James Ananich ( ; born September 20, 1975) is an American politician from the State of Michigan. He is a Democratic Party member of the Michigan State Senate representing the 27th district, which is located in Genesee County and includes the cities Burton, Clio, Flint, Mount Morris and Swartz Creek and the townships of Flint Township, Forest, Genesee, Mount Morris, Richfield, Thetford and Vienna. Early life James "Jim" Ananich was born to James and Susan Ananich as their only child. They raised him in Flint. His father was Flint City Ombudsman. In 1986, Jim's mother died. Thus the following year his father resigned as ombudsman to teach policy science at University of Michigan-Flint. He attend Flint Central where he played basketball and tennis. Ananich attended and graduated in 1998 from Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in political science and economics and a secondary teaching certificate in social studies. He also received a master's degree in Public Administration-Educational Administration from the University of Michigan-Flint. At Michigan State he joined the College Democrats. In 1998, he interned with the Michigan Democratic Party then went to work for Senate Minority Leader John Cherry. From 1998 to 2001, he worked for U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint. Until 2000, Ananich worked in Kildee's Washington, DC office. In 2000, his dad died thus he returned to Flint and worked out of Kildee's district office. After his 2004 primary loss, he worked for Bob Emerson. Ananich met Andrea Abdella at the voting booth. Jim and Andrea were wed on November 8, 2003. He then became a teacher in the Carman-Ainsworth and Flint Community School Districts from 2005 to 2009 teaching social studies. He was later employed by Priority Children as an education coordinator until 2011. Political career Ananich served on the Flint City Council from November 8, 2005 to November 9, 2009. He ran against Lee Gonzales for Michigan State Representative in the 2004 Democratic primary and lost. The next year, he was elected to Flint City Council and serve until 2009. On November 10, 2008, Ananich was selected by the council to be their president replacing Carolyn Sims. Ananich was succeeded as Council President by Delrico Loyd and as Member from the 7th ward by Dale Weighill. He then ran for State Representative in 2010 winning against Allan Pool 67% to 33%, succeeding Gonzales. Ananich was unopposed in the Democratic primary on August 7,