Liz Hakola is running as the Working Class Party candidate for Michigan’s 1st Congressional District in the Nov. 3, 2026, general election, according to the Michigan Department of State’s official candidate list.
Hakola responded to the Upper Peninsula News candidate questionnaire on Oct. 1. Unless otherwise noted, the information and responses below come from that questionnaire.
Asked why she is running, Hakola said working people need their own political representation.
“Working Class Party candidates are all active, retired or disabled workers,” she said. “A WCP candidate on the ballot offers a meaningful option to the two party system candidates who represent the priorities of the owner class.”
Candidate information
Party: Working Class Party.
Occupation: Hakola said she is retired after 31 years working for a natural gas utility.
Education: She reported earning a bachelor’s degree in 1973.
Family: Hakola said she is widowed.
Previous elected or appointed office: She reported none.
Family in politics or government: She said no family member works in politics or government.
Experience and public service
Hakola ran for the same congressional seat in 2022 and 2024. She received 5,510 votes, or about 1.4%, in 2022, according to the Federal Election Commission’s election results. She received 8,497 votes in 2024, according to the U.S. House clerk’s election statistics.
The Working Class Party nominated her at its June convention as part of a 20-candidate slate for Michigan’s November elections, according to the party’s announcement.
Asked what experience qualifies her for the position, Hakola cited her 31 years working for a Michigan-based natural gas utility.
On the issues
Affordability and cost of living: Hakola argued that the country has sufficient resources to provide housing, food, clean water, health care and education, but that wealth and economic power are distributed unequally.
“Wages are not keeping up with increased costs for gas, electricity, rent, medicine, food,” she said.
She attributed those pressures to capitalism and worker exploitation and called for a system organized around meeting people’s needs.
Health care: Hakola supports universal health care regardless of citizenship and removing profit incentives from the system.
“Universal health care for all residents regardless of citizenship is a basic human right,” she said.
She also called for preventing hospital closures in rural communities and underserved urban areas and making reproductive health care accessible and affordable.
Energy and the environment: Hakola expressed concern about the transparency of data-center development and its effects on farmland, water supplies and the electrical grid. She argued that communities should have meaningful knowledge of and input into such projects.
Federal spending: Hakola called for reducing military spending and protecting funding for health care, education, housing, food assistance and child care.
“Stop the wars and the horrific military buildup,” she said. “Stop cutting money from health, education, housing, food programs and childcare that people need in order to fight wars.”
Top priority: Hakola described organizing workers internationally as her central goal.
“The top priority is for the working class to organize ourselves into a global working class party to get rid of capitalism and replace it with a more humane, rational society,” she said.
Best advice: “Don’t make promises,” Hakola said.
About this race
The six other candidates are Republican Jack Bergman, Democrat Callie Barr, Libertarian Arnett Satterla, Green Party candidate LaVeta Davenport, U.S. Taxpayers candidate Doc Kovaly and Zebulon Featherly, listed with no party affiliation, according to the official state candidate list.
This profile is based on Liz Hakola’s responses to the Upper Peninsula News candidate questionnaire, official election records and the Working Class Party’s nomination announcement. Responses have been excerpted and paraphrased; direct quotations retain her wording.
