Nancy Cassis

Nancy Cassis (born January 26, 1944)[1] is an American teacher and psychologist. As a Michigan Senator who initially ran against Dick DeVos, she dropped out of the contest before Michigan's 2006 gubernatorial Republican primary.[2] In the Michigan Senate she served as the Majority Caucus Chairperson and introduced the Michigan Business Tax, which was eventually repealed by conservative governor Rick Snyder.[3]

Cassis is a Novi resident who represented the 15th district.[4] She has a B.A. from Ohio University, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her M.S. and Ed.S. degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Senator was a teacher from 1966 to 1968 for the Ohio Public Schools. She also was a psychologist for the Novi Community Schools from 1980 to 1996.[5]

Nancy Cassis waged an unsuccessful[6] write-in campaign to be the Republican nominee for the United States House of Representatives in District 11. Incumbent Thad McCotter was ineligible due to forged signatures.[7] Cassis had pledged to spend at least 200,000 dollars in order to defeat balloted candidate Kerry Bentivolio in the Republican primary. Some Cassis supporters had doubts that Bentivolio would win the general election, while some Bentivolio supporters viewed the Cassis write-in campaign as an effort by establishment Republicans to block the election of a conservative.[8] Bentivolio was elected to Congress.[6]