Patrick Colbeck

Patrick J. Colbeck is an American engineer, author, and politician.

Colbeck was born on October 7, 1965, in Dearborn, Michigan.

He is a graduate of Detroit Catholic Central High School.

He later graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with a Bachelors of Science in Aerospace Engineering in 1987 and a Masters of Science in Aerospace Engineering in 1988.

He went on to study Life Sciences for a summer at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France.

Colbeck was employed by Boeing as a Senior Design Engineer responsible for components of the Environmental Control and Life Support System and Quest Airlock module for International Space Station.

He later provided contract systems engineering services to the Department of Defense for work on advanced simulation system for training military forces.

Colbeck then served as a Management Consultant and President of Perspective Shifts, LLC.

He is married to his wife Angie since 1995.

They both are members of Northridge Church in Plymouth, Michigan, and call Canton, Michigan home.

In 2006, he published the book Information Technology Roadmap for Professional Service Firms.

He launched Tek Made Easy in 2007 to provide SharePoint-based web services for clients.

Senator Colbeck ran for office during the Tea Party wave of the 2010 elections.

As a member of the Rattle With Us Tea Party in Plymouth, Michigan, he leveraged his retirement account to fund his campaign to become the first State Senator elected directly into the Michigan Senate without ever having served in public office in three decades.

During his first term in the Michigan Senate, he served on the Senate Leadership Team as the Assistant Caucus Chair.

He also served as the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and State Police budgets.

During his second term, his outspoken opposition to Obamacare, tax increases, and Common Core Standards motivated the Republican Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof to make him the only returning Republican Senator to be denied any chairmanships.

He later had him removed from all committees after Colbeck attended a Right to Life Dinner in the Senate Majority Leader's district.

He is a former Republican member of the Michigan Senate, having represented a northwestern portion of Wayne County from 2011 to 2019.

In 2011–2012, Colbeck led the effort to make Michigan the 24th Right-to-Work state in the United States.

Characterized as "arguably the most vocal conservative in the Michigan Senate", he led the effort to oppose state-based health exchanges in Michigan and Medicaid Expansion.

He was successful regarding the state-based exchange effort but, despite a procedural move that temporarily blocked passage, he was ultimately unsuccessful in stopping Medicaid Expansion which is now referred to as the Healthy Michigan program.

He was also responsible for the passage of legislation to expand school choice and he has been a vocal opponent of the Common Core Standards Initiative.

He is a co-founder and board member for the Michigan Armed Forces Hospitality Center known as the Freedom Center.

In 2011, Senator Colbeck co-founded the MI Freedom Center (aka Michigan Armed Forces Hospitality Center) to serve military personnel, veterans and their families.

As the chair of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs budget, he implemented performance-based budgets that helped improve Michigan veteran services from among the worst in the nation to #2 in the nation.

In 2015, during the middle of an intense debate over how to fix Michigan's roads, Senator Colbeck challenged his colleagues to a debate over whether or not it was necessary to increase taxes to fix the roads.

Senator Curtis Hertel accepted the challenge, and the ensuing debate was moderated by Kyle Melinn of MIRS News Service.

Colbeck has publicly stated that it is his opinion that wireless technology represents the #1 environmental issue of our day.

After reaching the two-term limit in the Michigan Senate, Colbeck unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for Governor of Michigan in 2018, where he came in third and received 13% of the vote.

In December 2018, he hosted a forum in Lansing to discuss the benefits and risks of wireless technology such as smart meters, cell phones and 5G networks.

During his tenure, he introduced legislation which he claimed would empower consumers with increased choice as to the source of their electricity.

He has been widely criticized for his remarks at a public forum featuring former member of the Muslim Brotherhood Kamal Saleem and former Department of Homeland Security affiliated counter-terrorism expert Philip Haney.

During the forum, he referenced a document entered as evidence in the federal trial U.S. vs Holy Land Foundation called the "Explanatory Memorandum".

The "Explanatory Memorandum" contains the Muslim Brotherhood's outline for what they refer to as "civilization jihad" in America.

It cites organizations such as the Muslim Students Association as means to that end.

He chronicled his time in the Michigan Senate in his book Wrestling Gators: An Outsider's Guide to Draining the Swamp as well as chronicled the 2020 election in ''The 2020 Coup: What happened?

What we can do?''

Colbeck was a vocal critic of government-led healthcare expansion in the state of Michigan.

His articles entitled "Free Market Healthcare Revolution: Why and How" and "The Case for Medicaid Block Grants" outline his views on healthcare.