Michigan’s 6th Congressional District represents all of Washtenaw County, most of Wayne County, and parts of Monroe County and Oakland County.
Debbie Dingell (D)
Debbie Dingell currently represents Michigan’s 6th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives and has served in Congress since 2015. Prior to her work in politics, Dingell was an executive at General Motors before becoming president of the GM Foundation. Dingell successfully advocated for women to be included in federally funded health research and pushed for greater awareness of women’s health issues, such as breast cancer and women’s heart health. She is a founder and previous chairperson of the National Women’s Health Resource Center and the Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health. She previously served as the chair of the Michigan Infant Mortality Task Force and co-chair of the Children’s Leadership Council. Additionally, she was elected to the Wayne State Board of Governors and served as the chairperson of the board before being elected to Congress.
According to her website, “Debbie Dingell is a tireless fighter for working families in Michigan. She knows that we can accomplish more by working together on critical issues like protecting our Great Lakes, lowering the costs of healthcare, improving our infrastructure, and creating jobs by supporting manufacturing and leveling the playing field for our workers. A noted leader in improving civility in our public discourse, she strongly believes that we can disagree with one another without being disagreeable.”
Campaign issues
Dingell’s campaign highlights nine issues: affordability, healthcare, economy, immigration, environment, education, seniors, veterans and equality.
Dingell wants to ensure tax dollars are being used to lower the overall costs of living, expand healthcare coverage and lower the cost of prescription drugs. She aims to protect jobs in the U.S. by supporting the domestic manufacturing and auto industries in Southeast Michigan. Dingell's campaign promises to make an effort at reforming Immigration and Customs Enforcement by ensuring that ICE follows the same regulations as all other law enforcement agencies. She says she will protect the Great Lakes and reinvest in education after the Department of Government Efficiency decimated the Department of Education. Dingell also hopes to strengthen social security and increase access to medical and long-term care for seniors as well as mental healthcare, education and job training for veterans. Finally, Dingell's campaign promises to fight for equal protection under the law for all people regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Heather Smiley (R)
Heather Smiley is a business professional and former auto industry worker. She previously ran for Congress in 2024 but was not elected. Smiley is a first-generation college student who has earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Central Michigan University. Prior to her work in politics, she worked at Ford for 32 years. While working at Ford, Smiley’s roles included product development, strategy and planning, business reengineering and transformation, customer service and analytics. Smiley says she can apply her “real-world experiences involving multi-million-dollar projects, leveraging data and analytics to make strategic, data-driven decisions to improve our government.”
Smiley states on her website, “I am a life-long problem solver who applies my real-world experience, common sense, and understanding of cause & effect nuances to work smarter, save money, and overcome issues. With my unique qualifications and the support of my family, it was agreed that I should step-up and help restore the America that we know and love.”
Campaign issues
Smiley’s campaign focuses on 19 issues: budget, civil rights, education, elections, energy, environment, government, health, immigration, jobs/economy, law, legislation, Michigan, military, religion, safety, self-defense, sovereignty and speech.
Smiley hopes to eliminate wasteful spending, balance the budget and encourage transparency on spending decisions. She wants to practice unbiased education by ensuring that education focuses only on academics, global competitiveness and American excellence. Her campaign promises to enforce voter integrity by making sure only U.S. citizens are able to vote and setting term limits for all elected officials. She aims to restore energy independence by improving the infrastructure, and protect and restore the environment and wildlife. She hopes to be able to stop illegal drug production and importation, and what she described as closing the borders. She also hopes to enable and support law enforcement and individuals' rights to arm and defend themselves. Finally, she aims to protect and ensure original, impartial and unrestricted creation and distribution of speech amongst all media platforms.
Timothy A. Teagan (Libertarian)
Timothy A. Teagan is the current chair of the Michigan Libertarian party and is running to represent Michigan's 6th district in the US House of Representatives.
According to the Libertarian Party of Michigan, Teagan has a strong background in militia and activism.
“I consider myself a neutral Libertarian who only wishes to put the party and its principles first,” Teagan said in a quote on the Michigan Libertarian Party website.
Michael Mickevicius (U.S. Taxpayers)
Michael Mickevicius is running for US House of Representatives to represent Michigan's 6th district as a member of the U.S. Taxpayers Party.
Clyde Shabazz (Green)
Clyde Shabazz is running for US House of Representatives Michigan District 6 as a member of the Green Party.
According to a campaign video posted on posted on Green Party of Michigan U.S.'s verified Facebook account, Shabazz's campaign is centered around two major ideas: "You can never make America great again" and protecting the environment.
Shabazz said in the video that Americans can never bring the country back to the way its founding fathers first experienced it because many of America's forests have been cut down and many of its wildlife has died.
"This loss of nature has put our society under ever increasing stress. Environmentally, due to the pollution and socially, due to the toxic interactions," Shabazz said. "Human degragation is ruining human health and cognitive brain function. Global warming has gone beyond human control."
Linda Rayburn (Working Class)
Linda Rayburn is a Working Class Party candidate for U.S. House of Representatives to represent Michigan's 6th district. She previously ran for Michigan State Senate District 4 in 2022, according to workingclassfight.com.
According to her prior campaign statement, Rayburn recognizes that racism, poverty and an unjust criminal justice system can break communities apart and believes the U.S. government and education system continuously fails families.
Rayburn attended Henry Ford Community College and maintained a 3.5 GPA while working as a home health aid and being in the HFCC Honors Society.
