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A small business owner in the South Okanagan has thrown his hat into B.C.s provincial election ring.

This week, Keith MacIntyre was named as the BC Libertarian Party candidate for the Penticton electoral district.

The owner and CEO of Big Bear Software, MacIntyre is the third candidate in the riding.

Dan Ashton of the BC Liberals has held the seat since 2013, with the NDP announcing Summerland mayor Toni Boot as their candidate on Sept. 16.

In a press release, MacIntyre says hes lived in Penticton for the past 10 years, and that hes also the president of the Okanagan School of the Arts.

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He says hes been disillusioned with partisan politics for a long time and believes that the current state of democracy, polarized politics and perpetuating bureaucracy is damaging to Canadians.

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The polarization between the two so-called wings is getting worse, said MacIntyre, and we have lost the ability to have meaningful debates with each other without being accused of being right or left wing.

MacIntyre says hes in the process of gathering signatures to file nomination papers with Elections BC.

He says he has the 75 required signatures but is seeking more, adding he will file on Monday.

2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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B.C. Election: Small business owner to run for BC Libertarian Party in Penticton riding - Global News

The official ballot for the upcoming General Election on Nov. 3 reads: For United States Representative, you may vote for one or leave it blank. __ Dusty Johnson - Republican Party. __ Randy Uriah Luallin - Libertarian Party.

Luck of the draw lists incumbent Johnson first on the ballot and Luallin next for the two-year term.

Luallin, a Hot Spring resident, began a 10-day tour of South Dakota East River on Sept. 30. After talking with voters in Pierre, he and his wife, Rajni, headed to Gettysburg. My wife and I are traveling in a little camper across South Dakota, said Luallin. They also had their large dog Kiowa.

I was approached at the Libertarian convention in Pierre (June 2019 in Rapid City), and said I would run. It seemed like a huge task, actually an important task said Luallin. Ive been distraught concerning the division in this country - a very dysfunctional duality. My main objective is to bring it back together.:

Luallin has run for local political offices in the past; one being for county commissioner in Boulder County, Louisville, Colorado. He has run for a mayorship. He said he has lived in South Dakota pushing six years, and has run for Fall River County Commissioner. I have experience running for office, said Luallin.

He believes running as a Libertarian is an advantage. We have reached the point where we have ballot access, and that was a hard road. People are becoming disillusioned with the current establishment, said Luallin. I can walk with both camps - Democrat and Republican - because I share a lot of the same things. That will allow me to work for solutions instead of our all-too-common gridlock.

He illustrated two of his top running points. Almost my entire life - and Im 62 - weve been engaged in armed conflict of some type. That has to come to an end. We have wasted our youth in foreign conflicts, and achieved almost nothing. Our military strength should be for defensive purposes, said Luallin. I am a veteran - Army infantry. We have a fine military; it should not be used to ingratiate interest groups or whomever.

There is a tremendous need to remove the government intrusion into our lives, homes, businesses, and our pocketbooks. True liberty, true freedom, requires we are the best judge of what deals with us. As long as we are not hurting someone else or damaging property, we should be left alone, said Luallin. Business goes under the same concept: we need to reduce legislation that ingratiates certain businesses or interest groups and subsidises the picking of winners and losers. There should be an equal playing field in the free market.

Dusty has tremendous energy, and he is young, acknowledged Luallin. At the same time, he tends to react. As in: not fully reading legislation before voting for it. He has a 50% record of voting with the Constitution. I will be 100%, said Luallin.

Other than a soldier, Ive been a mason for 35 years. I am supposedly retired, but they never let you really retire because everybody has a small job for you; so I say that Im retired, said Luallin.

Dusty Johnson, currently a Mitchell resident, has been the incumbent since Jan. 2019. He just turned 44, and his wife is Jacquelyn.

Certainly, growing up in Pierre helped with me originally becoming interested in politics and public office, said Dusty Johsnon. I was inspired by our leaders. A working class family, we benefited from government programs. The proper role of government is to build independence rather than dependence.

