Lori Brock had a fine life before Gotion came to town. 

The horse farmer and realtor in Green Township near Big Rapids had built her 150-acre estate over many years. She had designed a life she loved. 

Then in 2022, she learned a new neighbor was moving in. An EV battery factory named Gotion, with Chinese ownership.

“My first thought was, ‘Why here?’” Brock told me. “Why wasn’t this in Detroit?”

The project was right across the street, basically. Its size and scope and environmental impact—the lithium dust alone would ruin her 5-acre trout pond—were unsettling. Life as she knew it would be upended, and nobody has bothered to ask her what she thought.

Local politicians and the crew that ran Lansing back then said there was nothing to see here. Nothing to worry about. Economic development. Rising tides, lifted ships, and all that.

Turns out, that’s all they could say. Just about everybody who the community would turn to for answers, or for relief, had signed non-disclosure agreements with Gotion. It was a condition of being in the loop.

Brock, now 58, decided to fight back. Along with a group of local friends, each bringing some type of gift or talent to the table, Brock helped birth the No On Gotion movement. 

“We all had to find our superpower,” Brock said. 

Hers is bravery. Like Ian Murphy of Iron Pig Smokehouse in Gaylord, Brock is a latter-day profile in courage. A normal person who stood up, spoke out, and talked back when her way of life was threatened.

Last month, No On Gotion was validated from on high by Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who gave a speech on Brock’s farm. Two years ago, she could hardly get local officials to listen to her concerns. Now she’s known and respected at the highest levels of politics, honored as a modern David for fighting the Goliath and living to tell the tale.

The Gotion battle is being fought on two fronts now. In court and on local government boards, where the project is blocked on all sides. From zoning boards to township boards to the Mecosta County Commission, there’s a lot of new personnel from just a few years ago and anti-Gotion sentiment that swept them into office. 

When a Chinese company comes to town, it’s not asking. By that point, the politicians are already in their pocket. The fix is in. You can accept it or fight back. Brock fought back.

There will be carrots: promises of community investment, eye-popping offers for your land. Brock was once offered $22 million for her property. Enough money to move anywhere and retire in comfort.

There will also be sticks. Brock had a horse poisoned to death. She’s been investigated by the state agricultural department. Her real-estate practice was bombed with 1-star reviews. 

This has not been an easy fight, or fair. Nor is it over. Gotion has cleared out land. It’s well funded and has many powerful friends. It has every intention of building a factory.

Still, the opposition movement has stood the test of time. The investigation into Brock’s farm was soon squashed. Her real-estate practice is booming, a byproduct of all the friends she has made in her fight.

A battle that once looked unwinnable seems to win new allies daily. On Friday, Politico Pro reported that Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, who once signed an NDA on the Gotion project—two, actually—now opposes completion of the facility. 

These days, Slotkin echoes the concerns of Brock and others who see a Chinese factory as a national security risk.

“To me, until there’s a national security vetting, I don’t love the idea of moving forward on any project or any sale of farmland [to a Chinese firm],” Slotkin told reporters, in her first remarks of the kind. 

“I believe that we need to not just think about economic [aspects], but also about the national security implications of Chinese-affiliated companies,” she said. 

“This is nothing more than a sad attempt to avoid accountability and save her campaign,” her opponent, Mike Rogers, said in response to the Politico article.

Whatever Slotkin’s reason for the flip, it proves that Lori Brock is winning people to her cause from all sides and protecting the state she calls home.

James David Dickson is host of the Enjoyer Podcast. Join him in conversation on X @downi75.