After September 11, Callie’s future husband and high school sweetheart, Matt, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served two tours in Iraq. Callie moved with her husband five times in fifteen years, raising two girls and eventually caregiving for Matt after he suffered combat injuries, including post-traumatic stress and a traumatic brain injury.

In 2010, Callie received her bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Central Michigan University. As a high school English teacher, Callie taught reading, writing, and critical thinking. However, faced with her husband’s significant injuries, and frustrated by the lack of support for active military members and returning veterans, Callie became involved in advocating for military families through Blue Star Families and the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers.

Motivated by the desire to advocate for policy changes at the federal level, Callie went on to receive a law degree, graduating with honors from University of Michigan Law School. Callie was quickly recruited to one of Michigan’s top law firms, where she worked to connect veterans to free legal services. Callie believes we deserve a representative who, instead of playing to political extremes, actually gets things done for Northern Michigan.

My great-great-grandparents emigrated from the Netherlands to build a better life in Grand Rapids. My mom worked as an elementary school teacher, and my dad was a reporter and an assistant sports editor for the Grand Rapids Press. My husband Jesse and I are raising our sons, James and Wesley, in Grand Rapids, around the corner from the house my grandfather was raised in and right up the road from the one my grandma grew up in.

My West Michigan roots, my family, and my Christian faith have shaped who I am, and inspired me to always think critically, and stand up for what’s right.   From a healthcare system strained by a pandemic, to the rising cost of goods, to an organized assault on our democracy, we need a proven leader who will roll up her sleeves to help working families, and who will do what’s right, not what’s easy.

I am an Hmong-American, an ethnic minority group that over centuries migrated from China into Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.  When the U.S. pulled out of Laos in the late 1970s, my parents were forced to flee for their lives into neighboring Thailand. My mother gave birth to me in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in Loei, Thailand. My family was accepted into the United States under the refugee relocation program where we settled in Ohio. As an adult, I relocated to Warren and attended the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, graduating in 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design.

In 2010 I married my best friend, Adam Kue, and started our family in Warren. I paid off my student loan, founded a blog that now reaches over 200,000 readers, and built a successful e-commerce store called Mai&Co. I know the importance of hard work and the value of excellent customer service.

Adam and I know that Warren is the best place to raise our four children. I will work to improve our city and make it an even better place to live by ensuring that every resident has a voice in the decision-making process.