GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — As Election Day approaches, the race in Michigan's Third Congressional District pits incumbent Democratic Rep. Hillary Scholten against Republican challenger Terri DeBoer.
I sat down with Scholten to discuss her positions on affordability, foreign policy and the likelihood of Democrats taking back control in Washington.
Scholten, who is hoping to secure her third term in Congress, expressed confidence about her party's prospects in the midterm election.
"I think there is a path to taking back the Senate. But even if we don't, the confidence is incredibly high that we'll take back the House, and that will provide a necessary check on this president," Scholten said.
WATCH: Scholten sits down with FOX 17 ahead of election day
Despite agreeing with a number of his campaign promises, Scholten has not thrown her support behind the Democratic candidate for Michigan's U.S. Senate seat, Abdul El-Sayed.
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"Campaign finance reform? Yes, let's get it done. I'll work with either party. I'll work with anyone on campaign finance reform, lowering costs, expanding access to affordable health care," Scholten said while pointing to, what she called, an inability to condemn Iran and its treatment of and state-supported violence against women. "There are a number of issues that I think are too extreme, that I'm not willing to embrace, and to me that go beyond what I would consider for an endorsement."
Scholten does support military action in the Middle East — but not how it has unfolded.
"We need to do something about Iran. They are the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the entire world. ... But it's the how that matters. $80 billion, lives lost, no plan, and Americans can't afford to put food on their table because of it," Scholten said.
She says the war and its impact on the cost of living back home will be Republicans' undoing this midterm election. Scholten says the president entered a war with Iran "without the consent of the people" and that the House voted five times on the War Powers Resolution to rein it in.
On data centers
Scholten called for a one-year moratorium on the development of new data centers until a regulatory framework is established. Her primary concern is water consumption — she argued that "local control" without uniform standards allows data center companies to drain shared aquifers that cross township and county lines. She says she has introduced legislation requiring closed-loop water systems and requiring data centers to pay for the water they use.
Scholten also framed AI as "a tool," not an existential threat, arguing that completely shunning it is a disadvantage.
With her sights set on reelection, Scholten's fight goes through DeBoer, a political newcomer — a title Scholten once held.
"It's funny. I've heard her sort of toss that line around. I was like, okay, well, I guess no one can ever get elected to office because the minute you get elected, you must be a political insider. I'm hoping to secure just my third term in office, and before I did I had never run for office before," Scholten said. "I'm so proud of the record that I have built. Just secured $115 million in water resource development for water resource infrastructure here in West Michigan, a huge part of the work that I'm doing to make sure we can protect and preserve our clean water. That's something I want to keep working on when when I return to Congress for my third term."
America Votes
Terri DeBoer talks limited government, local control
We also discussed data centers, AI and immigration enforcement.
Scholten says she has a great working relationship with local Immigration and Customs Enforcement and wants them to be able to do their job in arresting dangerous individuals. But she says if they overstep and don't follow their own procedures, they need to be accountable to lawmakers and constituents.
Scholten says she is paying close attention to one particular case following a "tragic loss of life" connected to an ICE stop.
She raised the specific question of whether ICE followed its own policy of not pursuing individuals who flee an arrest — because pursuit creates a dangerous situation for the public. She stated there are "early indications that ICE may have continued to pursue that vehicle."
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