Michigan Speaker Wentworth Leads 'From the Grassroots Up'.

• Author: Householder, Stacy

Jason Wentworth always keeps a copy of Michigan's legislative process and procedure guide at hand--as House speaker, he never knows when a parliamen debate might break out. A Republican state representative since 2016 and speaker for a year, Wentworth is a former military police officer who completed a tour in South Korea. As a former regional coordinator for the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency, Wentworth says a desire to improve services to veterans inspired his political career. NCSL asked him about his approach to leadership and legislating.

When you think about Michigan's future, what do you see as the main challenges and opportunities?

Michigan's Legislature is in a unique position right now. We're focusing on the ongoing COVID response, and we're looking at long-term policy reforms. We're working hard every day to strike that balance and get back to some sense of normalcy, while also making sure our responses to the pandemic remain strong. It can be interesting because you wear so many hats at once, so it's a constant challenge.

During your tenure as speaker, how do you aspire to strengthen Michigan?

I look at the first bills we introduced this term, which focused on ethics reform and making government more accountable, more transparent, and just frankly better for generations to come. So, making those real substantive changes to government ethics will change how we work on anything in the future.

When we have the opportunity to work on really important issues, one thing we can do is make sure that touches everything else we do and anything we ever will do. If we can make these real changes in the way our Legislature does business, it means strengthening our government for generations.

What advice do you think is most important for new legislators?

I would say, get to know your colleagues on both sides of the aisle as people first and colleagues second. Because once yo make that connection as a person, it's difficult to fight them an debate them once you realize they're in it for the right reasons you know what they're there for. You might disagree on the policy, but at the end of the day, they're people just like you from a different part of the state with different backgrounds, different experiences to draw from.

How does operating in a term-limited environment influence your leadership style?

It basically means that government officials don't have as much of that institutional knowledge as in years past, but it means that we have...