Wayne Stiles spent his career as an industrial designer solving other people's problems. Now he wants voters in Michigan's 1st District to hire him to solve Washington's.
"I'm not looking for a job. I'm looking to get a guardrail back up on this democracy and flip this congressional seat blue."
Stiles holds a BFA from the University of Michigan and built a career in new product development before launching his own small business. "After the last election, I said, if I need to stop complaining, I have to get out there and actually do something," he said. He's crisscrossed the district since launching his campaign, driving roughly 40,000 miles since switching vehicles last October alone, hitting towns from Ironwood to Marquette to the Soo. "It's a lot of miles," he said.
A "different kind of Democrat"
Stiles pushed back on being sorted into an ideological lane.
"People keep trying to put my campaign inside of a box — are you moderate, are you progressive, are you liberal, are you conservative," he said. "As a designer, I don't put myself in boxes. I created them."
Without naming names, he drew a contrast with his primary rivals — one he described as embracing the Socialist Party's endorsement, another as carrying "the mantle of the Democratic establishment." Blomquist has said he'd govern as a democratic socialist; Barr has drawn labor and party-establishment endorsements. "They may feel comfortable inside those boxes, but I do not," Stiles said. His pitch instead leans on his design background: "You first look at the problem, you then come up with solutions, you then execute those solutions, and then you test them."
He argued that approach is necessary math, not just message: flipping the seat requires roughly 186,000 votes, meaning "nearly every Democrat, a supermajority of independents, and a quarter of Republicans that are ready for change." He pointed to Barr's 2024 result against Bergman, in which she took about 37% of the vote, as evidence the party needs a different approach. "We really got beat hard, and I thought, we have to do something better," he said.
Data centers and the power grid
Stiles said he doesn't think Michigan needs large AI data centers, but if a community wants one, Congress should require guardrails: decommissioning bonds so companies can't abandon facilities, transparency on water use, and closed-loop cooling systems. He tied the issue to grid reliability, noting recent ice storms have knocked out power across the district even as utilities seek approval to add capacity for data centers. "We can't even keep our grid up for the people here," he said, "and yet we're willing to immediately give tax incentives and tax breaks for these data centers to come in."
War powers, Iran and the federal budget
Stiles said Congress has ceded its constitutional war powers to the executive branch for decades, including in the recent conflict with Iran. "We're always working outside the rules in the gray areas," he said of the current administration. He linked military spending to unmet needs at home, citing a roughly $100,000 gap between what a typical district household can afford — around $175,000, based on a $63,000 median income — and the cost of new modest construction, which he put at $275,000 to $350,000. With the national debt near $39 trillion, he said the fix isn't cutting services but "rearranging our tax system" to tax billionaire corporations on wealth. "We watched the richest people in the world build rocket ships and launch themselves into space instead of reinvesting into their people and their communities," he said.
FISA, Bergman's donors and grassroots fundraising
Stiles opposes renewing FISA surveillance powers without a warrant requirement, the reauthorization Bergman voted for. He also raised Bergman's campaign finances, pointing to a roughly $289,000 donation from a California couple — attorney Robin Rosensweig and her husband, Elliott Broidy, who pleaded guilty in 2020 to an illegal foreign lobbying scheme and was later pardoned by President Trump, a pardon Bergman is listed as having supported. "He has no reason to listen to anybody here," Stiles said, adding that Bergman hasn't held a town hall since 2017 and lives primarily in Louisiana.
By contrast, Stiles said his campaign is self-run and grassroots-funded. "I know how to write HTML code, if I want to send out an email," he said, noting he writes two to three policy emails a week himself. He acknowledged he can't outspend Bergman, who reported $1.8 million in cash on hand last quarter plus backing from the Bergman Victory Fund PAC. "I kind of feel like he's the last member wearing his members-only jacket," Stiles said. "People are upset."
Term limits, Supreme Court reform and ethics
Stiles supports term limits — he floated capping House service at three terms — paired with lengthening House terms from two years to three so members spend less time fundraising and more time legislating. "They didn't expect them to come in and camp out for a career," he said of the framers. He also called for age limits on candidates, Supreme Court term limits, a ban on members trading individual stocks while serving on committees that oversee those industries, and eliminating separate congressional health coverage. "How about we just get rid of the House and Senate health care plan and tell them you're going on the same plan we're on," he said. "Then stuff would actually start getting done."
Health care: a "Public Option Plus"
Health care is his top issue, and Stiles was critical of primary rivals who back an immediate shift to Medicare for All without a transition plan. "There's 40% of the people that work in our district that are in health care," he said. "If you raze it on Monday, how are they going to get paid on Friday?"
His near-term plan: revive the public option originally proposed for the Affordable Care Act, and allow insurers to sell plans across state lines to inject competition into a Michigan market he said is dominated by three companies. Longer term, he proposed what he called "Public Option Plus" — federal dollars to reopen shuttered rural clinics, student loan help to recruit doctors and teachers into underserved towns, and redevelopment of vacant downtown buildings for housing above new medical offices. He pointed to consolidation by Munson Healthcare and the potential closure of the labor-and-delivery unit in Gaylord as warning signs. "We're going to be having babies on the side of the road next winter," he said. "I have a plan for every single one of my topics. I'm not just going to give you a punchline."
Closing pitch
Asked for his closing argument to Leelanau County voters, Stiles pointed to his career fixing broken systems. "People will say, Wayne, it's going to take years to undo the damage this administration has created," he said. "My answer to them is, great — that's exactly what I spent a career doing. I solve problems, I fix problems, and I'm going to take that challenge on."
