Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero — Democratic candidate for governor — has been involved in politics since high school.

At that time, he helped campaign for his aunt to win her incumbent position as county commissioner. And his personal political career soon followed, first as a state representative for two years, then a position as state senator and finally taking the reigns in Lansing.

As mayor of Lansing, Bernero takes pride in his accomplishments while in office, like not raising taxes while maintaining his campaign promises of increased public safety and youth services.

Though Bernero says he appreciates how far Lansing has come as a city, he said he thinks he would be able to spark positive influence on a much larger scale — across the state — if he were elected governor.

“I feel as mayor a little bit like the guy in the engine room of a big ship,” he said. “No matter how much fuel I put on the fire, I can’t control the effect so much which direction the ship is going.

“I just think if I could get up on the deck and get my hands on the wheel I could do more to really turn the whole state around,” he added.

As part of his campaign platform, Bernero wants focus on making universities in the state more affordable.

“I intend to bring back the Michigan Promise,” he said. “It will not be easy. But it is a priority.”

With this in mind, Bernero emphasized the role students could play in the outcome of this election. Student votes could impact the outcome of an election with many student concerns at the heart of it, he said.

“Well, what’s at stake is the kind of Michigan that they want to grow up in and graduate into,” he said. “Do they want a Michigan of opportunity for everyone, an opportunity for folks on Main Street, or a Michigan of opportunity for only people at the top?”

Bernero, like his opponent Republican Rick Snyder, thinks one of the key aspects of maintaining this level of opportunity is to reduce Michigan’s brain drain — the phenomenon of students leaving the state after they graduate from higher education institutions to seek better opportunities elsewhere.

However, Bernero says, keeping college graduates in Michigan goes beyond creating economic opportunities because graduates are often looking to go to, as he puts it, “cool cities.”

“It starts with economic opportunity, but some people, even if they had a job offer here [and] a job offer in Chicago, they would take Chicago because of the city that it is,” he said.

Because of this desire to develop more interesting destinations after graduation, one of Bernero’s goals is to focus on making Michigan cities more attractive to graduates and young adults.

“Our cities need to be the hub of the wheel instead of the hole in the donut, I know what that means, that’s more than a slogan,” he said.

With all of these goals, Bernero said he recognizes the difficult road that lays ahead if he wins the election. But he is eager to tackle those difficult tasks.

“I’d love to have the opportunity to lead,” he said. “If I get this job, it’ll be a big challenge. I like a big challenge.”

But before he gets there, Bernero has a big fight ahead. Recent polls show him trailing Snyder by a significant margin. The fact that he is clearly behind hasn’t defeated the current mayor though.

“I’m going to work damn hard until the minute the polls close, until 8 p.m.,” he said.

Moreover, Bernero said he refuses to throw in the towel because elections are historically volatile.

“Elections have turned very quickly in other races,” he said. “It’s still anybody’s game as far as I’m concerned.”

Despite his conviction that he could still pull out a win, Bernero said if he is unsuccessful, he would definitely return to his position as mayor of Lansing.