Johnsons background includes being on the three-person South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner from 2005 to 2011. He was then chief of staff to Governor Dennis Daugaard until 2014. Until he was elected to the U.S. Congress, he was the vice president of Vantage Point Solutions in Mitchell.

I have respect for the Libertarian Party, said Johnson. They interject ideas into government, and the voters really win. I am a Republican because we work toward a limited government. There is a role of government to lead, but too often people look to the government to solve problems that should be out-of-government. Society works best when balancing families, business and government.

One of Luallins strengths is he loves the country and has energetic optimism. Hes willing to put himself out there. Hes a heck of a good guy, said Johnson. The voters can determine for themselves any of his weaknesses. They dont need me to lead them to where to drink that water.

When running an election campaign, I have learned that voters want to know what you have done. I think some people believe you really cant get anything accomplished in Washington. I have gotten four major bills of mine out of the House. I am the top Republican on the Agriculture subcommittee, and I have been the whip to such things as Mexico/America agreements.

I feel good about my work to benefit cattle and farming and rural concerns. Few legislators in Washington work for these issues, said Johnson.

The General Election is Nov. 3. The deadline to register to vote or to change a voters information, is Oct. 19. Early voting - sometimes referred to as absentee ballots - is already available.

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Luallin and Johnson speak out for S.D.'s U.S. House of Representatives seat - The Capital Journal

On the battleground of Covid-19, a struggle is under way for the soul of the Conservative Party. It is being fought out between Tory loyalists who back Boris Johnsons approach to the pandemic and small-state Conservatives. The latter compare the arbitrary, even autocratic approach implied by the Governments latest anti-coronavirus measures to Big Brother in George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four. The question is: who will win?

It would be simplistic to characterise this clash of ideology as one of authoritarians and libertarians. Neither the Prime Minister nor the rest of the Cabinet would, in normal times, be seen as advocates of big government, let alone a quasi-dictatorship. As for the rebels, who are said to number up to 80 MPs, they are not yet a coherent, organised lobby group, comparable to the Thatcherites and Wets, or the various factions on the European Union.

And yet such labels are useful. The Tory authoritarians, if we may call them that, believe that in a public health emergency of this magnitude, the end justifies practically any means. So they greet with equanimity such draconian restrictions on individual liberty as the ban on singing and dancing in pubs, or 4,000 fines for reckless refusal to self-isolate. The authoritarians are also relaxed about bypassing normal parliamentary scrutiny, on the grounds that there simply isnt time for the endless procedural skirmishing that has dragged out the Brexit process. Their justification for toeing the party line is that the sooner the country submits to a strict prophylactic regime, the sooner the pandemic will be over and that this is what the public wants and expects from the Government anyway.

The libertarian rebels are dismayed and angry about what they see as a betrayal of everything they went into politics to do. Their de facto spokesman is Steve Baker, for many years a thorn in the side of David Cameron and Theresa May as a leading light of the European Research Group (ERG).

Baker is a fascinating figure, not least because he is a rare beast in the Tory menagerie: a principled libertarian who is not ashamed to stand by his convictions even when they are unpopular. A stubborn, self-made Cornishman with an RAF background, Baker belongs to the international libertarian movement. He helped found the Cobden Institute to propagate the gospel of 19th-century classical liberalism and Austrian thinkers such as Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek.

Such doctrines are much more influential in the United States. There libertarian ideas are popularised by the novels of Ayn Rand, promoted by philanthropists, think tanks and other institutions, such as George Mason University, but rooted in the American Revolution. Here in the UK, libertarians have never controlled the commanding heights of the economy in the way that Alan Greenspan chaired the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006.

Yet under Margaret Thatcher the currents of classical liberal and libertarian thought coursed through the veins of the British body politic, including limited government, privatisation, free market economics and low taxation. Unlike most Tory MPs, Steve Baker is a trained engineer; yet he has a profound aversion to social engineering of any kind. Libertarian hostility to the EU is not based on nationalism indeed, they tend to favour the free movement of people but on the regulatory mania of the European model. Libertarians are usually sticklers for parliamentary procedure, because only constant vigilance can ensure democratic accountability of national or supranational authorities. Hence the ERGs erstwhile hero Jacob Rees-Mogg, now Leader of the House of Commons, is under pressure to allow MPs proper consultation and debate before yet more draconian rules are imposed.

