Coalition, which is pushing for passage of a Right to Work law in that state. Incredibly, support for Right to Work is booming in the very home of forced, big unionism.

In several debates involving all the Republican candidates, Gary has won by wide margins the straw polls that followed. The TEA Party movement in Michigan has agreed to unite behind a single candidate in this race, and Lord willing, Gary will be the TEA Party candidate.

Gary's enormous political skills are exceeded only by his profound love for his country and a deep Christian faith that anchors and permeates all that he does.

This race, Gary's campaign to repair the damage that has been done to this country and restore American greatness is not merely a Michigan matter. It has implications for every American. For that reason, I am writing to ask that you please give whatever you can to ensure that a true Right to Life, Reagan conservative replaces Debbie Stabenow in the United States Senate. Campaign contributions before the end of this quarter are especially needed and helpful and can be made at Gary's website. I am confident that the more you know about this good patriot and freedom fighter, the more you will want to help.

I could not recommend anyone more highly than Gary. Please join this effort "to restore the greatness of our republic." Thanks for anything you can do to help.