Alan Bruce Sanborn (born July 21, 1957) is a retired politician from the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, serving parts of three terms in both the

Michigan House of Representatives The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2020 ...

and

Michigan Senate The Michigan Senate is the upper house of the Michigan Legislature. Along with the Michigan House of Representatives, it composes the state legislature, which has powers, roles and duties defined by Article IV of the Michigan Constitution, ado ...

Biography

Sanborn is the son of Lois and Kenneth Sanborn. Kenneth Sanborn is a former member of the

, former

Circuit Court Circuit courts are court systems in several common law jurisdictions. It may refer to: * Courts that literally sit 'on circuit', i.e., judges move around a region or country to different towns or cities where they will hear cases; * Courts that s ...

judge, and one of the attorneys who undertook the successful defense of

Milo Radulovich Milo John Radulovich (October 28, 1926 – November 19, 2007) was an American reserve Air Force lieutenant who was accused of being a security risk for maintaining a "close and continuing relationship" with his father and sister, in violation ...

in 1953. The Radulovich case was a major factor in helping to turn public opinion in the United States against

McCarthyism McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...

. Sanborn was born and raised in

Mount Clemens, Michigan Mount Clemens is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 15,697 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the county seat, seat of government of Macomb County, Michigan, Macomb County and part of the Metro Detroit, Det ...

. He attended

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

and graduated with a B.S. in

social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

with a minor in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

. He married Lori McQuiston on August 6, 1982. Sanborn and his ex-wife have three children.

Political career

Sanborn worked from 1978 to 1998 as a

Macomb County Macomb County ( ) is a county on the eastern shore of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is part of the Detroit metropolitan area, bordering Detroit to the north and containing many of its northern suburbs. Its seat of government is Mt. Clemens, a ...

probation officer. In 1996, Sanborn challenged and lost to incumbent

David Jaye David Jaye (born 1958) is a former Republican politician from Michigan. He was the first state senator in Michigan's history to be expelled from the State Senate. He represented a district in Macomb County from 1997 to 2001, when he was force ...

in the Republican primary for the 32nd District of the Michigan House of Representatives. In a special election in February 1998, Sanborn was elected to the seat after Jaye resigned to run for an open

State Senate In the United States, the state legislature is the legislative branch in each of the 50 U.S. states. A legislature generally performs state duties for a state in the same way that the United States Congress performs national duties at ...

seat. In 2001, after Jaye became the first member of the

Michigan Legislature The Michigan Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of the Senate (the upper chamber) and the House of Representatives (the lower chamber). Article IV of the Michigan Con ...

to be expelled from office, Sanborn came out on top of a field of thirteen Republican candidates, including Jaye, in a primary special election held September 11, 2001. In the heavily Republican district, Sanborn easily won the general special election on November 6, 2001. Sanborn was re-elected in 2002, 2004 and 2006, and was named by Lansing-based political newsletter ''Inside Michigan Politics'' as "Michigan's Most Conservative Legislator" in 2003, 2004, and 2005. On January 1, 2011, Sanborn's term in the Senate officially came to an end, though his political aspirations did not. After returning to work as a juvenile probation officer for Macomb County, he put his hat in the ring for former Rep. Candice Miller's seat in Congress. After an unsuccessful run, he retired from his position with the county in 2018 to establish a property rental business in Lexington, Michigan. His more notable legislative achievements include "Lisa's Law" (which protects probation officers) and a bill allowing visitation rights to grandparents.

Congressional Campaign

In March 2015, 7-term incumbent

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

Candice Miller Candice Sue Miller (née McDonald; born May 7, 1954) is an American politician serving as the Public Works Commissioner of Macomb County, Michigan since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Miller previously served as the U.S. representative ...

shocked political pundits by announcing her intentions to retire at the end of her current term and not seek an 8th term in 2016 in

Michigan's 10th congressional district Michigan's 10th congressional district is a United States congressional district in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. It consists of southern Macomb County, Rochester and Rochester Hills in Oakland County. District boundaries were redrawn i ...

. Sanborn was amongst the first candidates to be mentioned as a possible successor to Miller. He formed an exploratory committee on March 30, 2015, which gave him the ability to raise and spend money for a possible Congressional campaign and formally announced his candidacy on April 21, 2015. Sanborn finished third in a five-person field, taking 16 percent of the vote, finishing behind winner Paul Mitchell, who took 37 percent of the vote, and state Sen. Phil Pavlov, who took 28 percent.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanborn, Alan 1957 births Living people Republican Party members of the Michigan House of Representatives Republican Party Michigan state senators People from Mount Clemens, Michigan Michigan State University alumni 20th-century members of the Michigan Legislature 21st-century members of the Michigan Legislature