Endorsement: 1 candidate is qualified to replace Dan Kildee in Michigan's 8th District

Residents of Michigan’s 8th Congressional district face a distinct choice in the Nov. 5 general election: Whether to send Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet or Republican Paul Junge to the U.S. Congress.

It’s also an easy choice.

In every respect, KRISTEN McDONALD RIVET is more experienced, more qualified, and more in touch with this sprawling district and its residents’ lives than her Republican opponent, Paul Junge.

The 8th District, comprising Saginaw and Bay counties, and most of Genesee, Midland and Tuscola counties, including the cities of Saginaw and Flint, has been represented by Democrats since 1976, specifically, the late Dale Kildee and his nephew, incumbent Dan Kildee, first elected in 2013, and is stepping down at the end of this term.

But the district’s politics have changed since the Kildees’ tenure began. Now, it is one of just two Michigan seats rated a toss-up by Cook’s Political Report, and Republicans spy an opportunity to expand their narrow margin in the U.S. House.

Endorsement: Return these Michigan Dems to the US Congress

A career spent in service

McDonald Rivet, 53, of Bay City, is a state senator and the mother of six who has spent her career working in the public interest. She has served as the executive director of Michigan Head Start, as chief of staff in the state Department of Education, and in leadership at the think tank Michigan Future and the education-focused Skillman Foundation.

Elected to the Bay City Commission in 2019, she won a state Senate seat in 2022, unseating a Republican incumbent. In the Legislature, she quickly won a reputation as an active and effective lawmaker, unafraid of ruffling feathers in pursuit of policy that would benefit her constituents.

McDonald Rivet has an easy manner that we can imagine inviting reasonable conversations on challenging subjects, even in the high-pressure environment of the U.S. Congress. ("Tell me more about that," she told the Free Press Editorial Board this summer, "is the most powerful phrase in politics.") She blends working class roots, pragmatism, compassion and experience with a sense of energetic competence.

Taken in total, McDonald Rivet’s life and career express a singular focus: Improving the lives of her fellow Michiganders, particularly working families with children.

In Congress, she said, she would focus on supporting families by considering the fairness of the tax code, the use of tax credits, and by bringing high-paying jobs to her district. She has thoughtful ideas about expanding mental health care to Michigan by tying local service by recent graduates in the field to student loan forgiveness, and says child care should be part of the policy conversation.

Editorial: Who the Free Press isn't endorsing

A stark contrast

Born in Michigan, Grand Blanc resident Junge has spent most of his life outside the state. By his own accounting, he’s spent decades hopping from field to field and job to job.

Raised in California, Junge, 58, attended law school and worked as a deputy district attorney out west. Then he worked in business and business services. Then he became a broadcaster, including a stint at a Lansing TV station. Then a Congressional staffer, then in external affairs — a public relations job — at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in President Donald Trump’s administration.

Junge moved back to Michigan in 2020 to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin. He lost by 4 percentage points in a district Trump carried (the old 8th, before redistricting changed the seat’s boundaries), then lost to retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee by 10 points in 2022 — despite prodigious spending, largely self-funded, seemingly by inherited wealth.

Junge is an amiable person, but did not offer many policy specifics in an interview with the Free Press Editorial Board this summer. But in some areas, he shows a startling lack of compassion. When it comes to the border, a primary concern for voters, Junge seems more concerned about process than people, telling the Free Press this summer that people "jumping the system" are victimizing other immigrants, but without, apparently, investigating why a migrant might feel that circumventing the system was necessary.

And in some instances, his answers were perplexing. When asked to name a legislative role model, Junge named David Stockman, a former U.S. Representative from west Michigan who became President Ronald Reagan's director of the Office of Management and Budget, and a primary architect of Reaganomics. During Stockman's tenure at OMB, the federal deficit nearly tripled.

A clear choice

Because neither McDonald Rivet nor Junge have the broad name recognition the Kildees enjoyed, the outcome of this race is far from a forgone conclusion.

Each candidate will likely benefit from enthusiasm — or lack of — around the presidential candidates of their respective parties.

But for 8th District residents, this choice should be straightforward. McDonald Rivet is simply more qualified for this office.

How to vote

Local clerks mailed absentee ballots to Michigan voters on Sept. 26. Registered voters may cast ballots early, in person, from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3 — check with your local clerk for the location of early voting sites and ballot dropboxes. And, of course, you can vote — and register to vote — in person on Election Day, Nov. 5. Check your voter registration or find your polling place on the Michigan Secretary of State website.

Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters, and we may run it online or in print.

This story was updated to add a video.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Endorsement: Freep's pick to replace Dan Kildee in Michigan's 8th