Michael Chiaradio
Michael Chiaradio (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Mississippi's 3rd Congressional District. He is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on March 10, 2026.[source]
Chiaradio completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Michael Chiaradio was born in New Jersey. He graduated from Teaneck High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from Eastern Nazarene College in 2013 and a graduate degree from Felician University in 2021. His career experience includes working as a farmer/rancher.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Mississippi's 3rd Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on March 10, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 3
Michael Chiaradio is running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 3 on March 10, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Michael Chiaradio  | |
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 3
Incumbent Michael Guest is running in the Republican primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 3 on March 10, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Michael Guest | |
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| = 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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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Justin James (R)
Libertarian primary election
Libertarian primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 3
Erik Kiehle is running in the Libertarian primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 3 on March 10, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Erik Kiehle | |
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| = 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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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Endorsements
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Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Michael Chiaradio completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Chiaradio's responses.
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Following his baseball career, he launched several small business ventures. The most notable was a professional softball league called the American Softball Association (ASBA Softball) in Satsuma, Alabama. Over two summers, he brought together athletes from across the country and created a platform for women’s sports that did not otherwise exist.
Chiaradio went on to earn an MBA from Felician University, build a six-figure investment portfolio, and spend nearly four years in leadership at Maximus Inc., a global government contractor that supports Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
Chiaradio now lives in Shubuta, Mississippi with his four loyal dogs, where he owns and operates a regenerative farm.- Investing in Our People: Simply raising taxes or cutting spending does not solve our economic problems. We need BETTER spending that invests in our people.
- America's Competitive Advantages: Yes, we should protect manufacturing and other critical industries, but we should also focus on our natural strengths. Agriculture and Healthcare are examples of foundational competitive advantages that can, and should, lead the United States into the future. We must make intelligent investments to ensure that American agriculture remains a cornerstone of our economy and a source of prosperity for generations to come. And we must also use America’s growing need for quality healthcare to build assets that strengthen our healthcare industry and make us more valuable to the entire world.
- North American Production: North America should not compete alone; we should grow together into a leading force in global markets.
2. Maintaining America's global competitive position
3. Investments in Agriculture and Rural Communities
4. Regenerative Farming and Soil Health
5. Healthcare Access & Affordability
6. Improving Trade and Foreign Policy Relationships with both Allies and Rivals
7. Grassroots Democracy and Voter Participation in Mississippi
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 website
Chiaradio's campaign website stated the following:
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Michael A. Chiaradio’s Platform Investing in Our People Simply raising taxes or cutting spending does not solve our problems. We need better spending that invests in our people. The Agricultural Foundation We can ensure that American agriculture remains a cornerstone of our economy and a source of prosperity for generations to come. America’s Healthcare Advantage America’s growing need for quality healthcare gives the United States a chance to build assets that strengthen our healthcare industry. Investing in Our People
READ TIME: 1 MIN America’s future depends on our federal government’s ability to invest in factories, farms, and infrastructure. We, as a nation, can and must produce more. We also need to invest more in our consumer base by broadening the social safety net. An economy can only reach its maximum potential when its people have the financial security to participate fully and freely in the marketplace. For too long, public resources have been directed toward distant priorities and special interests while many Americans have been left behind. Free markets will function best when we support them with timely public policy that helps strengthen our global competitive position. By investing wisely in our consumers and in our productive capacities, we can put our economy back on sustainable footing over time and begin stabilizing our budget deficits and national debt in a way that will ensure economic stability for generations to come. Improving American Healthcare
READ TIME: 1 MIN Every American should have access to high quality preventive and curative healthcare at a low cost. But today, out-of-pocket expenses are an enormous financial risk and premium costs strain household budgets, thereby weakening our economy. We must embrace the fact that, as more Americans live longer, there will be a growing need for spending on quality healthcare. The key is to cultivate a workforce of American medical professionals and to develop long-term assets such as modern medical facilities and hospitals in the process. These investments position America to be a global leader in healthcare delivery and they create high-quality jobs in communities across the country. Healthcare cost assistance is also one of the most effective ways to strengthen the social safety net and invest in the American consumer. However, our main focus should always be to steadily improve health outcomes for our people and to ensure that every American can age with dignity, security, and access to the care they deserve. The New American Expansion
