DGA-Affiliated Group Calls On State Senators To Support Gov's Road Plan

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/09/2025) America Works USA, an organization affiliated with the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), is running social media ads calling on viewers to tell their state Senator to support the MI Road Ahead Plan.

The URL displayed in the social media ad leads to an Action Network site, which sponsors a letter campaign that allows individuals to input their name, contact information, address and email address and have an email sent to elected officials, in this case, asking them to get on board with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s MI Road Ahead Plan.

The social media ad says “call your senator and ask them to get the job done.” It also says failure to act means thousands of jobs lost, skyrocketing vehicle repair costs and higher expenses for infrastructure repair down the line. 

In 2023, America Works USA spent over $1 million with Change Media Group, based in Detroit, for media buys and production, according to its IRS 990 form filed in 2024. The Change Media Group designed and developed Whitmer's 2022 campaign website, and it touts having delivered 57 impressions per person to 2.7 million Michiganders to support Whitmer's reelection in 2022.

In total, it reports spending over $4 million on media buys and production and over $8 million in political campaign activity expenditures in 2023. 

America Works USA’s 2023 IRS 990 lists the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) as a related tax-exempt organization and Stephen Hill, the organization’s treasurer and director, and Jillian Edelman, also listed as a director, were also the DGA’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer, respectively, for the 2023-24 and 2025-26 cycles.

This call to action came from an organization that shares its directors with the DGA, not a conservative advocacy group, begging the question of why a Democratic organization would be publicly applying pressure to elected Democrats.

However, Whitmer’s office and Senate Appropriations Chair Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing)’s office declined to comment, and the DGA, Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township)’s office and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks' (D-Grand Rapids) office did not respond to requests for comment. 

Sen. Veronica Klinefelt (D-Eastpointe), chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, said she’s been out of town recently and doesn’t know where road funding negotiations are at right now, since there’s been discussion at the leadership level, but she’s open to conversations.

Klinefelt said she knows the roads plan is important to the governor and senators would like to pass a roads plan, but they also want to protect the social services they’ve worked to achieve.

Klinefelt said whether it’s the DGA or another organization getting involved, she doesn’t concern herself with it.

As of Wednesday, the Legislature is eight days past its self-imposed July 1 budget deadline, and the last action taken on the House Republicans’ road funding plan was April 16, when it received testimony in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The package consists of HB 4180, HB 4181, HB 4182, HB 4183, HB 4184, HB 4185, HB 4186, HB 4187 and HB 4230.