U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee announced Thursday he won’t seek re-election in 2024, saying he came to the decision after his cancer scare earlier this year.
The Flint Democrat served six terms in the highly competitive seat in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, which covers Genesee, Bay, and Saginaw counties, along with portions of Midland County.
“For most of this year, I saw myself continuing to serve and was actively planning another campaign,” Kildee said in a statement. “But there are times in all our lives that make you reassess your own future and path. For me, being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year was one of those moments.”
Kildee was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma earlier this year, prompting him to undergo surgery to remove a tumor on his tonsil in April. Kildee says he’s now cancer free.
Kildee’s departure gives Republicans an opportunity to flip his seat. In fact, after his announcement, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted the seat from “leans” Democrat to a tossup.
Democrats praised Kildee’s service after his announcement.
“Congressman Kildee knows the Bay region like the back of his Michigan mitten, and I am so grateful for our productive partnership,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. “I am grateful for our collaboration to bring progress to areas of Michigan that too many left behind. We brought good-paying, middle-class manufacturing jobs back to Flint, worked to lower the cost of prescription drugs with President Biden, and delivered on the issues that make a real difference in people’s lives.”
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is running for the open U.S. Senate in Michigan next year, said Kildee’s departure “will be a huge loss for Congress, for Michigan, and for me personally.”
“Dan has been the ‘dean’ of the Michigan congressional delegation ever since I arrived, and his level-headed, good-humored, thoughtful advice has helped me countless times as I learned to navigate this place,” Slotkin said. “The center of his work is and always has been his hometown of Flint, for which he has fiercely advocated especially in the darkest hour of the Flint water crisis.”
Kildee said he’s “confident” that a Democrat will win his seat.
“And while my name will not be on the ballot next November, I will be doing everything I can to help elect common sense, principled and results-oriented leaders,” Kildee said.
Kildee was first elected to the U.S. House in 2012, when he succeeded his late uncle Dale Kildee. Before that, Kildee served in local government roles in Flint and Genesee County for decades.
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