(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/30/23) Stacey LaRouche at 24 years old, will be the youngest woman to serve as press secretary to a Michigan governor.
LaRouche came close to breaking a record set by John Truscott in 1991, when he was announced as the former Republican Gov. John ENGLER's press secretary at age 23.
So far in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration, press secretaries have included Tiffany Brown, who became Michigan's first African-American to hold the post in January 2019 (she was around 38 years old at the time), and Bobby Leddy, who was around 27 when he entered the role in 2021.
Former Gov. Rick Snyder had two female press secretaries – Sara Wurfel, who entered the role in January 2011 at around 37, and Anna Heaton, who took on the post in March 2016 when she was around 30.
Liz Boyd turned 50 while holding the post for previous Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, where Boyd developed a reputation as one of the state's longest-serving gubernatorial press secretaries.
Additionally, Democratic Gov. James Blanchard's press secretary in 1983, Sue CARTER, was around 32.
"Usually something like this, at that level, it takes years to build the kind of experience that you need," Truscott said to MIRS. "This tells me that she has some unique talent that the Governor has spotted, and says that she's ready for the job."
While operating as a press secretary in his early 20s, Truscott said then-House Majority Floor Leader, Democrat Pat Gagliardi, called him "the pimply-faced press secretary."
"It was not a favorable comment," Truscott said over the phone, laughing at the memory. "He was using it as a derogatory way to talk about how young I was, and that assumed I wasn't knowledgeable at the time . . . we've had a lot of jokes about that since those years, but . . . it was not easy, I had to work twice as hard to prove myself."
However, he said in the Lansing political process, one can advance at a very young age if they are willing to work hard enough. He added that if someone spends a little time around the Capitol, they'll see it has gotten younger, with term limits and turnover possibly having something to do with it.
Ultimately, Truscott said he's pretty confident no one else has come so close to beating his record, stating "I would have heard."
"I'm very happy for her," he said.
As for LaRouche, the Bay County native studied social relations and policy at Michigan State University, graduating in 2020. She kicked off her time in the Whitmer administration as a communications intern throughout 2020, and recently served as chief deputy press secretary.
