The 1st Congressional District includes the entire Upper Peninsula as well as the Lower Peninsula counties of Emmet, Cheboygan, Presque Isle, Charlevoix, Montmorency, Antrim, Otsego, Alpena, Alcona, Oscoda, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie, Manistee and part of Mason.

Quotes were sourced directly from each candidate. Information concerning the candidate’s background, priorities and stances were found on their campaign websites and/or Facebook pages.

DR. BOB LORINSER

Democratic candidate Bob Lorinser of Marquette has lived in the 1st Congressional District since 1989.

LORINSER

He previously worked as a Navajo Nation and Marquette County family physician and expanded his service to the entire U.P. as a Medicaid medical director. He then served the U.S. as a diplomat overseas and retired, then returned as public health medical director in Marquette County during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Hardworking families are struggling with high housing costs, expensive child care and rising health care bills. The lack of family-sustaining wages is making the American dream out of reach,” Lorinser said in a statement to The Mining Journal. “We need small businesses to succeed and an economic system that works for everyone, not just the select few. We’ll support investments in housing, pre-kindergarten, child care, health care, education, job training, the environment, broadband and policies that don’t raise taxes on hard-working people but demand the ultrawealthy (to) pay their fair share.”

He also strives to strengthen Social Security, protect voting rights, support unions and support infrastructure funding to improve Michigan’s roads and buildings.

“Most importantly,” he said, “I’ll build coalitions to champion rural life and use subject-matter expertise to pass universal health care and reproductive freedom for all.”

CALLIE BARR

BERGMAN

Democratic candidate Callie Barr was born and raised in Traverse City and Cheboygan with local family roots going back five generations.

Barr’s husband is a veteran who enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps after 9/11 and served two tours in Iraq, causing them to move five times in 15 years while raising two girls. Barr continued to care for him after he suffered combat injuries.

Professionally, she went from teaching high school English to advocating for military families to connecting veterans with free legal services once she earned a law degree.

If elected, Barr would support policies that grow the economy, support agriculture and small businesses in rural Michigan and lower costs for the middle class. In tandem with this, she plans to join efforts to bring high-speed broadband to northern Michigan and the U.P.

Concerning guns, she supports the Second Amendment and believes in background checks, safe storage and red flag laws to prevent firearm-related injuries, school shootings and domestic violence.

BARR

“I am committed to not letting national politics get in the way of getting things done for Upper and Northern Michigan,” Barr said. “This means putting our country and district before any political party allegiance — to seeing ourselves as neighbors first, as Americans. I would love to join the Bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus to fight back against extremism and polarization. I will champion our democracy because it is only when folks have a real voice that we are able to secure an economy that works for everyone, where we can bring down costs, and protect women’s rights to health care. Join me.”

JACK BERGMAN

Incumbent Republican candidate Jack Bergman has roots in the U.P. stretching back to the late 1800s and has lived in Watersmeet for the past 30 years.

Serving since 2017 as the 1st Congressional District’s representative in Congress, Bergman — who reached the rank of lieutenant general in his 40-year U.S. Marine Corps career — is the highest-ranking combat veteran to have served in the U.S. House.

Bergman currently serves as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Veterans Affairs and the House Budget Committee.

“My top priorities for our district are economic stability and national security. We have a failing economy, faltering national security, open borders wreaking havoc on our communities and unelected bureaucrats creating regulatory policies which exacerbate all of that,” he said in a statement to The Mining Journal. “I will continue to fight for transparency and accountability in our government by holding bureaucrats and the Biden-Harris administration accountable and by rolling back harmful regulations to ensure Michiganders can prosper — economically and with safe and secure borders — once again.”

While in his position, Bergman has also supported security measures on the country’s southern border, voting to allocate billions of dollars for a wall.

He has voted for over a billion dollars to be put toward broadband connectivity. Bergman’s interests also extend to pro-agriculture policy as shown by his help in the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program for farmers and the Keep Food Local and Affordable Act.

Bergman has also supported bans on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, protections for doctors who refuse to perform abortions and sponsored the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.

JOSHUA SAUL

Republican candidate Joshua Saul grew up in Troy and Mesick but currently lives in Roscommon with his family. A year after being deployed to Afghanistan, Saul survived a traumatic gunshot wound to his back that left him disabled due to a variety of complications. When stable, Saul graduated college, began work in health care and earned his certified public accounting license.

In an interview with The Mining Journal, he said the main issue he’s heard from people in the district is the economy, particularly inflation.

“The way that I would tackle that is to make sure we can get government spending under control,” Saul said. “That is one of the big drivers of inflation: our government has poured trillions of dollars into the system that hasn’t actually produced better quality products and services, which means everything just costs more and we don’t get any additional benefit from the money that we’re seeing.”

Some of the ways Saul wants to address congressional budgets that add to national debt include cutting back on government assistance programs, requiring balanced budgets and passing appropriations bills individually. Part of his plan to improve not only the district, but also the country, involves a holistic system of government change.

An integral part of his plan is to convert obsolete commercial real estate into residential property and sell it to citizens, not corporations or foreign investors.

“What that’ll do is help inflate the bubble in the commercial real estate market and deflate the prices in residential real estate,” he said. “That will help prevent us from having a catastrophic economic collapse because both of those markets are currently being stressed at what we can handle as a society.”

He has also expressed concern for an immigrant “invasion,” advocates for veterans and has criticized the “transgender movement.”