Carrie Rheingans

Carrie Rheingans

Democratic Party

Michigan House of Representatives District 47

Tenure

2023 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

2

Predecessor

Robert Bezotte

Compensation

Base salary

$71,685/year

Per diem

No per diem is paid. Legislators receive an expense allowance of $10,800/year for session and interim.

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 5, 2024

Education

High school

Linden High School

Bachelor's

University of Michigan, 2005

Graduate

University of Michigan School of Public Health, 2011

Personal

Birthplace

Michigan

Religion

Unitarian Universalist

Profession

Government

Contact

Official website

Official Facebook

Official Instagram

Official TikTok

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Campaign Instagram

Campaign YouTube

Personal Facebook

Personal Twitter

Personal Instagram

Personal LinkedIn

Carrie Rheingans (Democratic Party) is a member of the Michigan House of Representatives, representing District 47. She assumed office on January 1, 2023. Her current term ends on January 1, 2027.

Rheingans (Democratic Party) ran for re-election to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent District 47. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Rheingans completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Carrie Rheingans lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Rheingans earned a B.S. in German and biology, an M.P.H. in health behavior and health education, and an M.S.W. in community organization from the University of Michigan in 2005, 2011, and 2011, respectively. Her career experience includes working as the project director of the Michigan Public Health Institute, the interim director of human services with the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation, and the director of civic engagement with Casa Latina. Rheingans has served on the Washtenaw County Board of Health and the Washtenaw Emergency Medical Services Commission.

Sponsored legislation

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.

Committee assignments

Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.

2023-2024

Rheingans was assigned to the following committees:

• House Agriculture Committee
• Health Policy Committee
• Education Committee, Majority Vice Chair

Elections

2024

See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 47

Incumbent Carrie Rheingans defeated Teresa Spiegelberg and Aaron Wright in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 47 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Carrie Rheingans (D)	60.1	35,216
	Submit photo	Teresa Spiegelberg (R)	38.0	22,255
		Aaron Wright (G)	1.9	1,093

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 58,564
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 47

Incumbent Carrie Rheingans advanced from the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 47 on August 6, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Carrie Rheingans	100.0	13,717

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 13,717
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 47

Teresa Spiegelberg defeated Tammy Keller in the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 47 on August 6, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Teresa Spiegelberg	57.2	3,236
	Submit photo	Tammy Keller	42.8	2,418

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 5,654
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Green convention

Green convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 47

Aaron Wright advanced from the Green convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 47 on July 27, 2024.

		Candidate
✔		Aaron Wright (G)

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Rheingans received the following endorsements.

• Michigan League of Conservation Voters

2022

See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2022

General election

General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 47

Carrie Rheingans defeated Tina Bednarski-Lynch in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 47 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Carrie Rheingans (D)	63.4	31,552
	Submit photo	Tina Bednarski-Lynch (R)	36.6	18,187

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 49,739
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 47

Carrie Rheingans defeated James Johnson Jr. in the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 47 on August 2, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Carrie Rheingans	66.2	10,756
	Submit photo	James Johnson Jr.	33.8	5,488

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 16,244
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 47

Tina Bednarski-Lynch defeated Teresa Spiegelberg in the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 47 on August 2, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Tina Bednarski-Lynch	53.6	3,869
	Submit photo	Teresa Spiegelberg	46.4	3,343

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 7,212
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Carrie Rheingans completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Rheingans' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Carrie is a health policy expert, educator, and community organizer with decades of experience bringing people and organizations together to tackle complex systems issues that improve health and reduce disparities. Carrie believes that we can create conditions for each and every one of us to thrive to the top of our potential. Before being elected, she served as a contractor for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, working on projects related to Michigan’s behavioral health services systems and healthcare transformation. Before that, she was a health policy advocate and organizer working to ensure access for low-income community members. Carrie seeks the voices and experiences of those affected by policy to guide her when she makes policy decisions. As a Millennial parent, Carrie knows the challenges of making ends meet with rising housing costs, student loans, and high childcare costs. Carrie’s active in her union, American Federation of Teachers Local 6244, and previously served on her county’s Emergency Medical Services Commission and Board of Health. She is also on the board of the national organization Communities Joined in Action, which supports community leaders and organizations to improve health equity and reduce disparities in their own backyard.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Carrie is a health and human services policy expert, which is Michigan’s single largest budget area, with programs, services, and protections that touch every resident of the state
• Carrie is part of a working family and knows what it takes to get through daily life as a working parent, with rising housing and high childcare costs, and massive student loans
• Carrie seeks the voices and experiences of those affected by policy to guide her when she makes policy decisions

