Hillary Scholten

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Popular West Michigan meteorologist Terri DeBoer is running for Congress after decades in broadcast television.

DeBoer announced she is running for Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, the seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Grand Rapids.

The news was announced in an exclusive interview with FOX News Thursday, March 5. DeBoer filed to run as a Republican on March 4, according to FEC filings.

“As I get to this point in my life, I see that there are a lot of storms on the horizon, many of them made for us by people that we have voted to send to Washington,” she told FOX News. “And those storms, unfortunately, are on the horizon and they are threatening each and every one of us. And so, for me, as I see those storms, I know there’s something that we can do about them.

“So I am asking the people of Michigan’s 3rd District to send me to Capitol Hill so that I can make a difference in helping to protect, prepare people for the storms that we’re facing and to help steer us away from the impact of those storms.”

She did not immediately respond to MLive’s request for comment Thursday morning.

The 3rd Congressional District encompasses portions of Kent, Muskegon and Ottawa counties, including the cities of Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Kentwood, Grand Haven and Muskegon.

According to DeBoer’s campaign website, her top priorities are securing U.S. borders, protecting Social Security, fighting waste and fraud in America’s healthcare system, protecting the rights of parents and lowering the cost of living.

She touted herself as a political “outsider” who will bring fresh new ideas to Washington to help address problems faced by everyday West Michiganders.

“I believe that West Michigan is not blue. West Michigan is not red -- West Michigan is all about solving the problems that we face, no matter who has those ideas, no matter what side of the aisle they happen to sit on,” she told FOX News.

“I have loyalty to West Michigan. I don’t have loyalty to a party.”

DeBoer has been delivering the morning weather forecast on West Michigan TV screens for more than three decades.

She recently announced her departure from FOX17, where she had come out of a previous retirement to deliver weather and lifestyle reporting for the last year and a half.

Before that, DeBoer was a longtime meteorologist at WOOD-TV 8 for over 30 years. When she retired from WOOD in 2023, she left to launch her own publishing company, focus on professional coaching, and spend more time with her family.

RELATED: Longtime WOOD-TV 8 meteorologist Terri DeBoer retires

DeBoer started her news career in the mid-1980s as a reporter and anchor at WBAY-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She moved to West Michigan and began forecasting the local weather in 1992, covering some of the region’s most significant weather events like the 1998 Derecho and the 2022 Christmas Week Blizzard.

She was the first woman in the state of Michigan to earn the prestigious Television Seal of Approval from the American Meteorological Society.

Scholten is the first Democrat to represent Grand Rapids in Congress since 1977. She first won the seat in 2022 against Republican John Gibbs, a former Trump administration official, and maintained Democrats’ historic hold on the congressional seat in 2024.

The FEC website lists two other Republicans who have filed to run for the 3rd District seat: Michael Markey Jr., of Grand Haven, and J. Allen Fiorletta, of Grand Rapids. However, Markey is now running for Michigan’s 31st District Senate seat, his team told MLive Thursday. Fiorletta confirmed he is still running for the Congressional seat.

Zachary Ketchum, of Muskegon, has filed to run as a Democrat.

The filing deadline is April 21.