LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Tuesday marks a bittersweet anniversary for State Rep. Angela Rigas (R-Caledonia).
On one hand, Rep. Rigas would just like to forget what happened on May 20, 2020. That’s when the Michigan State Police handed her a misdemeanor citation for cutting hair on the Capitol steps during a demonstration against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stringent COVID-19 lockdown measures.
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On the other, those events inspired the now retired hairdresser to run – and win – a seat in the Michigan House.
“It was crazy period of time,” Rigas said in an interview with Michigan News Source. “We look back and it’s hard to not feel some sort of trauma against the government’s actions.”
Rigas called Gov. Whitmer’s orders to shut down salons and barbershops for months in 2020 “unheard of.” She said a good portion of a hairdresser or barber’s licensing revolves around how to avoid and handle infectious disease. “It did not make sense because [Whitmer] did not have the authority,” Rigas said in reference to the government shutting down independent businesses. “That was a big red flag.”
“Be rebellious.”
Those big, red flags appeared to resonate with people in Rigas’ district as well. Voters overwhelmingly elected her to the House in 2022 and again in 2024. She did serve as a precinct delegate prior to her state House run, but receiving a citation for cutting hair enabled her to be a rebel with a cause.
“We need to be rebellious if government gets out of hand,” Rigas said, recalling the months she spent fighting the citation. She won, but said the pain and stress took its toll.
That “rebellious” spirit helped Rigas navigate her first term in a Democrat-controlled House. After the GOP reclaimed a majority in the Michigan House last November, Rigas became the chair of the Oversight Subcommittee on Weaponization of State Government.
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Among other things, that committee is examining the Whitmer administration’s COVID protocols and ensuring overreach does not happen again.
“We’re not hung up on COVID,” Rigas said. “But if we don’t put guardrails up for government, this could happen again.”
Reining in government overreach.
Rigas said the committee is focused on a three-pronged approach, some of which is constantly going on behind the scenes. The first focuses on conducting research, while the second finds and invites people to testify before the committee.
Rigas admits meeting that second goal is often difficult. “People are so scared of the government still,” Rigas said.
Two people who were not scared were Owosso barber Karl Manke and Holland restaurant owner Marlena Hackney. They were both targets of the Whitmer administration and faced lawsuits, jail, and fines for operating their businesses in spite of the COVID lockdowns. They testified before the committee last month.
“Power-hungry governor and her corrupt AG.”
The third portion of the committee’s approach is fixing the problem, Rigas said. She reflected on the five-year anniversary of her citation and subsequent legal battles in a Facebook post. “I had faced denial of my CPL, up to 90 days in jail, and the possible suspension of my business license,” Rigas wrote. “I believed our power-hungry governor and her corrupt AG were wrong, and I felt compelled to act, fighting not just for myself, but for small businesses, mom and pop shops, and others crushed by her unconstitutional executive orders.”
As to when Michiganders will see consequences to those “corrupt” power grabs, Rigas said she’s focused on a legislative fix. “We are working on legislation to close COVID loopholes and keep the government from doing those things again.”