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Carrie is passionate about healthy people, healthy families, and healthy communities. Every policy issue is a health issue, from basic rights for voters, workers, and LGBTQ+ neighbors, to climate action, education, and care for children and elders – reducing harm from things that kill us and increasing access to health and behavioral health care is only part of what affects our health. With overdose and gun-related deaths rising, an expected increase in maternal mortality as a result of the overturn of Roe v. Wade protections, and increasing demand for mental health services, there has never been a better time to send a seasoned public health expert to Lansing. Carrie has been focused on and worked for health equity for two decades now.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

When I was a junior at Linden High School in April 1999, the shooting at Columbine happened. In my small town, we knew just how serious it was, because one of our own classmates had previously been expelled for bringing a handgun to school, so we realized immediately that it could have happened in our school. We spent the rest of that school year plotting out how we could barricade each of our classrooms should a copycat shooter come to our school. That year and the following year, we also had two young men from our school die by suicide by firearm. Gun violence has been a part of my entire adult life, which is why I want to work to enact sensible gun safety policies in Michigan

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Michigan is facing many great challenges in the next decade, including more severe weather as a result of climate change, an influx of climate migrants, and increasing needs for mental health and substance use disorder services. These are challenges that are decades in the making, and will take concentrated, strong effort to reverse or adapt to. We must ramp up funding for sustainable and carbon-neutral energy and enact policies that allow us to rapidly increase our housing stock at a wide range of income levels. In addition, implementing a single-payer, universal healthcare system will stabilize and expand our service provision by focusing on service delivery and not profits.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

In a state like Michigan with such short term limits, it is beneficial to have legislators with some experience in government and understanding of how public budgeting processes work, so that legislators spend less of their initial months learning how things work, and more of their time getting things done. I'm thankful for my years working as a contractor for Michigan's largest state budget area - Health and Human Services - which enabled me to walk into office on the day I was sworn in and get right to work

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

I am disappointed that Michigan remains near the bottom of states when considering transparency. I support further action to add Michigan's Governor and Legislature to Freedom of Information Act requirements. I believe we also need to go farther to truly implement transparency of legislators and other elected office holders at the state level, including reporting on spousal assets.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

2022

Carrie Rheingans completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Rheingans' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Carrie is a health policy expert, educator, and community organizer with decades of experience bringing people and organizations together to tackle complex systems issues that improve health and reduce disparities. Carrie believes that we can create conditions for each and every one of us to thrive to the top of our potential. Carrie currently serves as a contractor for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, working on projects related to Michigan’s behavioral health services systems and healthcare transformation. Before that, she was a health policy advocate and organizer working to ensure access for low-income community members. Carrie seeks the voices and experiences of those affected by policy to guide her when she makes policy decisions. As a Millennial parent, Carrie knows the challenges of making ends meet with rising housing costs, student loans, and high childcare costs. Carrie’s active in her union, American Federation of Teachers Local 6244, and serves on her county’s Emergency Medical Services Commission and Board of Health. She is also on the executive board of her local Democratic club and the national organization Communities Joined in Action, which supports community leaders and organizations to improve health equity and reduce disparities in their own backyard.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Carrie is a health and human services policy expert, which is Michigan’s single largest budget area, with programs, services, and protections that touch every resident of the state
• Carrie is part of a working family and knows what it takes to get through daily life as a working parent, with rising housing and high childcare costs, and massive student loans
• Carrie seeks the voices and experiences of those affected by policy to guide her when she makes policy decisions.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Carrie is passionate about healthy people, healthy families, and healthy communities. Every policy issue is a health issue, from basic rights for voters, workers, and LGBTQ+ neighbors, to climate action, education, and care for children and elders – reducing harm from things that kill us and increasing access to health and behavioral health care is only part of what affects our health. With overdose and gun-related deaths rising, an expected increase in maternal mortality as a result of the overturn of Roe v. Wade protections, and increasing demand for mental health services, there has never been a better time to send a seasoned public health expert to Lansing. Carrie has been focused on and worked for health equity for two decades now, and has the experiences and technical expertise to push for legislation that will enable healthy people, healthy families, and healthy communities.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

