From Student Commission President to Michigan State Senator

By Lyrica Gee

In the midst of his first term in the Michigan Senate with two terms in the State House of Representatives under his belt, Darrin Camilleri knows how to serve a variety of constituencies.

Picking up the call for this interview, he sat in a senior center in the Downriver district that he serves. Senator Camilleri, K ‘14, was there to hold an event where local members of his constituency could speak to him and his staff about the issues that matter most to them.

“And I learned something new!” Camilleri said with a wide smile. “There’s actually a resident who has a big issue with a county road that needs to get fixed. And so we’re going to do something. I hope to bring it to the attention of the county and see if we can’t solve that problem.”

 It’s a small issue, some would argue, but Camilleri places equal importance on problems big and small. Just within the past year, he and his colleagues have passed legislation on many of the hot button issues that have garnered attention in Michigan. This includes repealing the 1931 abortion ban, passing firearms legislation, and expanding protection for LGBTQ+ residents by banning sexuality- and gender-based discrimination. Additionally, Camilleri spearheaded the initiative that successfully repealed a law that previously weakened Michigan labor unions for decades.

While committed to state-wide Democratic party goals, Camilleri does not neglect his duty to serve his own community. Having been born in Dearborn, Michigan and raised in Riverview, Camilleri still calls the 4th district–nicknamed Downriver–his home. As a result, he is devoted to addressing area-specific issues.

Detroit resident Milo Madole, K ‘12, has known Senator Camilleri since their time together as students at Kalamazoo College. In keeping up with local politics, he pays special attention to his friend’s work in Downriver which is just south of Madole’s district.

Madole thought back to 2020 when Camilleri, along with politicians from every level of Michigan government, addressed an issue in Woodhaven, Mich.

The Allen Road railroad crossing was referred to by local journalists as “infamous” for its commuter delays until state and federal funding was pooled to build a bridge that would open up the flow of traffic.

“Such an incredible achievement and Darrin was the guy who spearheaded that whole thing and did something that thirty years of older and unsuccessful politicians couldn’t,” Madole said.

Madole was not surprised, having seen Camilleri at work from the time they worked together on the K College student commission.

“Whatever it was, whatever the issue was, Darrin was there. He showed up, he had an opinion, and he listened,” Madole said. “He was just a doer. Someone who cared about students and cared about student issues and was willing to put that into action by being in the room.”

Shanna Salinas, a professor in the English department, recalled his advocacy on the subject of structural support for students of color. “We had a lot of upheaval and tumultuous campus climate at the time that Darrin was here,” she said. “His way was quieter, but it was just as loud, in many regards.”

Salinas recalled a time when Camilleri came to her office with a sizable group of students from Black and Latino student organizations with whom she had not previously interacted. At the time, she was one of the only Latina professors on campus.

“He brought them here and was like, ‘I want to talk to you because I trust you and here’s some people who really need guidance and resources,’” Salinas said. Sitting in that very office, one would struggle to picture seven or eight students piled into the tight quarters in the back of Humphrey House. She laughed as she explained that they simply “shoved a bunch of people in my office and kind of talked things through.”

Camilleri’s vocal contribution to this effort through student government helped lead to the Chicano studies courses that he lobbied for being absorbed into an interdisciplinary Critical Ethnic Studies concentration. Additionally, the Intercultural Center was founded to support students of color at the institutional level.

Senator Camilleri thought back fondly on a time when he enacted campus changes. “Being able to negotiate, lead, and push for campus changes, campus policy changes, really set me up for what I’m doing today. But it also gave me an experience that I think taps into the way that the world works where policies do impact people on a day-to-day basis.”

Despite gaining this crucial experience on campus, Camilleri did not initially attempt to pursue politics as his career. “I didn’t exactly know where I wanted to go. I liked politics, but I thought of politics more as a hobby and not a profession,” he said.

While at K, he explored other paths, namely his minor in English. Outside of the student commission, Camilleri first remembers seeing the impact of public service in the unfamiliar setting of teaching Othello to high schoolers at the Kalamazoo County Juvenile Home.

