By Eric Easter, Photo: Julia Pickett, The Washington Post, May 17, 2022
Garlin Gilchrist, 39, a self-described technocrat, is the lieutenant governor of Michigan. He lives with his wife and twins in Detroit.
I remember meeting you a dozen or so years ago at a tech conference as a young engineer talking about writing code. Next thing I hear you’re running for office and then lieutenant governor of Michigan. How do you make sense of that path?
Technology and community involvement were introduced to me around the same time. As a really young child in Detroit, my parents were very active in our neighborhood. They were the president and vice president of our block association where I lived. I saw them bringing together our neighbors and advocating for public arts projects and better utilization of public space in Detroit. I saw that as early as 4 years old. And then I got my first computer when I was 5. So I had both sides of my brain working at the same time — on one side, developing an interest in working with community, and on the other side working with this new technology. And as I matured, both of those grew, and then I added basketball around 8 years old. Each of those aspects worked on parallel tracks, and my parents encouraged me to explore all of those parts of my personality.
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