I will not vote for Brianna Scott or Kelly Tebay this November.

When I left the Michigan Democratic Party's nominating convention in 2018, I was happy and excited that the two Democratic candidates for MSU trustees were Brianna Scott and Kelly Tebay.  The Larry Nassar scandal was the major issue, and I felt that Scott and Tebay were the best to bring justice to Nassar's victims and the citizens of Michigan.  They would bring closure to the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal.

In 2026 when I left the Michigan Democratic Party's nominating convention I was extremely disappointed that current MSU Trustees Scott and Tebay were again the Party's candidates for MSU trustee. 

The past 8 years have been tough years for the leadership at MSU starting with the Larry Nassar scandal.  All of the MSU trustees who were serving when the scandal broke, the legacy trustees, are no longer on the MSU Board of Trustees.  Some legacy trustees ran for re-election.  The legacy trustees did not bring closure to the Nassar scandal, and were replaced. I feel that the two above cited MSU trustees failed to bring closure to the Nassar scandal and should be replaced.

Nassar enablers still work for MSU. 

Important attorney-client privilege documents were not released or disclosed in a timely manner, which was due to the MSU Board of Trustees including current Trustee Brianna Scott. In 2019 the MSU Board of Trustees cancelled an investigation of the Nassar scandal that they previously ordered. Appointed Trustee Nancy Schlichting, who I considered the best Trustee concerning getting to the truth about the Nassar scandal, resigned because the MSU Board was not committed to getting the truth.  Initially Kelly Tebay seemed to not align with the legacy Board, but more recently she blends in.   

Subsequent to the Nassar scandal other disturbing events have occurred at the upper levels of leadership at MSU including the MSU Board of Trustees. The most notable being the actions of Trustee Scott and Trustee Vassar, and the resulting infighting of the Board.  Former president Stanley and the Trustees did not get along, and Stanley resigned stating that he lost confidence in the Board of Trustees. Before Stanley's resignation student and faculty organizations at MSU also stated that they lost confidence in the MSU Board of Trustees.  There is also the scandal involving football coach Tucker.  

Recently the majority of the MSU Board including Scott and Tebay voted to censor any MSU Trustee who speaks out against Board policy established by the majority.  Trustees Balow (R) and Vassar (D), who voted no on this muzzling of speech, have been censored. The Michigan Constitution has politicized the University Boards at MSU, U of M, and WSU by requiring those University Boards to be elected in state wide elections.  Therefore, I feel that the elected board members of these three universities should speak out if they do not agree with some policies.    

In 2024 the Republican Party did not renominate MSU Trustee Dan Kelly (R) for  about the same reasons that I felt Brianna Scott and Kelly Tebay should not have been renominated by the Michigan Democratic Party to be their candidates for the MSU Board of Trustees.

I hope this article was helpful concerning which of the above candidates will gain your vote.

Theodore A. Golden, M.D.