Democrat · Michigan's 8th District · 2026
Kristen McDonald Rivet
Rivet grew up in a small Michigan farm town, where her father worked construction and her mother raised three daughters.
Biography
Kristen McDonald Rivet and her husband, Joseph, have six children; their Bay City home also includes a cat named Tuck.1 She grew up in a small Michigan farm town, with a father who worked construction and a mother who raised her and her sisters.1 The sisters became the first generation in their family to attend college.1
McDonald Rivet earned her bachelor's degree at Michigan State and a master's in public administration at the University of Michigan Flint.2 Her early childhood education career included leading the Michigan Head Start Association.3 She also served as chief of staff at the Michigan Department of Education and a vice president of the Skillman Foundation.1
She served on Bay City's commission from 2019 to 2022, then in the Michigan Senate before entering Congress in January 2025.2 In state government, she helped secure the 2023 expansion of Michigan's earned income tax credit, from 6% to 30% of the federal credit.4
She now serves on Agriculture and Transportation and Infrastructure.2 Her New Democrat Coalition colleagues selected her as their freshman leadership representative.1 Her current priorities include lower costs for housing, groceries, prescriptions and child care, tax relief for working households, manufacturing jobs and protecting Social Security and Medicare.1