Michigan's 15th congressional district is an obsolete congressional district in the state of Michigan.
Historically, the district's politics have been dominated by the Dingell family since its creation after the
1930 United States census
The United States census of 1930, conducted by the Census Bureau one month from April 1, 1930, determined the resident population of the United States to be 122,775,046, an increase of 13.7 percent over the 106,021,537 persons enumerated durin ...
. Its first congressman,
John D. Dingell, Sr.
John David Dingell Sr. (February 2, 1894 – September 19, 1955) was an American politician who represented Michigan's 15th congressional district from 1933 to 1955. He was a member of the Democratic Party. He was the father of the longest-serv ...
, was elected in 1932 and served until his death in 1955. His son,
John, Jr. won a special election to succeed him; upon Dingell Jr.'s own retirement in 2015, his wife
Debbie Dingell won his seat and is now the incumbent. As such, the district (even after it was absorbed by the 12th district in 2013) has been represented continuously by a Dingell for the last 89 years.
The 15th district historically had left-of-center voting tendencies. Its last
Cook PVI
The Cook Partisan Voting Index, abbreviated Cook PVI, CPVI, or PVI, is a measurement of how strongly a United States congressional district or U.S. state leans toward the Democratic or Republican Party, compared to the nation as a whole, based ...
rating was D+13, meaning it supported Democratic candidates at a rate of 13 percentage points greater than the national average.
This district became obsolete for the 113th Congress in 2013 as congressional district lines were redrawn to accommodate the loss of the seat due to
reapportionment
Apportionment is the process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions, such as states or parties, entitled to representation. This page presents the general principles and issues related to apportionme ...
as a result of the
2010 census. Most of the district's territory, including Ann Arbor and Dingell's home in Dearborn, became part of the new
12th district, which had previously been based in
Oakland
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...
, and
Macomb Counties.
Along with the
1st district and the now-defunct 16th district, the 15th has been historically frequently represented by politicians of Polish descent. Three of the district's six elected representatives (Dingell Jr. served here twice and in between he was a representative from the
16th district, which was later dissolved) have been
Polish-Americans.
Major cities from 2003 to 2013
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Ann Arbor
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
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Dearborn
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Taylor
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Dearborn Heights
Dearborn Heights is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. With a population of 63,292 at the 2020 census., Dearborn Heights is part of the Detroit metropolitan area, and is considered a bedroom community.
History
Dearborn Heigh ...
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Inkster
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Romulus
Romulus () was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of these ...
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Ypsilanti
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Monroe
Voting
List of representatives
References
U.S. Representatives 1837-2003 Michigan Manual 2003-2004
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Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
Former congressional districts of the United States
14
Constituencies established in 1933
1933 establishments in Michigan
Constituencies disestablished in 2013
2013 disestablishments in Michigan
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