When I was a junior at Linden High School in April 1999, the shooting at Columbine happened. In my small town, we knew just how serious it was, because one of our own classmates had previously been expelled for bringing a handgun to school, so we realized immediately that it could have happened in our school. We spent the rest of that school year plotting out how we could barricade each of our classrooms should a copycat shooter come to our school. That year and the following year, we also had two young men from our school die by suicide by firearm. Gun violence has been a part of my entire adult life, which is why I want to work to enact sensible gun safety policies in Michigan.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Michigan is facing many great challenges in the next decade, including more severe weather as a result of climate change, an influx of climate migrants, and increasing needs for mental health and substance use disorder services. These are challenges that are decades in the making, and will take concentrated, strong effort to reverse or adapt to. We must ramp up funding for sustainable and carbon-neutral energy and enact policies that allow us to rapidly increase our housing stock at a wide range of income levels. In addition, implementing a single-payer, universal healthcare system will stabilize and expand our service provision by focusing on service delivery and not profits.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

In a state like Michigan with such short term limits, it is beneficial to have legislators with some experience in government and understanding of how public budgeting processes work, so that legislators spend less of their initial months learning how things work, and more of their time getting things done. I'm thankful for my years working as a contractor for Michigan's largest state budget area - Health and Human Services - which will enable me to walk into office on the day I'm sworn in and get right to work.

What process do you favor for redistricting?

I'm proud of Michigan voters for passing the ballot initiative in 2018 to enable Michigan's Independent Citizens' Redistricting Commission. Thanks to the MICRC, our legislative districts are the fairest they've been in decades. I hope other states follow our success for the next round of redistricting later this decade.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Carrie Rheingans campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Michigan House of Representatives District 47	Won general	$77,277	$0
2022	Michigan House of Representatives District 47	Won general	$63,771	$0
Grand total			$141,048	$0
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in Michigan

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states.  To contribute to the list of Michigan scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.

2024

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2024, click [show].

In 2024, the Michigan State Legislature was in session from January 10 to December 23. Michigan AFL-CIO Legislators are scored on labor issues. Michigan Chamber Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues. Michigan Farm Bureau Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to agriculture. Michigan League of Conservation Voters Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental issues. National Federation of Independent Business Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.

2023

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show].
In 2023, the Michigan State Legislature was in session from January 11 to November 14. Michigan AFL-CIO Advocates Legislators are scored on labor issues. Michigan League of Conservation Voters Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental issues. The American Conservative Union Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

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Candidate

Michigan House of Representatives District 47

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Michigan House of Representatives District 47

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Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Robert Bezotte (R)	Michigan House of Representatives District 47 2023-Present	Succeeded by -

[show]

Current members of the Michigan House of Representatives

Leadership

Speaker of the House:Matt Hall

Minority Leader:Ranjeev Puri

Representatives

District 1

Tyrone Carter (D)

District 2

Tullio Liberati (D)

District 3

Alabas Farhat (D)

District 4

Karen Whitsett (D)

District 5

Regina Weiss (D)

District 6

Natalie Price (D)

District 7

Tonya Myers Phillips (D)

District 8

Helena Scott (D)

District 9

Joseph Tate (D)

District 10

Veronica Paiz (D)