Indeed, Boris Johnson himself is seen on the small-state wing of the party as a hostage to Big Brother. Comparing the Prime Minister to King Thoden in Tolkiens Lord of the Rings, Baker issued an appeal to liberate the old Boris: The king is under the spell of his advisers. And he has to be woken up from that spell.

When he was a columnist for Charles Moores Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson backed libertarian campaigns for the decriminalisation of cannabis and the privatisation of the BBC. It is true that he has elevated his former Editor to the Lords and hopes to appoint him as chairman of the BBC. In that capacity, no doubt, Lord Moore of Etchingham would infuriate all the right people and might even hasten the inevitable demise of the licence fee.

But now that Boris Johnson is firmly ensconced in Downing Street, he cannot afford to risk the wrath of the British people, which has yet to be persuaded that there is any alternative to local lockdowns and other restrictions on social activity. It is not the spell of his political and civil service advisers that compels him to take ever more authoritarian measures, so much as the fear of losing touch with public opinion.

The bumbling mannerisms and flashes of brilliance that made Boris a star in peacetime have not deserted him, but they are out of place in time of war the war against coronavirus. He seems to many, not least in his own party, to have temporarily lost his touch. Yet there is nobody to replace him. Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, is more popular because it is his job to dispense largesse, but if there were any substantial policy difference between No. 10 and No. 11 Downing Street, we would know about it by now.

As long as the Government remains united behind the authoritarian approach, the Tory libertarians have nowhere to go. The anti-lockdown movement has a legitimate place in the public debate, but it is powerless to prevent the curfew, surveillance and social isolation juggernaut from crashing through. The pandemic has yet to subside. Until it does, the sad words of King Thoden will echo through Englands green but not so pleasant land: The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.

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The Tories are divided between libertarians and authoritarians. Who will win? - TheArticle

Not all heroes wear masks. So tweeted Tory contrarian Toby Young in July after fellow freedom warrior James Delingpole posted a selfie of himself maskless in a supermarket. How daring. How heroic.

The tweet was revealing not just of how degraded debates about freedoms and liberties have become, but also of how a certain cabal of rightwing libertarians has come to dominate the discussions on these issues. One reason they have been able to do so is because too many on the left have vacated the space.

This week, the Coronavirus Act 2020, which became law in March, giving the government emergency powers to deal with the pandemic, is due for renewal by parliament. There has been criticism of the law from civil liberties groups and from a handful of human rights lawyers. Opposition, both inside and outside parliament, has, however, come mainly from the libertarian right. Yet the powers that the government has given itself should be a crucial issue not just for Tory rebels or rightwing contrarians, but for all those who take the pandemic seriously but also take seriously questions of liberty and of the need for proper scrutiny of government actions.

The pandemic is a major public health emergency that makes restraints on liberties inevitable. Such restraints ought, however, to be proportionate. And they should involve measures that work. In Britain, the government has grievously mishandled virtually every plan to reduce Covid-19 infection rates, from inadequate PPE to a catastrophic policy towards care homes to the debacle of test and trace. It has combined such failures with the imposition of more authoritarian regulations, which seem less about bolstering the wider coronavirus strategy than about compensating for its failures.

The government has grievously mishandled virtually every plan to reduce Covid-19 infection rates

Requiring people to wear masks in shops or on public transport is proportionate (and the opposition to it pathetic, not heroic). But allowing the police to detain anyone they have reasonable grounds to suspect is potentially infectious (as the Coronavirus Act does), or imposing 10,000 fines for organising protests, or making mass surveillance easier, should more than give us pause. As last weeks report of the parliamentary select committee on human rights puts it: It is unacceptable that many thousands of people are being fined when regulations contain unclear and ambiguous language, the police do not fully understand their powers and a significant percentage of prosecutions have been shown to be wrongly charged.

