Michigan: who should earn your vote for Congress in 2026
Opinion · The paper’s scorecard
Michigan: every race for Congress on the 3 November 2026 ballot, and how the candidates measure up against our standards.
Sitting and former members are scored on the same key votes, read from the official House and Senate roll calls; each vote links to the record. Candidates who have never served in Congress have no votes to score, and outside the battlegrounds we have not researched them, so they are marked as not scored. Where only one candidate could be measured, the mark rates that record on its own; it is not a verdict on the opponent. How the marks work · All states
U.S. Senate EVEN
No endorsement
A battleground: read our full case, with every source.
Gary Peters (D): incumbent retiring.
District 1 R+11
Leans our way: Jack Bergman
Callie Barr
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
Leans our way
Jack Bergman
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 27 key votes · total +1
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✗Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ~No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ~Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (16)
District 2 R+15
✓ Meets our standards: John Moolenaar
Ben Ambrose
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
Meets our standards
John Moolenaar
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 27 key votes · total +2
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✗Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ~No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ✓Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (17)
District 3 D+4
No mark
Terri DeBoer
Republican
No congressional voting record; not scored
Hillary Scholten
Democrat · incumbent
Scored on 21 key votes · total -3
- ✗Smaller government
- ✗Small business over giants
- ?Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ✓No surveillance state
- ✓Home first, open trade
- ✗Checks on power
- ✗Right to bear arms
- ✗Hard on violent crime
With us (8)
- Voted for the CLARITY Act, a light-touch rulebook for digital assets. Source
- Voted for the amendment requiring a warrant to search Americans' communications under FISA Section 702 (it failed 212-212). Source
- Voted for the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, barring agencies from buying Americans' data without a warrant. Source
District 4 R+3
✓ Meets our standards: Bill Huizenga
Meets our standards
Bill Huizenga
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 27 key votes · total +2
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✗Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ~No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ✓Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (17)
Sean McCann
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 5 R+13
No mark
Christian Vukasovich
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
Tim Walberg
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 27 key votes · total +0
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✗Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ✗No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ~Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (15)
District 6 D+12
No mark
Debbie Dingell
Democrat · incumbent
Scored on 27 key votes · total -2
- ✗Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✓Live and let live
- ✗Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ✓No surveillance state
- ✓Home first, open trade
- ~Checks on power
- ✗Right to bear arms
- ✗Hard on violent crime
With us (11)
Heather Smiley
Republican
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 7 EVEN
Closer to our standards: William Lawrence
Tom Barrett
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 10 key votes · total +0
- ✓Smaller government
- ?Small business over giants
- ?Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ?Free speech
- ✗No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ✗Checks on power
- ?Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (6)
Closer to our standards
William Lawrence
Democrat
No votes in Congress: scored on platform and record, promises at half weight · total +1
- ✗Smaller government
- ✓Small business over giants
- ?Live and let live
- ✗Light touch on tech
- ?Free speech
- ✓No surveillance state
- ✓Home first, open trade
- ✓Checks on power
- ~Right to bear arms
- ~Hard on violent crime
With us (6)
- Platform says 'no small business in our district should pay a higher tax rate than a multinational corporation' and that 'Corporate monopolies suck up our money and deliver it to their investors on Wall Street'; it names no specific antitrust measure. Source
- In a WHMI interview he called data centers 'hollow economic development', criticized tax breaks for the large corporations building them and said he preferred 'strong towns with strong businesses'. Source
- Platform plank to regulate 'surveillance by corporations and government' cites 'the huge invasion of privacy from 24/7 surveillance'; no position found on FISA 702, facial recognition or data brokers specifically. Source
Against us (3)
- Platform backs Medicare for All, 'major federal investment in quality housing, at all price points' and a 'billionaire minimum tax, which is a minimum wealth tax rate that the mega-wealthy must pay'. Source
- Campaign homepage calls for Congress to 'Pass a 12-month federal moratorium on new data centers', a nationwide federal ban on a category of private construction. Source
- Proposes a 12-month federal moratorium on new data centers and a platform plank to 'Regulate AI and surveillance by corporations and government', adding of AI policy 'I don't have the answers here'. Source
District 8 R+1
✓ Meets our standards: Kristen McDonald Rivet
Meets our standards
Kristen McDonald Rivet
Democrat · incumbent
Scored on 10 key votes · total +3
- ✗Smaller government
- ✓Small business over giants
- ?Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ?Free speech
- ?No surveillance state
- ✓Home first, open trade
- ✓Checks on power
- ?Right to bear arms
- ~Hard on violent crime
With us (7)
Against us (3)
- Voted against the 2025 package cancelling about $9 billion in approved spending. Source
- Voted against a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. Source
- Voted against the DC CRIMES Act, which bars the District from reducing criminal sentences and ends lighter sentencing for offenders aged 18 to 24. Source
Thomas Smith
Republican
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 9 R+16
No mark
Lisa McClain
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 26 key votes · total -1
- ✓Smaller government
- ✗Small business over giants
- ✗Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ✗No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ~Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (14)
Ray Pooley
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 10 R+3
Closer to our standards: Christina Hines
John James (R): incumbent retiring to run for governor.
