“She’s a skilled public speaker, and she’s an outsider who can lambaste ‘The System’ and Stabenow’s role in it… Epstein takes any gender issue off the table. She has the potential to be the toughest Republican Stabenow has ever faced in her 42-year career in elective office.” – Bill Ballenger, MIRS News 5/22/17
Lena Epstein announced her candidacy for United States Senate today. She’s a third-generation business owner. Epstein began her employment at Vesco Oil Corporation at the age of 16, and since then has worked almost every job possible, viewing the company from all angles. Vesco Oil Corporation is a supplier of automotive and industrial lubricants that prides itself on being environmentally conscientious. Currently, at the age of 35, she serves as General Manager and Co-Owner of Vesco Oil Corporation. The company’s annual revenue exceeds $175 million. The automotive industry that southeast Michigan was once known for tanked a decade ago, putting many people out of work and forcing some businesses involved in the industry to close their doors. Vesco Oil Corporation remained competitive and survived the economic crisis. It continues to employ hundreds of people in Motor City after over 70 years of being in business. Although Michigan’s economy is on the comeback, it still has a lot of room to grow. Epstein indicates manufacturing jobs will be a priority in a video featured on her website that launched today. After working in the auto industry for her entire adult life, she certainly knows what it takes to make Detroit the undisputed automobile capital of the world once again.
The video provides good taste of what her campaign will be focused on. One of the key tenants is securing our border, the same campaign promise that convinced many voters to flock towards Donald Trump immediately following his announcement as a candidate for president. The Trump Administration would certainly welcome a strong ally in the Senate on an issue that’s received a lot of pushback from Democrats.
Epstein is not just another career politician or lawyer. As a business owner, she follows in President Trump’s footsteps as the ultimate political outsider. This could benefit her greatly, especially if she wins the Republican nomination and takes on Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, a career politician of over four decades. Bill Ballenger, is one of the most respected political pundits in Michigan, and his ability to forecast elections is second to none. “She’s a skilled public speaker, and she’s an outsider who can lambaste ‘The System’ and Stabenow’s role in it,” Bill Ballenger said to MIRS News. “Epstein takes any gender issue off the table. She has the potential to be the toughest Republican Stabenow has ever faced in her 42-year career in elective office.”
Earlier this year, before Epstein announced, Ballenger compared her potential to that of Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin business owner that had very little name I.D. before he ran for U.S. Senate in 2010. He became the Tea Party favorite and took on Russ Feingold, a 3-term Democratic Senator and won. Ballenger believes Epstein could be the new, fresh face with financial resources Republicans have been searching for.
The Tea Party might not be as strong as it once was, but the Donald Trump movement has taken the nation by storm, especially in Midwestern states like Michigan. Conservatives have been fighting since the Reagan era to elect another president that will take the concept of small, limited government seriously, and make real changes in Washington D.C. The conservative movement was finally successful in the 2016 presidential election. What better way to continue to drain the swamp than to use this momentum to send one of Trump’s most loyal supporters and advocates from Michigan to fight alongside him in Washington D.C.?
Epstein might be a political outsider, but she’s no stranger to what it takes to win a general election. She got married last fall, but chose to put her honeymoon on hold after she was named a Michigan state co-chair for the campaign, so she could devote herself completely to winning the state for Donald Trump. She worked closely with the other Trump co-chairs, campaign staff, coalition leaders, the RNC, Michigan Republican Party, and grassroots activists to turn Michigan red for the first time since 1988. She began supporting Donald Trump early on, before the Michigan primary, putting her reputation as a business owner and Republican activist on the line to fight for the candidate she believed in. Sometimes people publicly commit to a presidential candidate for the sake of using the title to benefit themselves. This was never the case with Lena Epstein. She didn’t try to hide in the background, she was on the frontline taking on the most difficult of tasks. As co-chair for the “Michigan Women for Trump” coalition, she became the public face for female voters in Michigan that supported Donald Trump at a point in the campaign when the media was painting a picture Trump might lose the election because of women turning their backs on him. The media was wrong, and it was leaders like Lena Epstein that helped make history November.