District 11

Donavan McKinney (D)

District 12

Kimberly Edwards (D)

District 13

Mai Xiong (D)

District 14

Mike McFall (D)

District 15

Erin Byrnes (D)

District 16

Stephanie Young (D)

District 17

Laurie Pohutsky (D)

District 18

Jason Hoskins (D)

District 19

Samantha Steckloff (D)

District 20

Noah Arbit (D)

District 21

Kelly Breen (D)

District 22

Matt Koleszar (D)

District 23

Jason Morgan (D)

District 24

Ranjeev Puri (D)

District 25

Peter Herzberg (D)

District 26

Dylan Wegela (D)

District 27

Rylee Linting (R)

District 28

Jamie Thompson (R)

District 29

James DeSana (R)

District 30

William Bruck (R)

District 31

Reggie Miller (D)

District 32

Jimmie Wilson (D)

District 33

Morgan Foreman (D)

District 34

Nancy Jenkins-Arno (R)

District 35

Jennifer Wortz (R)

District 36

Steve Carra (R)

District 37

Brad Paquette (R)

District 38

Joey Andrews (D)

District 39

Pauline Wendzel (R)

District 40

Matt Longjohn (D)

District 41

Julie Rogers (D)

District 42

Matt Hall (R)

District 43

Rachelle Smit (R)

District 44

Steve Frisbie (R)

District 45

Sarah Lightner (R)

District 46

Kathy Schmaltz (R)

District 47

Carrie Rheingans (D)

District 48

Jennifer Conlin (D)

District 49

Ann Bollin (R)

District 50

Jason Woolford (R)

District 51

Matt Maddock (R)

District 52

Mike Harris (R)

District 53

Brenda Carter (D)

District 54

Donni Steele (R)

District 55

Mark Tisdel (R)

District 56

Sharon MacDonell (D)

District 57

Thomas Kuhn (R)

District 58

Ron Robinson (R)

District 59

Douglas Wozniak (R)

District 60

Joseph Aragona (R)

District 61

Denise Mentzer (D)

District 62

Alicia St. Germaine (R)

District 63

Jay DeBoyer (R)

District 64

Joseph Pavlov (R)

District 65

Jaime Greene (R)

District 66

Josh Schriver (R)

District 67

Phil Green (R)

District 68

David Martin (R)

District 69

Jasper Martus (D)

District 70

Cynthia Neeley (D)

District 71

Brian BeGole (R)

District 72

Mike Mueller (R)

District 73

Julie Brixie (D)

District 74

Kara Hope (D)

District 75

Penelope Tsernoglou (D)

District 76

Angela Witwer (D)

District 77

Emily Dievendorf (D)

District 78

Gina Johnsen (R)

District 79

Angela Rigas (R)

District 80

Phil Skaggs (D)

District 81

Stephen Wooden (D)

District 82

Kristian Grant (D)

District 83

John Fitzgerald (D)

District 84

Carol Glanville (D)

District 85

Bradley Slagh (R)

District 86

Nancy De Boer (R)

District 87

William Snyder (D)

District 88

Greg VanWoerkom (R)

District 89

Luke Meerman (R)

District 90

Bryan Posthumus (R)

District 91

Pat Outman (R)

District 92

Jerry Neyer (R)

District 93

Tim Kelly (R)

District 94

Amos O'Neal (D)

District 95

Bill Schuette (R)

District 96

Timothy Beson (R)

District 97

Matthew Bierlein (R)

District 98

Gregory Alexander (R)

District 99

Mike Hoadley (R)

District 100

Tom Kunse (R)

District 101

Joseph Fox (R)

District 102

Curt VanderWall (R)

District 103

Betsy Coffia (D)

District 104

John Roth (R)

District 105

Ken Borton (R)

District 106

Cameron Cavitt (R)

District 107

Parker Fairbairn (R)

District 108

David Prestin (R)

District 109

Karl Bohnak (R)

District 110

Gregory Markkanen (R)

Republican Party (58)

Democratic Party (52)