Join us for the monthly meeting with Mark Totten, candidate for Secretary of State.
Meetings begin at 6:00 p.m.General membership meetings are held at our Jackson field office, 134 N. Mechanic St., Jackson, Michigan 49201. On the third Monday of every month.
Mark Totten served as Chief Legal Counsel for Governor Whitmer (2019-22), U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan (2022-25), and is now a candidate for Michigan Attorney General.
His top priority will be to hold the President accountable as the Administration continues to brazenly violate the law and harm Michiganders. At the same time, he’ll fill the gaps left by a federal government turned against the very people it’s supposed to protect – in civil rights, worker rights, consumer protections, and more. As Mark’s record shows, he’s a fierce advocate who doesn’t back down.
Mark was born and raised in Kalamazoo. His mom was a public-school teacher, MEA member, and single parent. His dad was a long-distance truck driver. Through most of high school and college, Mark was preparing for a career in the ministry but felt a growing call to help build more just communities. Law school gave him the tools to do so. After graduating from Yale, Mark began his career in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Department of Justice. He soon returned home to Michigan, where he began teaching law at MSU. His partner, Kristin, is a former ACLU attorney and today protects children from abuse and neglect. They live in Kalamazoo with their kids, Jake (16) and Grace (18).
For nearly four years starting in 2019, Mark served as Chief Legal Counsel for Governor Whitmer – one of her closest advisors. Among other achievements, Mark led the Governor’s fight to protect reproductive freedom, starting the day the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear the Dobbs case. This successful and first-in-the nation lawsuit protected reproductive choice across Michigan until voters passed Prop. 3. In addition, Mark was a key force behind the
Join us for the monthly meeting with Mark Totten, candidate for Secretary of StateGovernor signing into law the largest criminal justice reform packages in a generation. And he opened a path for the Governor to reinstate prevailing wage in state projects in 2021, nearly two years before the legislature changed the law.
After his nomination by the President and confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Mark began service as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan in 2022, where he served as chief federal law enforcement officer across 49 of Michigan’s 83 counties – the entire U.P. and the western half of the lower peninsula.
As U.S. Attorney, Mark protected children, prosecuting members of an international sextortion ring that took the life of 17-year-old Jordan DeMay from Marquette. He also secured multiple convictions of adults whose guns killed kids, including a Lansing resident whose gun took the life of a 2-years-old.
He protected seniors who were the victims of fraud, like a Lake County resident who lost nearly $400,000. He protected civil rights, including the successful prosecution of a white supremacist who painted hateful messages on the side of a synagogue in Hancock and another man planning a mass shooting at a house of worship in East Lansing.
He’s protected the environment, going after corporate polluters and leading one of the nation’s largest prosecutions of a scheme to disable emissions equipment on vehicles. And he’s protected democracy, securing the conviction of a former Speaker of the Michigan House who accepted bribes while regulating the marijuana industry — a case the Detroit News called “the largest federal corruption case in Michigan’s capital in a generation.
”With respect and credibility across Michigan – especially in the red and rural parts of the state where Democrats must secure more votes in statewide elections – Mark is positioned to win. And having served as a lawyer at the highest levels of state and federal government in Michigan, Mark is prepared to lead.