The service learning course through the English Department introduced the Shakespearean classic to detained teenagers, then encouraged them to perform their reimagined version of the story with their own characters and themes.

One high schooler’s story stands out to Camilleri all these years later. “After the performance was over, his mom came up to us and said, ‘My son has worked with so many different college students throughout his life. He’s had a lot of challenges, but you all have made the most impact on him,’” Camilleri recalled. “It was one of those moments where I was like, man, I think maybe I should think about teaching.”

After graduating from K with a degree in political science, Camilleri took the position of 12th grade social studies teacher at Consortium College Preparatory High School in Detroit, Mich. It was this experience that exposed him to the flaws in the state education system.

At only 22 years old, he showed up for his first day of work and was made department chair of the social studies department. “I had no textbooks, I had no curriculum, and they pushed me into a situation where I had to figure it out. You know, being the son of an immigrant, this is sort of what we do. We figure it out when given difficult circumstances,” Camilleri said. “That is not something we should expect all teachers to have to do.”

Camilleri rose to the position thrust upon him in order to accordingly show up and support his students. He initiated community fundraising for textbooks and wrote a curriculum on Detroit history that became a senior seminar at the high school.

After just a year of teaching, Camilleri recognized that the critical changes he sought required a higher authority. He turned to local politics to seek systemic solutions for the problems he saw in public schooling, drawing on skills that he picked up at K.

Amid his second year of teaching, he ran for an open seat on the Michigan House of Representatives. Looking at him now, 32, in a dapper grey suit, the absence of a tie giving his clean cut look an easygoing presence, it is hard to believe that he was ever seen as anything but a politician in the making. But at just 23 years old, he was underestimated by his peers in the election.

“Not everybody gave me a chance. Most people said, actually, that it was a fool’s errand for someone like me to run for a high-profile state legislative seat,” he said. “There were other candidates in the race, including people with far more experience than me, but I knew that I was doing it for the right reasons. That I was doing it to tell my students’ story.”

Madole said of Camilleri’s first campaign, “it was run out of his basement, his parents’ basement, in Downriver and it was the lot of our friends from college that were going and knocking on doors for him.” Through community organizing, knocking on doors, and grassroots fundraising, Camilleri built his campaign. “I just remember being like, ‘Wow, I couldn’t do this,’” Madole said.

English classes at K had a significant effect on Camilleri’s ability to accomplish this. “I think that the English department set me up for success by helping me hone my communication skills and really be able to tell stories and tell narratives,” he said. “I would encourage anybody who is looking at politics, public policy, or even the world of business, to learn from the English department. It may not seem like it right now, but that actually is a better way to learn those communication skills that you’re going to need.”

Going into the March 2016 primary election for the State House of Representatives’ Democrat nominee, Camilleri was not the party’s favored candidate. Yet, when the votes were tallied, he won by a small margin of 150 votes.

Camilleri said the experience “was amazing, obviously, but also unexpected. And I don’t think that I was the candidate that most people thought was going to win.”

His first general election in November 2016 was the most competitive in Michigan that election cycle. In a country that in the same election voted for Donald Trump, Camilleri won out against his Republican opponent to secure the State House seat by 323 votes.

Having seen his campaign first-hand, Madole argues that the reason for this is Camilleri’s empathy and ability to level with people on both sides of the aisle. “You look at what’s going on in our country and it’s so ugly but Darrin was just like people’s neighbor having a conversation with them and I know that’s why he won,” he said.

“Voters voted for me and they voted for Donald Trump, two people who could not be more different,” Camilleri said. “We did it by old school community organizing: talking to our voters person-to-person and connecting on a level that was beyond politics.”

Camilleri values the power that he has been given and vows to use it to effectively represent the people who put him in that leadership position. Now, he is in charge of delegating a $20 billion school budget which will directly impact students and teachers, including those who first inspired him to run for office.

“When I can deliver on the promises that I made and show people that government can work for them, I think that that’s been the best part of my job,” Camilleri said.