Worse than the act itself is the fact that so many regulations have been pushed through by ministerial decree with little or no parliamentary scrutiny, making use both of the Coronavirus Act and the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984. The Hansard Society has found that, since the start of the pandemic, the government has made law using statutory instruments 242 times. Statutory instruments are a means of bypassing parliamentary scrutiny. They can be made either affirmative, requiring retrospective parliamentary approval, or negative, which ensures that the regulations remain in place unless parliament annuls them within 40 days. The vast majority of statutory instruments relating to coronavirus have been negative, meaning that ministers are making law by default.

There is certainly public support for tough coronavirus regulations. According to polls, 78% of the British public back the latest government restrictions and almost half think those restrictions should be even harsher.

Its a public mood that has been shaped by government policy. Rather than build on the community-mindedness that flourished at the beginning of the pandemic, the government has helped inculcate mistrust. From the constant finger-pointing to support for snooping on ones neighbours, ministers have encouraged the idea that other people are the problem. Rather than nurturing the publics social instincts, they have continually threatened to impose sanctions on those who break rules. The starting point seems to be that people wont do what is necessary, so we need to force them to not a useful way of fostering social trust and solidarity.

The widespread support for government regulations paradoxically reveals the need for greater vigilance. Its precisely when so many support government by diktat that those diktats should be particularly closely scrutinised. It would be a calamity if such scrutiny was confined to those who imagine that not wearing a mask is heroic or have an ideological opposition to pandemic restrictions.

From free speech to civil liberties, much of the left has in recent years retreated from issues that once helped define it. This has given a free pass to the libertarian right both to don the mantle of freedom and to distort its meaning. The left needs urgently to rediscover its old passion for liberty.

Kenan Malik is an Observer columnist

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Where is the voice of the left as 'libertarians' annex the Covid-19 debate? - MSN UK

34 days until Election Day. 14 races in Michigan for seats in the U.S. Congress.

With just more than a month until Nov. 3, races span across the state as far north as the Upper Peninsula and several in the southeast Michigan and Detroit areas.

Here is a roundup of the races, including the 28 major-party candidates and the handful of third-party ones.

Candidates filled out answers for previews on where they stand on several issues, according to questionnaires compiled by a partnership between MLive and the League of Women Voters. Access the full guide and search for candidates in your area at vote411.org.

U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, (left) is running for a third term against Democratic challenger Dana Alan Ferguson (right). Both photos are courtesy of the candidates' campaigns.Courtesy Photo

U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman looks to keep northern Michigans 1st District red amid challenge from Democrat Dana Ferguson

Northern Michigans representative in Washington has been a Republican for more than a decade.

Incumbent Rep. Jack Bergman wants to keep it that way. Dana Alan Ferguson is his Democratic challenger in the 1st Congressional District.

Ferguson topped church leader Linda ODell in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary, earning about 45,000 votes, 64% of the electorate. Bergman, R-Watersmeet, ran unopposed for the Republican nomination.

Related: Ferguson wins nomination to face Jack Bergman in Michigans 1st Congressional District

Northern Michigan is one of the stronger Republican strongholds in the state, but Ferguson, a former production manager at lumber company Bell Forest, is vying for a chance to turn it blue for the first time since Rep. Bart Stupak won in 2008.

I think too many (Democrats) look at the 1st District and look at Northern Michigan and theyve written it off, Ferguson said. This is a huge mistake, because I can say with certainty after traveling to all 32 counties multiple times over the last year, it is far from a waste of my time. This is a very, very winnable district, and there are so many people who have more progressive principles that are going to be voting.

According to the Cook Political Report Partisan Voting Index, the 1st Congressional District is strongly Republican, trending +9 points red.

Bergman, a retired Marine lieutenant general, topped 2018 Democratic challenger Matt Morgan by more than 42,000 votes, winning the seat by more than 12 percentage points. The Republican initially won the seat in 2016 by 53,000 votes over Lon Johnson, former Michigan Democratic Party chair.

He sees his role as Northern Michigans congressman as working to allow people from either political persuasion to live the American dream, with more freedom from federal control.

