A third person is in the race for the 74th District State Representative seat in Knox and Henry Counties. Mike DeSutter of Woodhull made the announcement in front of family and supporters outside the Knox County Courthouse.
DeSutter joins Wayne Saline and Dan Swanson in the race.
DeSutter said his experiences as Board President of West Central FS, along with serving on the Costa Catholic Academy and AlWood School Boards, separate him from his GOP primary opponents.
DeSutter said he wants to be a voice for conservative thinking in Springfield. He said that includes passing a budget that lives within the state’s means.
“The state can’t just simply keep spending money and not do things differently. If there’s an agency or some program that’s duplicated or needs to be let go, we need to let them go. Or people that need to be fired, be fired. That’s the way the business world works, and the state has to act more like a business,” DeSutter said.
DeSutter said he would work to encourage job growth by promoting vocational programs in schools tailored towards jobs in the area.
“We need to train kids in different areas. Some kids are going to be engineers, some kids are going to be nurses, some kids are going to be carpenters or electricians. And we need to try in the high school and junior colleges to focus more in on that and get them trained,” DeSutter said.
Republican State Representative Don Moffitt currently holds the seat but has announced he will not run for another term.
