ST. JOSEPH, Mich. — Congressman Fred Upton has held his Republican seat in the U.S. House for well over 30 years and he's hoping to keep it that way come 2021.
In 2018 he faced his closest race in Michigan's 6th Congressional District yet, beating Democratic nominee Matt Longjohn by just 4% or roughly 13,000 votes.
This year he’s up against Democratic challenger State Rep. John Hoadley who represents Kalamazoo County in the state legislature, the one blue county in the district.
“We're working hard, our effort right now is getting out the vote. We feel pretty good about where things will be on Tuesday, but we're not going to give up until then,” Upton told FOX 17.
Upton has been through and won nearly 20 elections and he remains confident less than a week before this one
“We have some really tough times right now we need to work together. I've got the network, I've got the friends on both sides of the aisle. I'm vice chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, 50 members of Congress, we leave our political labels at the door and we work together,” Upton said.
Upton says his experience in Congress and bipartisan relationships are why he’s best suited to continue representing southwest Michigan in D.C.
He believes his challenger, Rep. Jon Hoadley is too far left.
“He has a very partisan ranking up in Lansing, my records quite a bit different. I've got a record of working with both sides of the aisle. And I think that's going to be the real difference versus, particularly the progressive stands that he has in terms of raising taxes and defunding the police,” Upton said.
The Republican says the top issue he wants to solve is getting more COVID relief to west Michiganders and small businesses, in the form of additional PPP funding and stimulus checks directly to the people.
“And of course, we have to find more money for testing and a vaccine. Right in Kalamazoo, Pfizer our largest employer is now starting to produce tens of millions of doses. That's a very good thing, we want them approved safely by the Food, Drug Administration, I had a hand in that approval process expect that it's going to happen,” Upton said.
“It's creating jobs for sure but more importantly, it's going to be the way that we restore our way of life when we get the testing, as well as the vaccine,” he added.
To see our profile on his challenger Jon Hoadley, click here.
