Michigan’s competitive 8th Congressional District is open after U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint) announced last year that he would not run for another term in 2024.
There are three Democrats competing in the Tuesday primary: State Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City), Michigan State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh and former Flint Mayor Matt Collier are vying for the Democratic nomination.
Michigan’s 8th Congressional District includes all of Saginaw and Bay counties, most of Genesee County and parts of Tuscola and Midland counties. The seat is considered vital for control of Congress, and is currently rated a tossup by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Republicans hold a narrow majority in the U.S. House this term.
The Michigan Advance already profiled the three Republicans vying in Tuesday’s primary: Paul Junge, a former Trump administration appointee running in his third congressional race; Mary Draves, a former executive at Dow Chemical Co. who lives in and runs a business in Midland; and Anthony Hudson, a truck driver and small business owner.
Ahead of the primary, the Michigan Advance spoke with most candidates, discussing issues both in-district and abroad, as well as why they feel they are the best candidate to represent their party in November.
Kristen McDonald Rivet
State Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) announced her bid for the 8th Congressional district in January and has since gathered support from a number of high-profile Michigan Democrats, including Kildee and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Before serving in the state Senate, McDonald Rivet served as executive director of the Michigan Head Start Association, vice president of Michigan Future Inc., president and CEO of Greater Midland, Inc. as well as chief of staff for the Michigan Department of Education, among other positions.
While speaking with the Advance, McDonald Rivet said her career has been focused on building strong pathways for children and helping to economically stabilize adults. She touted her experience as the lead sponsor on legislation increasing Michigan’s earned income tax credit, and her efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs by creating a prescription drug affordability board.
Her day one priorities are centered on lowering costs for families, supporting kids and their families and creating strong pathways for children. She pointed to the child tax credit and ensuring affordable childcare as avenues for addressing those concerns.
She supports codifying Roe v. Wade, protecting access to in vitro fertilization, abortion and reproductive care, as well as ensuring health care privacy.
She also said the U.S. needs to modernize its immigration system to ensure the system works, and that the nation needs to stop illegal crossings at the border and create legal pathways for people seeking a life in the U.S.
“We ought to create a legal pathway to citizenship for folks that want to move into our country, abide by our laws and work really hard. There’s got to be a pathway,” McDonald Rivet said.
“We can’t have people in the thousands, tens of thousands crossing the border outside of our immigration system. That doesn’t work,” she said.
McDonald Rivet said it’s important to look to the market to drive change when looking at alternative energy and other methods for addressing climate change like EVs. She served as a sponsor of one of the laws in the climate package passed last fall, which codified rules on farmers renting their land for solar energy generation.
“If you look at electric vehicles, in theory it’s a really great idea. However, you go down the street to buy an electric pickup truck that’s going to run you around $73,000. In my district, 80% of the folks make less than $50,000 a year,” McDonald Rivet said.
“The best way to move toward that is to work with the market forces in a way that as it’s easier and more affordable for people to go to that green energy, then they will do it,” she said.
McDonald Rivet pointed to Michigan’s clean energy laws, saying it’s important to have energy transition goals in place as well as built in off ramps that would slow the transition if clean energy technology is not available, is prohibitively expensive or carries the risk of raising electric rates and other costs until the market catches up.
In addressing gun violence, McDonald Rivet said it’s important to respect Second Amendment rights, and promote responsible gun ownership. She advocated for policies like those passed in Michigan including universal background checks, and safe storage requirements — for which she served as a bill sponsor.
McDonald Rivet also supported a ceasefire and aid for Gaza, but noted the conditions of a ceasefire must include the return of Israeli and American hostages from Hamas.
When discussing housing, McDonald Rivet said that as she was preparing to buy her first house, her parents told her it should cost no more than two-years’ annual income.
“Statewide, 60% of folks make less than $50,000 a year. Show me a house you can buy now for two years’ income. It just doesn’t exist,” she said, noting that of her five adult children, only one owns a home.
While there are plenty of federal dollars available for building middle and low-income housing, the funds come with so many restrictions they are near unusable.
“This isn’t an issue of money not being available to do it. It’s an issue of such burdensome administrative regulation that the money is very difficult to access. So we have to clear the way for that immediately,” McDonald Rivet said.
