Whitsett Asks Off House Committees

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 01/06/2025) Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit) asked House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) on Tuesday to be removed from all committees as she further distances herself from the traditional operations of a state legislator.

Whitsett is the minority vice chair of the House Health Policy Committee and a member of the Insurance and Regulatory Reform committees. Hall's office did not immediately respond to whether he would honor the request.

The four-term legislator made news in 2025 for missing 86.4% of her roll call votes due to what she sees as a disconnect between the policy that comes out of Lansing and the troubles of her community residents, who struggle to get by.

Today, she said she's agitated to see cuts to Focus: Hope and other programs that help her community. By asking to be removed from committees, she's preemptively preventing leadership from stripping her from committees down the road. She said party leadership in both parties routinely use committees, budget, staffing and access as leverage to control lawmakers – rewarding compliance and punishing independence.

“That system only works if you're willing to be managed. I am not,” she said, “You can't weaponize against me what I do not want."

Whitsett became more public with her frustrations about the political culture in Lansing by issuing a press release in which she speaks out against what she described as “a political culture that prioritizes leverage, compliance and talking points over results for the people.”

She sees her work in her community as district-level improvements for Detroit families rather than “symbolic or predetermined votes that advance political careers but do little to improve people's lives.”

“Public service is not about optics or obedience,” Whitsett said, “It's about doing the job. Too many politicians are more afraid of leadership than they are committed to the people they claim to serve.”

She added that partisan finger-pointing has replaced accountability and that Americans are tired of excuses.

“Blaming the other party has become the default,” Whitsett said, “But leadership is a choice. Results don’t require permission, they require resolve.”

Whitsett said she is prepared to discuss how political leverage works, why red tape persists and what it looks like when elected officials choose action over self-preservation.