Longtime meteorologist Terri DeBoer launched a campaign for the U.S. House on Thursday, aiming to unseat two-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten to represent the district anchored by Grand Rapids.
DeBoer, who lives in Byron Center, spent three decades on the air in west Michigan, so she is likely a familiar name and face to many voters in the 3rd District, which was held for decades by a succession of Republicans in Congress, including former President Gerald Ford. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report now rates it a “solid” Democratic seat.
DeBoer is the second Republican to file in the race after Grand Rapids trial attorney J. Allen Fiorletta. The 3rd District covers portions of Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon counties, encompassing Grand Rapids and reaching out to the lakeshore following Interstate 96.
DeBoer recently left WXMI-TV, the FOX television affiliate in Grand Rapids, but previously spent 28 years reporting the weather at WOOD-TV, starting in 1995.
Her announcement Thursday said her intention in running is to “safeguard liberty and economic prosperity for the next generation of Michiganders.”
“I spent my career predicting storms, but today I see a different kind of turbulence on the horizon — one that threatens our safety, our freedoms, and our children’s future,” DeBoer said in a statement.
“I’m running to secure our borders, protect the vulnerable, transition to patient-centered healthcare, and restore fiscal sanity to a government that has lost its way.”
DeBoer also said that west Michigan residents “deserve a leader who fights for them, not someone more interested in playing political games with the establishment.”
Scholten, a former immigration attorney for the Department of Justice, won reelection in November 2024 by nearly 10 percentage points, defeating Republican attorney Paul Hudson of East Grand Rapids 53.6% to 43.8%. She is the first woman to represent the Grand Rapids area in Congress.
“I’m excited and ready to secure a third term delivering for west Michigan in Congress. At a time when GOP policies are failing working families ― making life more expensive and making us all less safe ― I remain laser-focused on delivering independent and bipartisan solutions to our most pressing problems,” Scholten said in a statement.”The 3rd District has a long tradition of independent, solutions-oriented leadership. Congressman Gerald Ford set that standard, and I am carrying his legacy forward by always putting problem-solving ahead of partisanship,” she added.”West Michigan doesn’t need more political noise. It needs steady leadership that puts people first, and that is exactly what I will continue to deliver.”
A year ago, Scholten briefly flirted with a run for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat before ruling it out, saying she planned to run instead for a third term in the House, where she serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Committee on Small Business.
The Grand Rapids area has had three House members represent it over the last decade, Scholten said at the time, and she wants to build up the seniority in that chamber to have a greater impact for residents.
“We’re at a crossroads in Michigan right now, and there’s a lot of volatility in the Democratic Party, and I think that we need strong stability back here at home,” Scholten said in March 2025. “We need somebody who’s going to dig in deep, and make sure that we can hold this seat.”
“I never say no to anyone who’s running. I’m definitely looking forward to welcoming a Republican candidate or candidates in the primary,” Rusty Richter, chair of Kent County GOP, said after DeBoer’s announcement.
“It’s time to replace Hillary Scholten. Hillary Scholten, in my view, does not represent west Michigan values, and that’s why we want to replace her,” Richter told The Detroit News. “I’m happy to see this announcement today.”
DeBoer was born into a military family on Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey and moved with her father’s reassignments to grow up in Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and to Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, according to a biography provided by her campaign.
She worked as a news reporter at TV stations in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, before moving to Kalamazoo in 1990 to take a reporting job at WWMT-TV. She shifted to weather reporting in 1992 when she helped launch west Michigan’s first weekend morning newscast, according to her bio.
She served on the board of the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan and the Grand Rapids Griffins Youth Foundation. With her husband Bill, she has three children and five grandchildren.
mburke@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Veteran Grand Rapids meteorologist aims to unseat Scholten in Congress
Reporting by Melissa Nann Burke, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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