Additionally, both the state and federal government need to examine the real costs of housing and determine ways to assist people with very low incomes with getting into housing that is safe and affordable where they can stay, McDonald Rivet said.
Pamela Pugh
Pamela Pugh serves as president of the Michigan State Board of Education and has served on the board since 2015. Last year, she announced a run for U.S. Senate, but decided to instead pursue the 8th District seat after Kildee announced his retirement.
Pugh also has a background in public health, having served as the Chief Public Health Advisor for the Flint Water Crisis, former Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Task Force, Granholm’s State Environmental Justice Workgroup, health chair of the Michigan Conference of the NAACP as well as working with the Saginaw County Health Department to reduce elevated blood lead levels in children.
During an interview with the Advance, Pugh discussed her background working in local government addressing issues residents of the district were facing while working to create economic opportunities for the individuals most impacted by environmental hazards.
“I served in times of crisis, whether it was in Saginaw, but definitely in the city of Flint, during the Flint water crisis, again, working side by side with the residents, hearing from them what their concerns were, but also helping them to address the root causes of that crisis, as well as the crisis itself and drive the policy in City Hall to make sure that we were putting people above politics,” Pugh said, stressing her health equity in all policies approach.
Pugh also pointed to her experience at the state level, serving under both Whitmer and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, noting she stood with Detroit Public School students when they sued the state alleging the city’s schoolchildren had been denied a basic education in being taught how to read.
Pugh also discussed her work at the federal level during the Flint water crisis, traveling to Washington, D.C., to secure infrastructure funding, working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in her positions in Flint and Saginaw, as well as working with the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Education.
When looking at infrastructure concerns in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, Pugh said an inventory of needs should be taken, while citing her belief in co-governance across the local, state and federal level to address community needs.
If elected, Pugh also said she would look to build coalitions to ensure funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are going where they need to go — including workers pockets — and making certain the local economy benefits from restoring and fortifying its infrastructure.
Pugh also pointed to her experience working to restore housing, building coalitions between county and city governments to ensure housing was made safe by addressing environmental hazards and lead, as well as making housing more energy efficient.
Alongside restoring existing housing, Pugh also noted the importance of expanding housing and ensuring people can afford rent and become first-time homebuyers.
This includes making sure people have access to jobs where they are respected, safe and can make a family-sustaining wage, Pugh said.
She noted the importance of checks and balances and accountability measures for federal dollars to ensure people at the local level are benefiting not just from jobs, but from training, as well.
“There’s been some packages that are well intended, but the people on the ground are not being able to see the tangible benefits from those dollars, whether it’s been the [American Rescue Plan Act] dollars, whether it’s been the Inflation Reduction Act dollars that are soon to come. We want to make sure that people are able to gain employment from those dollars, or have business opportunities,” Pugh said.
“You can pass the laws, but if you don’t have the experience of really working on the ground and seeing how these dollars get held up from really benefiting the people on the ground then it’s hard to understand why everyday people, don’t understand good policy that’s been passed because they’re not benefiting from it directly,” Pugh said.
If elected, Pugh said she would hit the ground running on implementing accountability measures to ensure people in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District are receiving economic opportunities for these funds, as well as improving the process for acquiring these dollars.
Reproductive rights are also a focus, Pugh said, and she supports the codification of abortion rights.
In addressing gun violence, Pugh policies that had already been implemented in Michigan, including safe storage requirements and universal background checks. The U.S. also needs laws around assault rifles, such as an assault rifles ban, Pugh said, in addition to ensuring there are adequate resources to address gun violence as a public health threat, including mental health support.
Pugh also pledged to safeguard education from those who believe there should not be a department of education, referencing a proposal from Project 2025, a collection of far-right policy suggestions for a future GOP presidential administration.
Pugh said she would help ensure schools are safe, supportive environments conducive to learning. This includes making certain the federal government is doing its part to provide teachers with adequate pay and health insurance, provide students with the best and brightest educators and that they have books in their classrooms.
Adequate funding is key to ensure students can learn and exist in healthy spaces, Pugh said, pointing to needs like heat and air conditioning, alongside investments into school infrastructure.
Students also need supportive environments, Pugh said, pushing back against book bans to ensure students can learn about topics like racism, slavery, Jim Crow and Civil Rights and so LGBTQ+ students can see themselves represented in books and materials.
