Hillary Jeanne Scholten ( SKOHL-tən; born February 22, 1982) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the U.S. representative from Michigan's 3rd congressional district since 2023. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Her district, which was once represented by former President Gerald Ford, is based in Grand Rapids and includes much of the urban core of West Michigan. Before her election, Scholten worked as an attorney for the Department of Justice and in private practice.
Scholten is the first woman to represent the district, the first Democrat to represent Grand Rapids in Congress since Richard Vander Veen left office in 1977, and the second to represent the city since 1913.
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Early life and education
Scholten was born on February 22, 1982, in Grand Rapids. She grew up in Hudsonville southwest of Grand Rapids. Her mother worked as a public school teacher and her father was a sports journalist for The Grand Rapids Press. Her great-great-grandparents emigrated to West Michigan from the Netherlands; and she grew up in the Christian Reformed Church, a Calvinist denomination having its roots in the Dutch Reformed Church.
Hillary Scholten went to Unity Christian High School in Hudsonville and then attended Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2004. After college, she worked as a social worker, focusing on housing advocacy for the AIDS Action Committee. She later worked for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington in immigration. She earn a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore in 2011.
Legal career
After law school, Scholten clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, specializing in immigration law. She later joined the U.S. Department of Justice as an attorney adviser for the Board of Immigration Appeals from 2013 to 2017, where she worked on federal immigration policy during the Obama administration. Afterwards, she returned to Michigan, became a staff attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and later worked in private practice.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
In July 2019, Scholten announced her candidacy for the United States House of Representatives in Michigan's 3rd congressional district in the 2020 elections. She was unopposed in the Democratic Party primary. She lost the general election to Republican nominee Peter Meijer, winning 47% to Meijer's 53%. It was the closest a Democrat had come to winning the district since 1982, when incumbent Republican Harold S. Sawyer was held to 51% in what was then the 5th district (it has been the 3rd since 1993). She was also only the second Democrat since 1982 to win at least 40% of the vote in what had been one of the more Republican urban districts in the country; the Democratic nominee won 43% two years earlier.
Scholten ran again in 2022 and was again unopposed in the Democratic primary. She was initially preparing for a rematch against Peter Meijer, but Meijer lost the Republican primary to a considerably more conservative challenger, former Trump administration official John Gibbs.
Scholten was running in a district which had been made much friendlier to Democrats in redistricting. The old 3rd had included some rural and exurban territory east of Grand Rapids, then extended south to reach Battle Creek. Redistricting pushed the district to the west to grab a large portion of the Lake Michigan shoreline including Muskegon and Grand Haven. Had the district had existed in 2020, Joe Biden would have won there with 53% of the vote; Donald Trump carried the old 3rd with 51%. Scholten defeated Gibbs 55% to 42% to win election to the 118th United States Congress.
When she took office on January 3, 2023, Scholten became only the second Democrat to represent what is now the 3rd since 1913. The seat had been in Republican hands for all but 35 months since then, the only break coming when Richard Vander Veen won a special election in 1974 for what was then the 5th district after 26-year incumbent Ford gave up the seat to accept an appointment as Vice President. Vander Veen won a full term later that year, but was defeated in 1976. Underscoring how Republican this region had historically been, Scholten was the first Democrat to represent Muskegon since 1933 and only the second since 1893, and the first Democrat to represent Grand Haven since 1913.
Scholten ran again in 2024. She had token opposition in the Democratic primary, winning 91% of the vote. She went on to win the general election winning 53.7% of the vote against Republican challenger and former state Supreme Court candidate Paul Hudson, becoming the first Democrat to win two full terms in the district in 112 years.
Tenure
Scholten was sworn into office on January 7, 2023. She joined in the calls in 2024 for Joe Biden to step aside as the Democratic presidential nominee, becoming the first in Michigan's congressional delegation to do so, leading to retaliation from Biden allies. During Donald Trump's address to Congress on March 4, 2025, Scholten wore pink, together with many other members of the Democratic Women's Caucus, as a protest.
In the 119th Congress, Scholten is part of:
Committee on Small Business
Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development (ranking member)
Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Supply Chain
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Aviation
Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment
Caucus memberships
Black Maternal Health Caucus
Congressional Equality Caucus
New Democrat Coalition
Problem Solvers Caucus
Future Forum
Democratic Women's Caucus (vice-chair)
Child Labor Prevention Task Force (co-chair)
Franchise Caucus (co-chair)
Political positions
Scholten supports abortion rights and quoted Jeremiah 1:5 in a House Floor speech, which received backlash from many Christians. In 2025, she was one of 46 House Democrats who joined Republicans to vote for the Laken Riley Act. In July 2025, Scholten placed blame entirely on Hamas for the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, "Hamas started this war and can end it today. But they choose not to."
During the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan, Scholten was criticized for remarks widely considered to be Islamophobic, repeating unsupported claims of sexism and extreme rhetoric by the Democratic nominee and criticizing associations with related and unrelated progressive figures. These attacks continued, resulting in questions at a town hall to ask whether Scholten's rhetoric was encouraging hate speech and aimed at maintaining taxpayer support for Israel rather than sincere concerns.
Personal life
Scholten was married to Jesse Holcomb, a journalism professor at Calvin University in Grand Rapids. Holcomb filed for divorce from Scholten in January 2026 after 20 years of marriage. They have two sons. She is a member of the Christian Reformed Church.