Michigan — 3rd District

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Longtime meteorologist Terri DeBoer enters the general election for Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District as a familiar face to many voters, with a campaign centered on bringing “West Michigan conservative values” and “common sense” to Washington.

She also enters the matchup as the underdog against Democratic U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, who has represented the Grand Rapids-area district since 2023.

Doug Koopman, a Calvin University political science professor and longtime observer of West Michigan politics, said DeBoer’s decades on television have likely given her strong name recognition and a trustworthy image, particularly among undecided voters.

Still, he said she faces an uphill battle and likely needs political conditions to shift in Republicans’ favor to be successful in November. An end to the Iran war and sharply lower gasoline prices are among the developments that could help, Koopman said.

“I would say certainly she’s the underdog,” Koopman said. “The people who look at this nationally see her as an underdog, and I think locally they think this is an outside shot.”

The 3rd Congressional District includes Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Kentwood, Grand Haven and Muskegon. Once a conservative stronghold that elected Republicans including Vern Ehlers, Justin Amash and Peter Meijer, the district has trended Democratic since it was redrawn into its current configuration in 2021.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the district “solid Democratic.” Cook noted that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris won the district by 8 percentage points in 2024, while Scholten won reelection by 10 points.

Inside Elections, another nonpartisan election forecaster, rates the contest “likely Democratic” after moving it from “solid Democratic” following DeBoer’s entry into the race. The publication called DeBoer the “most credible candidate against Scholten” since the congresswoman was first elected in 2022.

While election forecasters favor Scholten, local Republican leaders say they believe the race is competitive. Speaking at a Kent County GOP unity rally, DeBoer, 61, framed the election as a choice between limited government and local control or greater reliance on federal bureaucracies.

“We are at a crossroads,” she said. “Will we continue to believe that limited federal government and local control is the best? Or do we want big federal bureaucracies in control of every aspect of our lives?”

In an interview, DeBoer portrayed herself as a constitutional and fiscal conservative guided by “West Michigan common-sense values.” She argued that Scholten campaigns as a moderate but votes with the Democratic Party’s left wing.

DeBoer criticized Scholten for voting against the SAVE America Act, Republican-backed legislation that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and photo identification to cast a ballot in federal elections.

She also criticized Scholten for voting against Republican-backed legislation that would bar transgender girls and women from competing on female sports teams at schools receiving federal funding.

“I do not believe boys should be playing in girls sports,” DeBoer said. “I believe that in order to vote in an election in the United States, you should have to prove that you are citizens of the United States.”

Scholten’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Scholten, 44, has previously said she opposed the SAVE America Act because she believes its documentation requirements would place a disproportionate burden on voters who have changed their names, particularly married women.

“Requiring additional records to bridge that gap places a heavier burden on women than on men, even when both are equally eligible to vote,” she said in a February email to constituents.

DeBoer’s portrayal of Scholten as aligned with the Democratic Party’s left wing contrasts with an analysis of congressional roll-call votes by Voteview.

The academic project, overseen by faculty at University of California Los Angeles, found Scholten voted more liberally than 58% of all House members but more conservatively than 84% of House Democrats, positioning her toward the moderate end of her party.

DeBoer, of Byron Center, worked as a meteorologist for more than three decades, retiring from NBC affiliate WOOD-TV in 2023.

After a brief stint at Jacobs Financial Services, a Grandville-based financial planning firm, she returned to meteorology at FOX 17 in 2024 before retiring again this year to launch her congressional campaign in March.

Kent GOP Executive Director Rusty Richter said DeBoer has 71% name identification in the district, compared with about 25% for a typical candidate. He said her focus on affordability, “community security” and election integrity appeal to voters in the district.

“She’s giving people a reason to vote,” he said. “We have a solid, solid candidate.”

DeBoer defeated businessman Ryan Cushman, of Ottawa County’s Tallmadge Township, 78.6% to 21.5% in the August GOP primary for the 3rd Congressional District.

She said her general election strategy will continue to emphasize what she described as grassroots campaigning.

“We’ve had a strategy of really doing a lot of grassroots, just meeting with voters, going door to door, going to events, just talking with as many people one on one as we possibly can,” she said. “That strategy doesn’t really change.”

DeBoer said her 35 years on West Michigan television, along with appearances at schools, nursing homes, veterans halls, fairs, festivals and parades, have allowed voters to know her beyond her work as a meteorologist.

Asked to identify the biggest issue facing voters in the district, DeBoer pointed to affordability and blamed high prices on “reckless federal spending,” including pandemic-era spending under former President Joe Biden.

DeBoer said inflation and prices have begun to ease under the Trump administration but argued that Congress must further reduce federal spending.

“We need to continue to root out waste, fraud and abuse, and we need to make sure that we allow people to keep more of their hard-earned money,” DeBoer said.

Inflation, however, has followed an uneven path since President Donald Trump returned to office.

The annual rate stood at 3% in January 2025, fell to 2.4% immediately before the Iran war began Feb. 28 and rose to 4.2% in May as the conflict drove up energy costs, according to reporting by the Associated Press.

Inflation eased to 3.5% in June and 3.4% in July as gasoline and other energy prices declined, though it remained higher than when Trump took office, according to the AP.

Michigan gas prices averaged $3.14 a gallon in early January 2025 around when Trump took office, according to AAA. The statewide average for regular gasoline was $4.12 Tuesday, up from $3.22 a year earlier, though it had declined by about 20 cents during the previous week.

Koopman said DeBoer’s familiarity and outsider status could help her with undecided voters, but those advantages may not be enough unless the broader political environment also shifts toward Republicans.

“It would be a surprise the way things stand today to have her win, but not outside the realm of possibility,” he said.