Are you there Upton? It’s me, Benton Harbor.

Benton Harbor and St. Joseph both lay on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan, separated by less than a quarter mile. The demographics and the crime statistics are almost polar opposite.

It has been 32 years since Fred Upton was elected to congress, representing Michigan’s 6th district and the great city of Benton Harbor.

In Benton Harbor, where 85 percent of residents are black, 48 percent live in poverty- making less than 12,000 dollars per capita in the past 12 months.[1]

It has been 32 years since Fred Upton promised to bring my city justice. It has been 32 years of our friends dying in the streets, in the jail cells, and in the city they love. 32 years of unprogressive and unproductive policy that has rotted my city to the core.

Despite Congressman Fred Upton owning and operating the world’s largest home appliance manufacturer, Whirlpool, in our backyard- Benton Harbor’s unemployment rate is 177 times the national average.[2] Whirlpool, who netted $5.7 billion dollars in sales in the last quarter of 2018,[3] was awarded a 12-year, $3.8 million property tax abatement in 2012. As a result, Whirlpool won’t pay Benton Harbor property taxes again until 2024.

This month the state has struck a plan to shut down the city’s only High School. Citing a $16 million dollar…