My name is Jasper Martus, state representative for the 69th District in the Michigan House of Representatives.

And welcome to Virtual Intern Experience.

Uh, early on, I either wanted to be Batman when I grew up, but then I didn’t want to have to lose my parents in that process, be a pirate, but then I was afraid of sharks, so I was going to be a freshwater pirate or ultimately be a professional wrestler. My dad and I would’ve been a tag team known as Fire and Brimstone. And after none of those panned out, I always knew I wanted to be in politics. But it wasn’t until just a few months before I decided to run for state representative that I thought that it was possible. My goal was at some point in, in my life to be able to run for office. But the opportunity presented itself when I was 22 years old. There was a new seat in my district because of redistricting. And I really saw a need as we were seeing a lot more dollars come into the state to make sure that those sorts of dollars made it back to Genesee County and to make sure that my community would have an advocate in the room and a seat at the table. So, I always knew that I wanted to be in politics broadly, but it wasn’t until I first ran for State Representative that I knew it would be in an elected office capacity. 

Being one of the youngest state representatives

I think that there is a lot more skepticism of the youth in Lansing than there is in the district that I represent. As I knocked on doors and had conversations with folks that I was trying to earn their vote and work to represent them, there was far less skepticism of my youth than you’d expect. And I think that’s because people want to see younger folks in office, not just peer to peer, young people to young people, but folks of every generation think that it’s important that we have new perspectives and new ideas. Lansing has to be a little bit disrupted in that regard, where I have faced a little bit more skepticism, needing to prove that I deserve to be here. But what reassures me is the folks that elected me back home never had any doubt that despite me being young, that I was up to the challenge.

Overcoming doubts

I just tried to remind myself that I don’t represent the folks in Lansing. I represent the people in my community, and because they’ve never had an issue with my youth, with my perspective, then I must be doing something right if my youth frustrates other people. But ultimately, it’s just disrupting stereotypes about young people. You know, “the kids these days” should not be an insult. That really should be a compliment. I’ve seen that with folks that are my age and a little bit younger and a little bit older. And it’s just a reminder that while there may not be a lot of folks in politics who are younger, I say in politics, anyone under the age of 80 is considered a younger politician. That it’s important that we have a seat at the table.

How to be taken seriously as a young person

The difficulty of running for office that people think that you make money doing this, you actually lose money. There was an attack ad on me that I was a young punk who lived in this parent’s basement, and I said, hey, I’m, I’m actually upstairs, thank you very much. And it was because I had to get rid of my apartment because I had to quit my job because running for office is full-time, so that that is no longer the case. So, there were, there were a lot of comments like that. I found out that when you knock on doors, no matter what the temperature is, you have to be wearing long pants. And, and I knocked doors in my first campaign from March 5^th to August 2nd, only took two days off during that time. And even when it was 99 or 100 degrees, I had to wear pants because I found that folks thought I looked like a little kid if I wore shorts. Sometimes it was not necessarily running away from the fact that you’re young. I often found that that was an asset when I was campaigning that people wanted a fresh face. They wanted younger people involved in politics. But you definitely had comments about, you know, are you old enough to do this? Do you need parents’ permission to do this? And as long as people were operating in good faith about it, then it was funny, if they were a little bit mean, like the attack ads, at the end of the day, I won. So, I guess it worked out.

Working with other generations

There’s really far less skepticism once you start to get to know each other and break down a lot of those stereotypes. You know, I always say, when people ask me what music I like, I say that I like whatever your parents are listening to. So, I found a lot of commonalities with my colleagues who may be my parents’ age or may even be a little bit older than my parents, finding those common things. Either when it comes to fun things like, hey, we have similar taste in music and TV shows, or just, we’re all here to serve people. We may come from different communities, different parts of the state, maybe even different parties, but we we’re all sent here by our communities for the same reason. And that’s to take care of and advocate for our communities. So, focusing on that commonality, whether it’s the fun stuff like movies and TV shows, or the more serious stuff of why we are here as elected officials that really bridges those generational divides.

Communicating effectively

Listening to people and hearing their stories is important for a couple of reasons. It makes you a better legislator because you have an idea of the people that you represent, but also people just want to be heard. When you see folks who feel that politics is divisive or they have no interest in it, they get angry by politics, oftentimes it’s because they feel like their elected officials aren’t listening to them and they’re not being heard. So, I’ve found the role that I need to play is as a listener that I’m a politician, so of course I love to give speeches and talk. Sometimes I probably do a little bit more talking than I do listening, but it’s that listening that makes me the most effective legislator I can be. And then in terms of communication, just always having open dialogue with people. We do coffee hours every month where my constituents can come and hear my updates of what’s going on in Lansing, but then I can listen to them about what’s going on in our community, trying to stay engaged on social media, and making sure that if somebody’s calling into our office and they have an issue or they just need someone to listen to, that my team or I will pick up the phone and listen to them and make sure they know that they’re heard.

Managing pressure and staying grounded

So, I found when I got elected, it was really baptism by fire. I’d been a staffer before I had the opportunity to run and get elected to office. So, I had some idea of what serving in the state legislature would be. I said to folks, at least I would know where the bathrooms were when I was elected. But it’s a totally different story when you go from staff to legislator from outside to inside. And I’ve found trying to stay grounded has been things like really delving into my religion, delving into philosophy, trying to identify the, the broader ideas that are shaping the work that we’re doing here today. You can get bogged down in a lot of things in politics because you’re dealing with a hundred different issues. You’re talking to stakeholders, you’re trying to represent, in my case, 95,000 people that have about 95,000 different ideas on different issues. So, what kept me grounded was trying to not get bogged down in the day to day of my work, but look at those overarching ideas, philosophies, and viewpoints that would help me be a little bit more reassured and confident in the role that I play.

