DANA NESSEL

Dana Nessel was born and raised in West Bloomfield, Michigan. In high school, she played soccer and was named All-State, a distinction awarded to players who have demonstrated the highest level of skill and sportsmanship in the game. To be considered, a player must have achieved a combination of rankings that demonstrate technical, tactical, physical, and psychological qualities.

Dana went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts with a major in political science from the University of Michigan, followed by a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University Law School. While in college, she performed standup comedy for several years.
During law school, she served as an intern in the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, and after graduating in 1994, she worked as an assistant prosecutor there for 11 years before opening her own law firm in 2005.

In 2018, Nessel won the Democratic Party nomination for Michigan Attorney General and was sworn into office on
January 1, 2019.

She is the first openly LGBTQIA+ person elected to statewide office in Michigan and the first Democrat to serve as attorney general since Jennifer Granholm left office in 2003 to become Governor of Michigan.

The chief legal officers of each state in the U.S. are the attorneys general. Attorneys general have constitutional and statutory duties to defend the state, its agencies, and officials. This is the role, historically, that has been most associated with the position. Using the common law Public Trust Doctrine, "Parens Patriae," Nessel focuses the role of attorney general on acting as a guardian, not just of the state but of all of its people and the natural environment.

With this intention, her office successfully put into motion novel pieces of legislation and acts of law enforcement to better protect seniors and everyday working people from abuse, neglect, and economic exploitation.

Dana advocates for a clean environment, with her office filing suits against major local polluters, winning settlements, then channeling the proceeds back into local communities.

In 2014, she successfully challenged, in federal district court, Michigan's ban on statewide legal recognition of same-sex marriage. This led to the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, guaranteeing marriage for same-sex couples as a fundamental right.

In 2016, she founded the Fair Michigan Foundation and worked with Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to create the Fair Michigan Justice Project, a first-of-its-kind task force that investigates and prosecutes hate crimes committed against the LGBTQIA+ community.

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