Get a good K-12 education, then allow them to have options like college or tech school or military or into the workforce... whatever it happens to be, Bergman said.

Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, left, faces a challenge in the November 2020 general election from Democrat Bryan Berghoef, a Holland pastor.

Huizenga faces Democratic pastor in quest to keep 2nd Congressional seat

West Michigans representative in the U.S. House of Representatives is facing a Democratic challenge from a pastor and political newcomer.

Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, is seeking a sixth term representing Michigans 2nd Congressional District.

Challenging him for the two-year term is Democrat Bryan Berghoef, pastor of the Holland United Church of Christ.

Also appearing on the ballot are three third-party candidates: Jean-Michael Creviere, representing the Green Party; Max Riekse, representing the Libertarian Party; and Gerald T. VanSickle, representing the US Taxpayers Party of Michigan.

Michigans 2nd Congressional District includes all of Lake, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, and Ottawa counties and areas of Allegan, Kent, and Mason counties.

Democrat Hillary Scholten and Republican Peter Meijer

Republican Peter Meijer, Democrat Hillary Scholten seek to replace Justin Amash in Congress in 3rd District

The race to replace U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, L-Cascade Township, in Congress features two political newcomers: Republican Peter Meijer and Democrat Hillary Scholten.

Neither Miejer, a 32-year-old Army veteran and former analyst, nor Scholten, a 38-year-old attorney, have held public office. But both candidates say they have what it takes to effectively represent Michigans 3rd Congressional District.

Heres a look at the candidates:

The 3rd Congressional District includes the city of Grand Rapids, a large portion of Kent County, part of Montcalm County, as well as Ionia County, Barry County and Calhoun County, which is home to Battle Creek.

Republican Incumbent John Moolenaar, far left, will be facing off against three contenders during the Nov. 3 election, pictured from left to right - Democrat Jerry Hilliard David Canny of the Libertarian party, Amy Slepr of the Green party. Courtesy of the Women League of Voters, Vote411.

U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar faces 3 contenders for central Michigans 4th Congressional District

Republican U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar faces three contenders in the November general election for the right to represent mid-Michigan in Congress.

Moolenaar, of Midland, is seeking reelection on Nov. 3. He faces Democrat Jerry Hilliard, David Canny of the Libertarian Party and Amy Slepr of the Green Party for the 4th District seat.

Moolenaar previously served on the Midland City Council as well as in the Michigan House of Representatives and in the State Senate. Prior to his governmental experience, Moolenaar worked as a chemist, small business administrator and a school administrator. He holds a bachelors from Hope College and a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard University.

Hilliard has served as the former chair and vice chair of Isabella County Democratic Party and has been a precinct delegate, poll worker, and poll watcher. Currently, Hilliard is an adjunct faculty member at Lansing Community College in economics. He holds a bachelors from Central Michigan University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan - Flint.

Canny is a retail seafood executive, who handles tasks such as operations, global procurement, marketing, and product development while Slepr is a retired nurses aide who holds a bachelors in psychology from Central Michigan University.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Daniel Kildee is facing Republican Tim Kelly, Libertarian James Harris and Working Class Party candidate Kathy Goodwin in the Nov. 3 election for the 5th district seat.(Photos supplied to MLive)

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee faces former state representative Tim Kelly, 2 others for 5th District House seat

Democratic U.S. Rep. Daniel Kildee, who represents the 5th Congressional District in mid-Michigan, faces three challengers in the Nov. 3 general election.

Tim Kelly is the Republican candidate opposing Kildee and a former Michigan state representative from Saginaw County. Also on the ballot are Libertarian James Harris and Working Class Party candidate Kathy Goodwin.

The 5th Congressional District includes Genesee, Bay, Arenac and Iosco counties and parts of Tuscola and Saginaw counties.

Democrat Jon Hoadley is challenging Republican Fred Upton for the U.S. House District 6 seat on Nov. 3.

State Rep. Jon Hoadley among a trio challenging Congressman Fred Upton for the 6th District seat

State Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo, is considered the front-runner among those seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, to represent Michigans 6th Congressional District.

