US Midterms 2026
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John Moolenaar, a Republican who has represented Michigan in the U.S. House since 2015 and the 2nd congressional district since 2023, seeks reelection in 2026 against Democrat Benjamin Ambrose, a marketing executive.
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Recent media coverage for John Moolenaar.
Moolenaar announces support for PACE bill: Rep. John Moolenaar said he has added Michigan support for his bipartisan PACE Expanded Act, co-sponsored with Rep. Debbie Dingell.
DingellRep. Robert Garcia (D-CA-42) – B [...] Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) – A
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John Moolenaar was born on May 8, 1961, in Midland, Michigan, to a family of Dutch ancestry. He graduated from Hope College in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry and later earned a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University in 1989. He worked for eight months as a chemist at Dow Chemical Company before entering politics.
John Moolenaar's elected career began on the Midland City Council, where he served from 1997 to 2000.
He was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2002 and served three terms, and in 2010 he won the 36th district seat in the Michigan Senate with 63.79% of the vote, serving from 2011 to 2014.
In 2014 he ran for the U.S. House, winning the August 5 Republican primary for the 4th congressional district with 52.40% and the general election with 56.49%. He was reelected in 2016, 2018 and 2020.
After the 2020 census, redistricting dismantled the old 4th district, and Moolenaar moved to Caledonia, an outer suburb of Grand Rapids, to run in the new 2nd district. He won that seat in 2022 with 63.68% of the vote and was reelected in 2024 with 65.14% against Democrat Michael Lynch. In the 118th Congress he served on the Committee on Appropriations and chaired the Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
The 2nd district covers most of central Michigan, including some of the outer Grand Rapids metropolitan area. John Moolenaar was unopposed in the 2026 Republican primary, receiving 93,751 votes.
In the general election on November 3, 2026, he faces Democrat Benjamin Ambrose, a marketing executive who won a three-way primary with 44.32% of the vote over physician assistant Jamie Hill and Lake County commissioner Clyde Welford.
Green Party candidate Charlotta Magoon and Natural Law Party candidate Richard Sills also appear on the general election ballot.
