The embarrassing list of excuses used to exclude Ali Sledz, the Libertarian candidate for Michigan’s 35th Senate District, are short on facts but full of holes, bad arguments, low-quality standards, and self-interest.
MIDLAND, MI — Last week, the League of Women Voters withdrew sponsorship of Saginaw Valley State University’s (SVSU’s) Great Lakes Bay Region Candidate Forum because it excluded Ali Sledz, the only female candidate in Michigan’s 35th District Senate race and the only one under 40 years of age.
When questioned about the exclusion of this qualified Libertarian candidate, Assistant Professor Kevin Lorentz issued a series of excuses that a toddler would be ashamed to try on his mom if caught with a hand in the cookie jar. Let’s take a quick look.
“There Are No Polls”—Except for the Massive Gallop Poll SVSU Ignored to Exclude Ali Sledz
SVSU’s Professor Lorentz wrote that there’s “no publicly available polling date [sic; “data”] for this election cycle for the 35th Senate seat…” 
How convenient. A district with only 270,000 voters may never be polled.
But a massive January 2026 Gallup poll revealed that a record-high 45% of U.S. adults now identify as political independents. This far surpasses those calling themselves either Democrats or Republicans (27%). Moreover, among Millennials and Gen Z voters, the percentages rise even further—to 54% and 56% respectively.
Commenting on this oversight, Ali Sledz said, “I’m embarrassed that I was able to uncover this information so easily, but a salaried SVSU assistant professor didn’t. Worse yet, by failing to appreciate that young voters are by far the most dissatisfied with the two major parties, Prof Lorentz is failing to serve the very age group that populates his own classrooms!”
Minority Ideas Aren’t Welcome Here—And We Want to Make Sure They Stay That Way
SVSU’s Lorentz also described a criterion that excludes candidates whose political party did not receive at least 10% of the votes cast in the prior election for that seat, saying: “the Democratic and Republican candidates in the 2022 election each finished with more than 10% of the total votes cast. There was no Libertarian candidate on the ballot in 2022.”
“This is very strange,” Ms. Sledz pointed out. “There’s no comparison to be made because there was no Libertarian candidate running for this district in 2022, yet this criterion is somehow ‘good enough’ for Professor Lorentz. I wonder if that’s good enough for voters in the 35th Senate district.”
“Levels of voter dissatisfaction are higher than ever before and have been rising since 2011, yet this criterion openly excludes the one candidate who is most likely to reflect the rising dissatisfaction and independent spirit of today’s voters! You just can’t make this stuff up!”
But Mom! Everyone Else is Doing It!
As if mediocrity were the goal, Prof Lorentz’ candidate forum conforms to the low standards found elsewhere: “Our approach mirrors other forums…”
When asked about this approach, Ms. Sledz said, “I would be embarrassed to serve a meal that’s no better than the worst kitchen in the neighborhood. My kids stopped giving me the ‘All the kids are doing it’ excuse when they were about seven years old. Knowing that this standard is good enough for a university that taxpayers are forced to fund is just rubbing our faces in the dirt.”
It’s Too Hard to Add a Name to a List, and If I Call It “Logistics,” It Will Sound Believable
Prof Lorentz concluded his email with a double-barreled whopper: “While we certainly want to be inclusive of as many opinions and viewpoints as possible, we also must balance this against the logistical challenges inherent with hosting these forums.”
Candidate Sledz commented, saying, “He actually said ‘as many viewpoints as possible.’ Really? Some of us think that those words should mean something. And then he goes even further with that ‘logistical challenges’ nonsense. We’re talking about adding a third name to a list of candidates. I guess you have to believe that the magic words ‘logistical challenges’ will fool us into thinking that it would take a superhero to add a name.”
A Conflict of Interest?
Ms. Sledz and the Libertarian Party of Michigan uncovered a possible conflict of interest when they investigated the background of Assistant Professor Kevin Lorentz. “We like to think of our teachers and government employees as honest people whom we can trust to be fair,” said Ms. Sledz.
“But we discovered that Mr. Lorentz is a Republican Party member of the Bay Conty Board of Canvassers. So, he’s a member of one of the only two parties that he included in the candidatE forum. That sounds like a built-in bias to me.”
Just Give Me More Money: Limitless Greed at SVSU
Ms. Sledz also pointed out a self-interested money angle to her exclusion from the candidate forum. “it’s particularly galling that Professor Lorentz is also a volunteer for the Friends of SVSU Political Action Committee.
It’s important to understand that political action committees (PACs) are notorious for seeking taxpayer money to subsidize whatever
group they represent.
In this case, it means shipping even more pallets of taxpayer cash to SVSU. So, they not only lobby to funnel more money into their own institution, but then they exclude a candidate that might say something that they don’t like. For example, what if I raised questions about how money is spent at these universities? We’ve heard about the scandalous number of high-salaried bureaucrats and the massive number of non-teaching positions at these schools.”
More Questionable SVSU Practices to Come
The Libertarian Party will explore additional questionable practices at SVSU’s Department of Political Science and within the Saginaw Valley State University hierarchy in the fourth press release of this series. Stay tuned.
Ali Sledz is a resident of Midland and mother of three. Married for 16 years (in July), she is an active volunteer in her local school district. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Central Michigan University and is working on a Master of Science at Oakland University. Alarmed by the lack of responsibility among the two major parties, she is running as The Accountability Candidate for Michigan’s long-vacant 35th District Senate seat.
Contact: Ali Sledz
Website: www.sledzforliberty.com
Email: SledzforLP@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Ali-Sledz-for-Michigans-35th-District