The district has long been a Republican stronghold. Upton is seeking his 18th consecutive term in the November general election.

In addition to the Democratic Party, the other challengers appearing on the Nov. 3 ballot are members of the Libertarian and Green parties.

Libertarian Jeff Depoy, 35, is a machinist and veteran from Berrien Center. For more about his experience and campaign, visit facebook.com/jefffor6th

Green Party candidate John Lawrence, 31, is a medical dispatcher and logistics and courier transporter from Kalamazoo. For more about his experience and campaign, visit facebook.com/RapsRantsRamblings

Upton, 67, was first elected in 1986. In the August primary he secured 62.66% of the votes to defeat GOP challenger Elena Oelke.

The 6th Congressional District covers much of Southwest Michigan, including the counties of Kalamazoo, Van Buren, Cass, St. Joseph, Berrien and Allegan.

Gretchen Driskell, D-Saline, hopes to unseat incumbent Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, to represent Michigan's 7th Congressional District. (Photos provided to MLive)

Walberg, Driskell face off for third time for 7th Congressional District seat

Gretchen Driskell hopes a third times the charm to unseating Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg in November.

The former Saline mayor and Democrat is running for Michigans 7th Congressional District against incumbent Walberg, of Tipton, now in his sixth term.

Walberg beat Driskell in 2018 with 54% of the vote in the Republican-leaning district. The 7th Congressional District also supported President Donald Trump in the 2016 election when Walberg beat Driskell with 55% of the vote.

The district includes Monroe, Lenawee, Hillsdale, Branch, Jackson and Eaton counties, along with western Washtenaw.

Voters in Michigan's 8th Congressional District will choose between Paul Junge, left, and U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, on Nov. 3, 2020. (MLive File Photos)

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin faces challenge from Paul Junge in Michigans 8th Congressional District

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, is seeking a second term after flipping Michigans 8th congressional district, while GOP challenger Paul Junge is vying to reclaim the seat for Republicans.

Slotkin is a former CIA analyst elected in 2018 to represent a district that supported President Donald Trump two years earlier. Junge, a former prosecutor and television anchor, argues he can better represent the politically-mixed district, though Slotkin touts a bipartisan record in her first term.

Junge earned the Republican Partys nomination by winning a four-way primary with 35% of the vote. Slotkin ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Libertarian candidate Joe Hartman is also on the Nov. 3 ballot. Hartman, a tax accountant and former math teacher, is not taking campaign donations and said hes running to bring more awareness to libertarian issues.

The 8th District covers the traditionally Republican-leaning Livingston County, Democratic-leaning Ingham County and portions of Oakland County that have begun to trend blue in recent elections. However, Trump won the 8th District by 7 percentage points in 2016 and will be on the ballot with Junge on Nov. 3.

Slotkin won by a narrow 3.5 points in 2018. She lost Oakland and Livingston counties but won Ingham County by a wide margin, giving her enough votes to become the first Democrat to represent the 8th District since 2001.

U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Twp., left, and Republican challenger Charles Langworthy will face off in November for Michigan's 9th District congressional seat.

Levin, Langworthy offer very contrasting visions in 9th District congressional race

U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Twp., is looking to keep his congressional seat in the family for a 20th term as he faces Republican challenger Charles Langworthy in the Nov. 3 election.

Levin won the seat in 2018, replacing his father Sandy Levin, who represented the district for 18 terms before retiring.

Langworthy, briefly a U.S. Navy sailor and now a realtor with Liberty Way in Lake Orion, earned 57% of the vote to defeat Gabi Grossbard in the Republican primary on Aug. 4. He received more than 32,000 votes to win the nomination.

Read more: Langworthy wins primary, will challenge Congressman Andy Levin in November

The 9th Congressional District spans portions of northern Oakland and Macomb counties. The Cook Political Report rates the district as trending +4 points Democratic.

Langworthy calls himself a constitutional patriot and a proud American that loves this nation and its people. He has appeared with other Michigan Republican candidates alongside the Trump Unity Bridge.

