INKSTER — Jewell Jones, 21, a lifelong resident of Inkster, became Michigan’s youngest state representative upon his election Nov. 8. His two-year term will begin Jan. 1.

Jones, a Democrat, succeeds the late Julie Plawecki, who died in June. He will represent the 11th District, which includes Inkster, Garden City and parts of Dearborn Heights, Westland and Livonia. 

His love for politics began to grow in 2012 when he helped the now State Sen. David Knezek (D- Dearborn Heights) in his run for state representative. 

Later, on Nov. 3, 2015, Jones was elected to Inkster’s City Council, becoming the city’s youngest council member at 20. He will resign in December to take on his new duties in Lansing. 

Jones is excited to have the opportunity to make a difference and said he hopes his election as a 21-year-old will impact young people.

“I think it’s definitely an opportunity to change the culture and get a pipeline going to get more young people in office,” Jones said. “In this day and time, you can be young and you can be in school or getting ready to head out of school, but you can still serve in capacities like this.” 

Jones graduated from John Glenn High School in 2013 and is currently a senior at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, double majoring in political science and business studies.

He does not anticipate any unique challenges while being both a student and state representative, as both his professors and colleagues are understanding of his situation. 

“The professors at U of M-Dearborn definitely encourage student success and they really want to see us flourish, not only there at the university but also in the community,” Jones said. “So they’re definitely up to working with me as well as my colleagues out in Lansing.”

While in office, Jones will set his sights on improving education, public safety, income inequality and overall economic and community development.

“Right now, we’re trying to figure out how to get more resources to the schools and especially to the teachers,” he said. “We need to figure out a way we can funnel resources to the teachers and make sure that they’re delivering the highest quality education to their students, but not putting themselves in a compromising position.” 

As far as public safety goes, Jones hopes to see more communication between cities, where different departments work together in a collaborative effort to improve services offered to the public. 

Jones said he hopes the district will one day have even more “police officers that you actually see at different community events to really change the perception of police departments.”

For economic and community development, he is working on finding a way to bring more businesses into the district and to develop improvements to current establishments, so they look more modern and can draw in more people, ultimately increasing cash flow and helping local companies and the economy. 

Jones also addressed income inequality.

It comes down to “figuring out how we can get resources to individuals to help get them on their feet and sustain them over time and really looking at how to strengthen families,” he said. 

Beyond his two-year term, Jones is not sure what his future will look like.

“I’ve fallen in love with politics,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to do a lot of wonderful things for some people in the community; but as of now, I can’t tell the future. If that’s what God wants, then I will be serving people for as long as possible.”