Dave Herndon
Jan 31, 2022
State Sen. Adam Hollier will seek election for Michigan's new 13th District U.S. Representative seat.
State Sen. Adam Hollier will seek election for Michigan’s new 13th District U.S. Representative seat.
The current 13th District is held by Rashida Tlaib, who will seek election in the new 12th District, while current 12th District Rep. Debbie Dingell is seeking election in the 6th District.
The new 13th District includes Detroit’s downtown and Midtown and includes about half of the Downriver communities and then up through the Grosse Pointes.
Both Dearborn and Dearborn Heights are in the new 12th District, combined into one seat for the first time in decades.
Hollier is the most recent to declare for the seat.
“Detroit and Wayne County need a champion in Washington who listens to the needs of our families,” he said in a statement. “I’ll fight to secure funding for career readiness, improve our schools, rebuild our roads and bridges, and bring jobs to our communities.
The first-term State Senator’s current district is entirely in the new 13th Congressional District. He is a retired Army 2nd Lieutenant and former firefighter.
Hollier earned a bachelor’s in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University where he played safety on the football team. He holds a master’s in urban planning from the University of Michigan.
Other people who have declared for the seat include:
• Shri Thanedar, a former candidate for governor, and current State Representative. Thanedar immigrated to the United States in 1979. He earned a Ph.D. in chemistry, and worked as a post-doctoral research scholar at the University of Michigan from 1982-88. He also has an MBA from Fontbonne College, which he earned in 1987.
• Michael Griffie, a lawyer and former high school English teacher. Griffie graduated from Wayne State University, where he attended on a football scholarship with a degree in English.
He spent six years as an English teacher before becoming the principal of Cornerstone Health High School. He earned his law degree from Western Michigan’s Thomas Cooley Law school in 2014.
Currently, he’s the senior managing director of external affairs for Teach for America.
• Ralph Godbee, the former Detroit Police Chief. Godbee is now an ordained minister and said that anyone who holds the marital affair that caused his resignation from the police department against him won’t stand a chance of winning.
“I’m from the east side of Detroit,” Godbee told WDET. “I know how to fight. And if you think about coming for me you better think again. Because I didn’t get where I got not knowing how to fight and make my way up through the Detroit Police Department to be its 42nd chief. And I’m proud of every minute I spent serving the people of God.”
• Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, a former state representative from Michigan’s 8th District. Gay-Dagnogo is currently on the Detroit Public School Board of Education, having been elected in 2020. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wayne State University in instructional technology and worked in Detroit as a teacher.