I am a man of conviction with a good moral compass that wants nothing more than to live in a free and prosperous nation, he says on his campaign website.

Before being elected to Congress, Levin was a business owner, a director of the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth under former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and a staff attorney for former President Bill Clintons labor law reform commission.

LEFT: Republican 10th Congressional District candidate Lisa McClain. RIGHT: Democratic 10th Congressional candidate Kimberly Bizon. (Courtesy photos)

Lisa McClain, Kimberly Bizon face off in Michigans 10th Congressional District

Voters in Michigans 10th Congressional district will be picking a new person to represent them in Congress this fall, choosing between Republican businesswoman Lisa McClain and second-time Democratic candidate Kimberly Bizon.

McClain, the senior vice president of the Michigan-based financial services company Hantz Group, came out the victor in a competitive three-way primary with state Rep. Shane Hernandez and retired brigadier general Doug Slocum.

She said she initially thought about running when former U.S. Rep. Candice Miller left office, but ultimately put it on the back burner because her youngest child was still in middle school at the time. This year, she said, her family was discussing politics at dinner one night when her daughter suggested she try running for office.

She looked across the table at me and said, 'Mom, if you dont like the situation, why dont you change it? McClain said. And that really started me thinking again...I think with my leadership ability, my experience, my logicalness in my ability to bring people together, I think the timing is perfect.

Bizon, an environmental activist and the web and interactive director at Sussman Agency, defeated Kelly Noland, a U.S. Army veteran and longtime nurse. In 2018, she ran an unsuccessful challenge against current U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell, and said she decided to run again because I still wasnt pleased with the representation that we were getting in Congress, and also, you dont quit on things that matter.

The 10th is traditionally considered a safely Republican seat Republican candidates have won the district since 2003, and President Donald Trump carried the region by 32 points in 2016.

Voters in Michigan's 11th District will choose between U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Rochester Hills, and Republican Erik Esshaki in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. (MLive File Photos)

U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens faces Eric Esshaki in Michigans 11th Congressional District

U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Rochester Hills, is running for reelection against Republican attorney Eric Esshaki in Michigans 11th Congressional District.

Stevens, who previously served as chief of staff on an auto industry task force convened by former President Barack Obama, was first elected in 2018 and replaced a retiring Republican. Esshaki, a Birmingham attorney and former nurse, is running to flip the district back into Republican hands in his first bid for public office.

Esshaki earned the Republican Partys nomination in August, winning a five-way primary with 31% of the vote. Stevens ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Libertarian candidate Leonard Schwartz, a retired professor of business law and economics, is also on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The 11th District covers portions of northwestern Wayne County and southwestern Oakland County. The district has been represented by Republicans for most of its existence.

Stevens is the first Democrat to represent the district since David Curson was elected to serve a partial term in 2012. If she wins reelection, Stevens would be the first Democrat to serve a second term in the districts modern form.

Stevens was elected in 2018 by a 7 point margin. Two years earlier, President Donald Trump won the district by 4 points.

In an interview, Esshaki said he is running to ensure the economy recovers after the COVID-19 pandemic. He also supports traditional Republican policies like banning abortions, protecting the second amendment and keeping taxes at the current level.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, speaks during a "Where do we go from here?" rally on the University of Michigan Diag on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020.

Dingell faces 2 repeat challengers in Michigans 12th Congressional District race

As U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell looks to keep her seat in Congress another two years, she faces two repeat opponents in the Nov. 3 election.

Republican Jeff Jones and Working Class Party candidate Gary Walkowicz are both taking another shot at unseating the Dearborn Democrat in Michigans 12th Congressional District.

The last time they faced off in 2018, Dingell won by a wide margin, netting over 80% of the vote in Washtenaw County precincts and nearly 60% in Wayne County precincts.

They also faced off in 2016.

This is Jones' third time running against Dingell, and Walkowiczs fourth time.

The district includes the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas, Dearborn and Downriver communities.

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Here are Michigans candidates for U.S. Congress in the 2020 General Election - MLive.com