Finding growth through mentorship
 

I wouldn’t be where I am or who I am without mentors. They’ve played an important role in every aspect of my life. Professionally or personally. I think you’re judged by the company that you keep. And, and I’ve just had amazing people in my corner. That starts with an amazing family and friend group that’s always been supportive of me but also identifying folks that are doing something that I want to do one day and that I can learn from them. I did not come from a political family. I did not come from a wealthy family, but I came from a very good and hardworking family. And so, my parents taught me to seek out those people who are doing the work that you want to do one day and learn from them. So, there were so many elected officials and people that worked in politics who put me on this path so that I learned from them, I helped them, I worked for them. And then when I decided to ultimately run for office one day, it was no question that they were going to support me because I’d been there to learn from them every step of the way. So, whether it was people specifically doing the job that you do can be very, very important. That was a huge role for me in terms of learning from folks in politics, but also folks who are generally supportive of you.

Facing fears

Ultimately, whenever I’ve been asked this question, I say, read as much as you can about whatever you’re interested in. You can learn so much from reading. You can get new perspectives. You can get new ideas. James Baldwin talked about how the more that you learn about history, the more you learn that your experience isn’t alone. So, getting an idea of whatever you want to do in your life and then reading about those experiences, you can learn a lot more. And it keeps you grounded, it gives you new perspectives, and it can help you get a better idea of where you want to go next.

Proving yourself when others underestimate you

I think I remind myself when I feel unheard that it’s probably representative of what a lot of my constituents feel. I think that my experience in Lansing, I wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s been a tremendous experience, but it’s also led to a lot of roadblocks and frustrations. So, when you hit those roadblocks, sometimes you feel like, do I want to do another career? Do I want to do something else? But then you have to remind yourself that there were folks that placed their faith in you to come represent them here, and that you just have to power through. That may sound hokey, that may sound cliche, but I’ve really found that to be true, that when I’ve been discouraged, and there have been plenty of times in this job where I didn’t know that I could be this stressed out or under this amount of pressure, but reminding myself that it’s not just about me, it’s about the people that I represent.

Habits for success

I think the most important quality that you can have is resilience. I think the most important hobby that you can have is reading, and then ultimately just staying grounded in terms of the community that you represent when you get elected. Lobbyists are great. I have many that are friends, but as much time as you may spend with them, ultimately, I’m representing the people back in my community and staying as engaged with them as possible reminds me that they’re the ones that sent me here to make good change.

Practicing resilience
 

I think it’s a real sense of history that when you read about folks who have been in your line of work, and it doesn’t matter what line of work that you’re in, that a lot of the frustrations that we have can feel that make us feel that it’s unique and make us feel that we’re alone is almost never the case. That there have been plenty of people who have been through similar experiences and they got through them. And so, too, well, each and every one of us, the quality of resilience that we’re not defined by what happens to us, but how we move forward. Doris Kearns Goodwin, who’s one of my favorite authors, has described resilience as a muscle. If you don’t use it, if you don’t exercise it, you will lose it. And so, when you, when I’ve gone through difficult times before, and I have plenty of times, you know, both professionally and personally, I’ve reminded myself that I’ve been in similar positions before and I’ve gotten through them in the past. So, I’m going to get through this now and I will be stronger for it. So, it just comes back to that quality of resilience. It’s an outlook on life. It’s a way that you carry yourself, and it’s made me who I am today. 

Taking action and standing out

I think young people at any point in history have always been at the forefront of change. Whether you’re talking about the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement many decades ago to a lot of the change that you’re seeing now in this country, young people have always been at the forefront of change. So, I want to make sure that more young people get engaged in the process, more young people run for elected office. I’ve always found that the, the most diverse team is the best team. And you see in politics, whether it’s in Lansing or Washington DC, a lot of groups represented, but one that’s often left out are young people. So, I want to see young people, no matter their perspectives, no matter their background, get more engaged in the political process. And I’ve also said, quite frankly, you know, there’s a reason why many of our elected officials talk about issues like Social Security and Medicare. They’re very, very important issues, but also, they impact the people that turn out to vote the most, which are older folks. So, I’ve said to young folks who feel like they’re not heard, and that young people’s views are not represented in politics, that they have to show up to vote. They have to show up to events and let their voices be heard. And as more young people get engaged in the political process, you will see politicians and elected officials respond in turn and be more representative of what young people want.

Why I’m dressed like a pumpkin

Yes. So, for the folks at home, we’re, uh, we’re doing this video right now in late October, a week and a half before Halloween. I wasn’t sure if we were going to be in session next week, so I wanted to make sure that I got to wear my Halloween tie. So, if you’re watching this video at a different time of the year than fall that is why I’m dressed like a pumpkin today. While I do like The Ministry song “Every Day is Like Halloween,” I don’t actually dress like this every day. This is because it is the Halloween season. So, if you’re, if you’re watching this in the summertime or the spring, I promise I’m not weird. I dress normally every other time of the year, but I like to wear Halloween stuff during Halloween and Christmas, during Christmastime and I guess St. Patrick’s Day. And, okay, I guess I do like holidays, but that is why I’m dressed like a pumpkin today.