(The Center Square) – Candidates in one of the most competitive congressional district races in the country are campaigning on a variety of issues, but the only things they can fully agree on are tax cuts and health care costs.
Michigan’s 8th congressional district race features Democratic State Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet and Republican Paul Junge, with Democrat incumbent Dan Kildee, D-Flint, retiring for personal reasons.
Junge is a criminal prosecutor in the domestic violence unit and businessman who worked in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Trump administration. He has focused his message on job growth and tax cuts, strengthening border security, cracking down on crime and illegal drug flow, and lowering healthcare prices.
“As a job creator, I experienced the challenges of growing a small business, serving customers, and providing quality jobs. As a criminal prosecutor, I fought for crime victims and safe communities. When I worked at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, I dealt with immigration and issues at the border, upholding the promise of America and the importance of a secure border and safe homeland,” Junge said. “We deserve leaders who will fearlessly fight for our values. I promise to be a fighter for Michigan families.”
Junge says he supports an “all of the above” approach to energy that “encourages private sector innovation toward renewable energy sources rather than government mandates resulting in higher taxes and job-killing regulations.”
He has also promised to keep Social Security and Medicare, assurances his opponent also makes.
Junge previously ran for Congress against Kildee in 2022, losing 53.1% to 42.8%. With new maps in place that have shifted more conservative-leaning areas into the district, the race has been rated a toss-up by Cook Political Report and is expected to be one of the most competitive in the nation.
Rivet, endorsed by both Kildee and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, has centered her campaign around job creation and tax cuts, lowering costs of living, childcare, and healthcare, and promoting abortion access.
“I am running to make things just a little bit easier for working families, like the one I grew up in – by lowering costs, creating good-paying jobs, and pushing back on extremists,” Rivet said. “In the state Senate, I have a record of doing just that. I took on special interests and fought to lower the cost of prescription drugs, and I led the effort to pass the largest tax cuts for working families in Michigan history. I also helped repeal Michigan’s extreme abortion ban.”
As a state senator, Rivet co-sponsored bills aimed at lowering prescription drug costs, providing a working parent tax credit, increasing childcare affordability, expanding absentee voting options, mandating background checks on gun purchasers, and requiring non-union members to pay agency fees.
She drew criticism for introducing a bill, now law, that prohibits schools from using teacher performance evaluations to make tenure or termination-based decisions, and praise for introducing legislation that would expand retirement plan options for corrections officers.
Rivet says she supports “common sense immigration reforms,” including fixing the legal immigration process to make the pathway to citizenship easier, and that she will work in Congress to pass a federal law reinstating Roe v. Wade-era abortion regulations.
Rivet has received endorsements from Planned Parenthood, EMILYs List, and more than two dozen labor unions.
Both the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are targeting the 8th district seat, which Republicans hope to flip.
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