“Just like we trust our doctors, we trust [teachers] to be able to be the professionals that they are, and have the freedom to teach our children in the way that they’ve been educated to do so,” Pugh said.
Looking at climate change, Pugh pointed to the Farm Bill and the Inflation Reduction act as important mechanisms for addressing climate impacts. She also pushed for greater education on climate action to accelerate research and development and the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
In addressing immigration, Pugh said efforts need to be comprehensive.
“We have to find ways for people coming to the U.S. to be able to get worker permits,” Pugh said. “I go back to the farm bill, you know, our farmers and ag business, we need to get input there and how we can make sure that they’re a big part of how we move forward with the process of people coming to our country and ensuring that they can get worker permits and we know that what we do in immigration directly impacts our farmers.”
“Being a person who is focused on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) — as bad of a word as people are trying to make that be — you know, we have to make sure that we’re we’re not putting forward any policy, stopping any policy that that brings harm to people and villainizes people, I will say Black and Brown people,” Pugh said.
We also need to look at keeping families together Pugh said, supporting protections for individuals in the U.S. under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Pugh said she had been outspoken in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, noting more than 15,000 children had been killed in Gaza since Israel declared war on Hamas in retaliation for the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack.
“When you look at the number of children, just children, who have lost life, that’s Saginaw Public School District, that’s Saginaw Township Public School District, that’s Flint community school district, that’s Frankenmuth Community School District, and I could probably add more on now combined,” Pugh said.
Pugh criticized U.S. spending on aid to Israel, pointing to the high poverty rates in both Flint and Saginaw.
“If we look at it from that perspective of taking out school districts, entire school districts combined, I definitely do not believe that dollars should be going to take innocent lives without requirements or without checks and balances,” Pugh said.
While Democrats will “fight like hell” to ensure Trump is not elected to a second term, Pugh said she has been able to deliver results under the Snyder administration with a Republican-led Legislature and through her work with the Trump administration during the Flint water crisis.
“I will always put people first and foremost and put the politics in the background. I’ve done that as a state board member. I’ve done that in my capacity, in serving at the local level, as well.” Pugh said.
Matt Collier
Matt Collier is the former mayor of Flint serving from 1987 to 1991. A former airborne-ranger in the U.S. Army, Collier also served in President Barack Obama’s administration as the senior advisor to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Collier served as the district director for the former U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Flint), Dan Kildee’s uncle who preceded him in Congress. The Collier campaign has run ads featuring a photo of the former representative, who died in 2021.
In a report by the Detroit News, Dan Kildee said he was bothered by the ads featuring his uncle, noting that Collier had previously considered challenging Dale in the ‘90s, as noted in a 1996 Flint Journal article. The younger Kildee also noted some family members and former members of his uncle’s staff were “pretty irritated” at Collier’s use of Dale Kildee’s image in his campaign.
The Advance was unable to schedule an interview with Collier’s campaign ahead of publication despite multiple attempts to do so.
In an ad posted by his campaign, Collier said the nation is in need of more leaders who serve the people, not themselves.
In launching his campaign, he pledged to support Michigan’s working families. In another post to his campaign’s Facebook page, he said he would fight to protect reproductive rights, women’s access to health care and access to mifepristone, a drug used to treat miscarriages and in medication abortion.
Collier told WJRT-TV democracy is under attack, alongside women’s right to an abortion, worker’s right to organize alongside Democratic checks and balances.
His campaign has also touted his record of reducing unemployment in Flint from over 23% to nearly 7%.
Collier told MLive and the League of Women Voters he was running for Congress to lower costs for working families; ensure Michiganders have access to quality, affordable healthcare; expand American manufacturing and protect reproductive freedom.
He also promised to work in a bipartisan manner to deliver results for Michigan’s 8th Congressional District. In addressing immigration, Collier supported adding more border patrol agents, cracking down on fentanyl smuggling and human trafficking and provide support to law enforcement. He also supported a legal pathway for citizenship for immigrants “who work hard, pay taxes and play by the rules,” as well as DACA recipients.
“We’ve got to implement a common-sense system that meets the needs of our farmers and businesses that allows people who have passed background checks to come here and work legally doing jobs Americans don’t want to do,” Collier told MLive and the League of Women Voters.
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