Dingell on her support for the National Resources Management Act of 2019 Recorded February 26, 2019
Deborah Ann Dingell (/ˈdɪŋɡəl/; néeInsley; November 23, 1953) is an American politician serving as a U.S. representative from Michigan since 2015, representing the state's 6th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she succeeded her late husband, John Dingell, who was the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history.
Descended from one of the Fisher brothers, owners of Fisher Body,[6] from 1919 a part of General Motors, she has served as president[7] of the General Motors Foundation and as executive director of Global Community Relations and Government Relations at GM.
She married Representative John Dingell in 1981.[8] She had grown up as a Republican, but became a Democrat soon after marrying Dingell. Their marriage lasted 38 years until her husband's death on February 7, 2019, at the age of 92. Like her husband, she is a Catholic.[9]
She is a member of the Democratic National Committee from Michigan and chaired Vice President Al Gore's campaign in Michigan in 2000. In 2004, she also helped secure the Michigan Democratic primary and general election vote for John Kerry in Michigan.
When Carl Levin announced his retirement from the U.S. Senate at the end of his term in 2015, Dingell indicated that she was interested in running for his seat.[13] When former Michigan GovernorJennifer Granholm declined to run for the seat, a Politico writer declared Dingell to be one of the front-runners for the Democratic nomination, alongside Representative Gary Peters.[14] She chose not to run, and Peters won the seat.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2014
Dingell indicated that she planned to run for her husband's congressional seat after he announced his retirement.[15] On August 5, she won the Democratic primary. On November 4, she won the general election, defeating Republican Terry Bowman.[16] When Dingell was sworn in, she became the first U.S. non-widowed woman in Congress to succeed her husband. His father, John Dingell Sr., held Michigan's 12th district for 22 years before his son won it. Altogether, the Dingells have represented this district and its predecessors for 89 consecutive years as of 2021.[17][18] The district was numbered as the 15th from 1933 to 1965, the 16th from 1965 to 2003, the 15th again from 2003 to 2013, the 12th from 2013 to 2023, and has been in the 6th since 2023.
Tenure
In 2018, Dingell introduced a law that would give the Consumer Product Safety Commission the authority to recall defective firearms. John Dingell was a key lawmaker who initially granted the firearms industry this exemption from the 1972 Consumer Product Safety Act that created the Consumer Product Safety Commission.[19]
In April 2021, Dingell introduced the Recovering America's Wildlife Act of 2021, a bill that would provide funding for conserving and protecting endangered and threatened species, strategies to do so, and wildlife-related recreational activities.[22] The bill passed the House by 230–190 on June 14, 2022.[23]
In 2023, Dingell was among 56 Democrats to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21 which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.[24][25]
Trump impeachment
After Dingell voted to impeach President Donald Trump, Trump attacked Dingell during a campaign rally in Battle Creek, musing that her late husband, might be in hell, saying of him, "Maybe he's looking up, I don't know, I don't know, maybe, maybe. But let's assume he's looking down."[26] She was attending a bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus gathering when she was told of Trump's remarks. Numerous members of both parties came to Dingell's defense.[27] In her response to the incident, Dingell called for a return to civility, saying, "some things should be off limits."[28] In her 2022 book Confidence Man, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote that Dingell received a call from a man claiming to be a reporter who asked whether she was "looking for an apology from Trump". According to Haberman, "Dingell couldn't shake the idea that his voice sounded like that of the forty-fifth president."[29]
^"A closer look at Debbie Dingell". Pennsylvania Main Line News covering local news including local sports, video and multimedia coverage, and classified advertising. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
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