Mike Bouchard
Republican
No votes in Congress: scored on platform and record, promises at half weight · total +0.5
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ?Live and let live
- ?Light touch on tech
- ?Free speech
- ?No surveillance state
- ~Home first, open trade
- ~Checks on power
- ~Right to bear arms
- ?Hard on violent crime
With us (1)
- Campaign site pledges 'cutting red tape that crushes small businesses' and says his opponent's health plan 'would cost trillions and raise all of our taxes'; he told Fox News he wants to 'reduce that regulation, cut red tape' to make homebuying easier. Source
Closer to our standards
Christina Hines
Democrat
No votes in Congress: scored on platform and record, promises at half weight · total +1.5
- ~Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ?Live and let live
- ~Light touch on tech
- ?Free speech
- ✓No surveillance state
- ✓Home first, open trade
- ✓Checks on power
- ✗Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (6)
- Housing plan would 'Cut unnecessary red tape, permitting delays, and regulatory capture that drive up construction costs'. Source
- Would 'Ban "surveillance pricing," where companies use your personal data or purchasing history to decide what price you pay' (commercial data use; nothing found on government surveillance). Source
- Wrote that 'retaliatory tariffs waged with no real strategy or plan are hardly protecting American workers', cited a Tax Foundation estimate of a $1,000-per-household cost, and would 'Reduce tariffs that increase the cost of building materials'. Source
Against us (4)
- Proposes federal legislation to 'Prohibit excessive price increases on essential grocery items that can't be justified by normal market conditions' and to limit dynamic pricing technology, plus a higher federal minimum wage and paid family leave. Source
- At a Mount Clemens panel with Gabby Giffords, the Macomb Daily reported that Hines 'supports restoration of the national assault-weapons ban, passage of safe-storage laws and closure of loopholes that allow gun resales'. She said: 'The reality is that people are so much more likely to kill a lot of people if they have an assault rifle.' Source
- Giffords PAC endorsed Hines; its profile says she 'is committed to making the passage of stronger gun laws a top priority, from strengthening safe storage requirements to implementing red flag laws and universal background checks on gun sales'. Source
District 11 D+9
No mark
Haley Stevens (D): incumbent retiring to run for u.
Ethan Baker
Republican
No congressional voting record; not scored
Jeremy Moss
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 12 D+21
No mark
James Hooper
Republican
No congressional voting record; not scored
Rashida Tlaib
Democrat · incumbent
Scored on 25 key votes · total -1
- ✗Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✓Live and let live
- ✗Light touch on tech
- ✓Free speech
- ✓No surveillance state
- ✓Home first, open trade
- ✗Checks on power
- ✗Right to bear arms
- ✗Hard on violent crime
With us (11)
District 13 D+22
No mark
Shri Thanedar (D): incumbent lost renomination.
Donavan McKinney
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
T.P. Nykoriak
Republican
No congressional voting record; not scored