Daniel Timothy Kildee (/ˈkɪldiː/; born August 11, 1958) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 5th congressional district since 2013. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Throughout his career, Kildee has served both as an elected official and a CEO of a national nonprofit organization. From 1984 to 2009, he served in a couple of county-level elected positions, as a Genesee County commissioner and Genesee County Treasurer. On November 6, 2012, he was elected the U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 5th district. He succeeded his uncle Dale Kildee, who represented Flint in the House for 36 years. He resides in Flint Township, Michigan.^[1]

Early life and education

Kildee was born in 1958 in Flint, Michigan. He attended Flint Northern High School and Central Michigan University. In 2008, he finished his coursework at CMU, earning a B.S. in community development administration. He took courses in philosophy and community administration.^[2][3]

Flint local political career

At age 18, Kildee became one of the nation’s youngest elected officials when he was elected to the Flint Board of Education in 1977.^[4]

In 1984, Kildee was elected to serve on Genesee County‘s board of commissioners, subsequently serving for 12 years, including five as chair.^[5] As chair, Kildee led the effort to form the Bishop International Airport Authority.^{[citation needed]}

In 1991, he ran for mayor of Flint. He was one of four candidates to challenge incumbent Mayor Matthew Collier in the August 6 nonpartisan primary election. City Councilman Woodrow Stanley finished first with 24% of the vote. Collier ranked second with 23% of the vote, qualifying for the November election. Kildee finished third with 18%.^[6]

County Treasurer

In 1996, Kildee was elected Genesee County Treasurer. He was reelected in 2000, 2004, and 2008. He was reelected in 2008 with 72% of the vote.^[7] As treasurer, Kildee oversaw the county’s credit rating and presided over five bond-rating upgrades for the county.^{[citation needed]}

Land Bank

In 2002, he founded the Genesee County Land Bank, a first of its kind in the nation governmental authority dedicated to urban decay in cities such as Flint.^[8][9] The land bank has helped to clean up vacant and abandoned structures in the community.^[10]

The U.S. government, nonprofit organizations and think tanks have approached Kildee to expand his work to 50 cities identified by the Brookings Institution, focused mostly in the Rust Belt and northeastern United States, including Detroit, Baltimore, Memphis, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, which have many vacant and abandoned properties.^[11]

Center for Community Progress

In 2009, Kildee co-founded and served as the president of The Center for Community Progress, a national nonprofit organization with offices in New Orleans, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.^[12][13] He resigned as county treasurer to oversee the Center, intended to reform land sales to stop the spread of blight.^[14]

U.S. House of Representatives

Dan Kildee at the Spring 2017 Michigan Democratic Convention

Elections

2012

Kildee’s uncle Dale Kildee served in the House of Representatives representing Michigan’s 5th congressional district.^[15] In July 2011, Dale Kildee announced he would retire from Congress.^[16] Dan Kildee declared his candidacy for the House on November 1, 2011.^[1] He was unchallenged in the Democratic primary. In the November election, he defeated Republican State Representative Jim Slezak, 65% to 31%.^[16]

Tenure

In January 2013, then-House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer appointed Kildee assistant whip. His fellow freshmen Democratic members elected Kildee to serve as their representative to the caucus’s Steering and Policy Committee.^[17]

Kildee has focused on several issues, including urban development and supporting cities, raising the federal minimum wage, and promoting American manufacturing. He was also a vocal advocate for extending emergency unemployment insurance after it expired on December 28, 2013.^{[citation needed]}

Kildee was successful in his first six months in office in securing $100 million in federal funds for five Michigan cities, including Flint and Saginaw, so they had resources to tear down vacant, abandoned and rundown properties.^[18] He has also been a strong advocate for the “Make it in America” initiative, a package of bipartisan bills that were introduced in the House to help create a national manufacturing policy and promote American manufacturing.^[19]

Kildee fought for the release of Amir Mirza Hekmati, a constituent and U.S. Marine veteran who was held as a political prisoner in Iran for nearly five years. Working alongside the Hekmati family and the Obama administration to raise awareness, Amir’s release was eventually negotiated and he was freed in January 2016.^[20]

In September 2016, Kildee pushed Congress to include funding to aid in the Flint water crisis.^[21] Congress passed a funding measure that provided $170 million in aid to communities including Flint that needed infrastructure improvements for their water.^[22]

In April 2018, Kildee, Jared Huffman, Jamie Raskin, and Jerry McNerney launched the Congressional Freethought Caucus. Its stated goals include “pushing public policy formed on the basis of reason, science, and moral values”, promoting the “separation of church and state”, and opposing discrimination against “atheists, agnostics, humanists, seekers, religious and nonreligious persons”. Huffman and Raskin act as co-chairs.^[23]

Committee assignments

• Ways and Means Committee^[24]
• House Budget Committee^[25]

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Progressive Caucus^[26]
• Afterschool Caucuses^[27]
• Congressional Freethought Caucus
• Blue Collar Caucus

Personal life

Kildee has been married to Jennifer Kildee since 1988. They have three children, two of whom are in college, Kenneth at the University of Michigan-Flint and Katy at Central Michigan University. They have two grandchildren.^[16][28]

After an effort to draft him into the 2010 Michigan gubernatorial election,^[29] Kildee set up an exploratory committee,^[30] but shortly thereafter decided not to run.^[12] He was also rumored to be considering a run in the 2018 Michigan gubernatorial election, but publicly declared he would not, to focus on his work in Congress.^[31] He is close friends with filmmaker Michael Moore, whom he has known since high school.

References

External links

• Congressman Dan Kildee official U.S. House website
• Campaign website
• Dan Kildee at Curlie

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
• Appearances on C-SPAN