Meet District Captain James Krismanick

If you are in Michigan’s vast Upper Peninsula looking for James Krismanick you might find him at a Convention of States booth at the UP Fair in Escanaba. Or at Houghton/Hancock BridgeFest. Or at the Iron Mountain Gun Show. Or passing out COS literature to students on the campus of Michigan Tech.  Of course, you might also find him at his log cabin in the backwoods of Hancock, Michigan, tending to his Facebook Group “Yoopers For Self-Governance” or just walking with his canine buddy, Hannah Banana.
 
One thing you can be sure of, though, is that you will be encountering a patriot with an abiding love for his country and a deep understanding of the history and value of the Article V process for calling a convention of the states to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution that would help reign in federal overreach.
 
Jim is the District Captain for House Districts 109 and 110, which consists of much of the Western Upper Peninsula! It’s a big place and a big job.
 
And how he got to that place from his roots in the south side of Chicago is a story worth telling.
 
Like many Americans of his generation, Jim is the grandson of immigrants who came to the UP for a better life.  His Irish great-great-great-grandparents on his mom’s side immigrated in the 1850s to Quebec, Canada, where they farmed for nine years. They then headed to the UP copper region, drawn by the economics of mining. Their oldest daughter married another Irish miner in Michigan who raised Jim’s grandmother, Nellie. In the early 1880’s, when Nellie was 3 years old, mining dipped and the family left the UP for the Northern California Gold Rush.
 
Much later, in the summer of 1903, a young Nellie who was a one-room California school teacher, returned to the UP to see her grandmother and relatives. While there, she met Jim’s German grandfather, Joseph Lewis. After returning to California to teach for another year, Joe went to California to marry her in 1904 and took her back home to the UP to raise a family of ten.
 
His grandparents on his father’s side left Croatia in the early 1900s to mine copper in the UP, again drawn by the economics of mining. His grandparents and a number of other relatives entered America through Ellis Island.
 
Jim’s mom, Lillian Lewis, from Hubbell and dad, John Krismanick (Krizmanich), from Calumet, moved to Chicago for work when mining slowed again in the 1930s.
 
And that’s where Jim was born, growing up on Chicago’s south side. The family of five regularly returned to the UP for visits with Jim’s grandparents.  Then, as a young man, he enlisted and served honorably for six years in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.
 
Jim and his wife, Mary Lynn, raised their daughter and son in northwest Indiana and have two grandsons. Through it all, they continued visiting the UP and when Jim retired in 2018, he and Mary Lynn decided that’s where they wanted to live.
 
Jim was an early supporter of COS. His involvement dates back to November of 2015 when he first heard Mark Levin discuss it and signed the Petition.
 
Jim earned the right to a quiet, carefree retirement and could have kicked back and enjoyed life after decades of working and raising a family. Instead, when he retired he heard the call to service and became a District Captain. Jim fervently believes that “something needs to be done” and waiting is not an option. He believes Article V presents the best solution to the problem of federal overreach.
 
Thank you for your dedication and service to this worthy cause, James!