by Scott Davis

In his first bid for public office, Kande Ngalamulume is aiming high.

On Thursday, the Lansing resident officially announced his candidacy for the 8th U.S House District seat now held by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Howell, at a number of stops in mid-Michigan, including Lansing, East Lansing, St. Johns and Howell.

The 31-year-old Michigan State University graduate said he gave up a lucrative job in the health insurance industry in Philadelphia to return to Michigan to help put the economically troubled state back to work.

"The reason I left Michigan is the same reason I came back," said Ngalamulume, a Democrat who grew up in East Lansing. "There are no jobs for young people. I am disheartened by the large number of people who are graduating from institutions of higher learning and leaving the state."

So far, Ngalamulume is the only Democrat to announce for the seat, which has been held by Rogers since 2001.

Ngalamulume concedes he has an uphill battle against Rogers, partly because Ngalamulume says he has been able to raise less than $20,000 over the past several weeks.

In 2008, Rogers handily beat his Democratic challenger, Robert Alexander, with 58 percent of the vote. As of March 31, Rogers had $870,876 campaign cash on hand, according to Opensecrets.org, a nonpartisan website that tracks campaign donations.

But Ngalamulume believes he can pick up momentum by portraying Rogers as out of touch with his district by voting against newly passed health care reform and last year's $787 billion stimulus bill. The 8th District includes Ingham, Clinton and Livingston counties and parts of Oakland and Shiawassee counties.

While the stimulus bill has not created as many jobs as hoped for, Ngalamulume said he credits it for preventing the start of a depression last year. He said health care reform is step toward fixing many problems in the health insurance industry and improving access to health care for all citizens.

Ngalamulume also contends Rogers is more interested in the jobs of fellow congressional Republicans as coordinator of the Republican incumbency retention effort than in creating jobs in his own district.

But Sylvia Warner, Rogers' spokeswoman, said the congressman has worked to decrease federal spending and put the nation on a better economic footing to create jobs.

"Congressman Rogers is focused on improving the job and economic climate in Michigan, working to undo the crushing price increases on health care premiums just passed into law and stopping dangerous runaway government spending that is stealing from our children," she said.

If elected, Ngalamulume said his first task will be to introduce legislation to push up the deadline from 2014 to 2012 for insurance companies to create health exchanges under the national health care law.

This week, Ngalamulume racked up several endorsements, including one from the United Auto Workers Region 1-C in Michigan. A naturalized U.S. citizen, Ngalamulume immigrated to America at the age of 10 from the Democratic Republic of Congo.