Hillary Scholten running for Congress in western Michigan

Then-President Donald Trump won Meijer’s current area by 3.2 percentage points in 2020, while Meijer carried it by nearly 6 points. Democrat Joe Biden won the terrain that encompasses the new 3rd District — which includes parts of Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon counties — by 8 points.

It is considered a tossup in 2022.

Scholten, an attorney who focuses on immigration law, said the coronavirus pandemic has intensified problems including high medical costs and a strain on health care infrastructure. The mother of two school-age kids also pointed to educational and economic challenges over the past two years and an “unprecedented attack on our electoral system, the very bedrock of our democracy.”

“I am running because I know I have the experience, the perspective and the vision needed to lead West Michigan forward together,” Scholten, who worked in the Justice Department during President Barack Obama’s administration, said in an interview Monday before launching her campaign.

Meijer has said he opposed the infrastructure bill because Democratic leadership linked it to passage of a larger package of social and environmental initiatives that has since stalled.

Like other Republicans who backed impeachment, he is facing a GOP primary. Trump has endorsed John Gibbs, who was an official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during his administration.

Meijer, a veteran who served in Iraq, joined a disaster-response organization and later worked in Afghanistan at a charity supporting the safety of humanitarian aid workers. His great-grandfather and grandfather built the Meijer chain of grocery and general merchandise stores.

Both Meijer and Scholten live in Grand Rapids, which has not sent a Democrat to Congress since the Watergate scandal. Kent County, once reliably Republican, has become more Democratic amid demographic shifts.