READ TIME: 1 MIN High housing costs have locked millions of Americans out of economic independence while many small towns have faded away. But addressing the forces behind these realities should not be treated as a social program, it should be seen as an opportunity for national growth and development. If the United States is to compete in the decades ahead, we must make coordinated investments that expand our productive capacity and our communities at the same time. By expanding USDA homebuilding programs, investing in modern infrastructure, and strengthening small producers across the agricultural value chain, we can build new towns, revitalize old ones, and create pathways to asset ownership for American families. Together, these investments will create jobs, support businesses, and give our people the stable foundation they need to thrive. This is how we ensure the United States does not slowly decline like the great nations of the past but instead can stand in defiance against the crushing onslaught of time. Free the Small Farmer
READ TIME: 1 MIN One of the most important ways we can protect America’s competitive position is to strengthen domestic food production. Many decades of inattentive policy have caused high food prices and created a more vulnerable supply chain. Our policy should encourage farmers to grow a more diverse range of crops and livestock and allow access to value-added markets, which will unlock significant revenue opportunities. We can also provide favorable loans, qualified debt forgiveness, and expanded rental programs to help farms more easily access the specialized machinery they need to adapt in changing markets. As profitable small farms gradually increase production nationwide, our existing large producers will use their economies of scale to stabilize food prices domestically and increase our exports. Modernize the Energy Grid
READ TIME: 1 MIN A strong federal commitment to grid resilience is essential. America’s power grid is widely considered a national security risk due to its aging infrastructure, increasing electricity demands, and vulnerabilities to extreme weather. Only the United States government has the scale, coordination, and resources to lead an effort of this magnitude. We must replace infrastructure that is decades past its designed lifespan and invest in modern transmission lines, storm-hardened equipment, and advanced cybersecurity systems that keep electricity flowing even in the face of disaster or attack. By upgrading and securing our ability to reliably transmit energy from all sources, under any circumstances, we protect our people from outages and price shocks while also creating skilled jobs in construction, engineering, and technology. A resilient energy grid is the foundation of economic stability and American strength. International Trade
READ TIME: 1 MIN The strength of the United States lies in our ability to work together, both at home and with the world. Every country must protect its vital industries but maintaining cooperation between nations has never been more important. For trade to work, the cost of exchanging must remain low. When barriers like tariffs are imposed, they disrupt this natural process by raising costs and reducing incentives to trade. Tariffs also divert resources away from more productive uses, ultimately degrading our industrial and technological advantages. Highly effective trade policy should instead seek to achieve economic sustainability by focusing on our unique opportunities and strengths. Real security ultimately doesn’t come from adversarial policies like tariffs and sanctions but instead from collaboration and mutual investment. Immigration Reform
READ TIME: 1 MIN The United States can grow stronger through well-managed immigration but only if we first invest in the infrastructure to support it. Past failures in domestic and foreign policy have left our economy less prepared to handle growth, with insufficient housing, schools, and healthcare to support new arrivals. Limited legal immigration can fuel business development, consumer spending, and innovation. But these benefits require a strong domestic foundation, which includes robust border security to protect our communities. By pairing growth with planning, investment, and security, we can create a sustainable, orderly immigration system that strengthens our economy and ensures America remains the destination for the world’s best businesses and talent. America's Tax System
READ TIME: 1 MIN America needs a balanced tax plan that combines moderate ordinary income taxes with a corporate tax system that limits loopholes and remains competitive with other nations. To help combat the excessive asset concentration that burdens our economy, our corporate tax plan should better incentivize companies to distribute cash to American citizens and, if tax rates increase, it should allow companies to avoid higher rates if they meet targets for broader stock ownership. Material tax increases should be limited in the short term while the federal government commits significant investment to form industrial capital using debt. Our focus should be to increase real domestic production enough that it will more than offset the weakening purchasing power of our currency over time. Importantly, our tax system is highly flexible, making it a valuable asset to the nation, but no tax system can outperform the society it serves. Our so-called merit-based system is really just a vast network of interdependence. We live better than any humans in recorded history, not solely due to individual merit but because we work together. No person transcends this fact. Peace Through Collaboration with China
READ TIME: 1 MIN Americans should not view the People’s Republic of China as an adversary. Instead, we must foster better communication, including military-to-military dialogues, and build a relationship rooted in mutual understanding and respect. While fierce competition will likely define our relationship with China for decades, our approach should be to compete aggressively yet cooperatively. Rather than treating Taiwan as an asset of the United States, we should seek a workable compromise that protects the dignity of all parties involved. Together, the United States and China can accomplish far more than we ever could apart, sustaining global leadership and shared prosperity for generations to come. We must advance not through confrontational tactics but by working in harmony with evolving economies around the world. Attempts to manipulate trade deals or isolate competitors will only harm us both in the long term. When great nations unite with a shared mission of prosperity, we can ensure lasting peace and strengthen the bonds that connect us. Rebuilding Trust in Government
READ TIME: 1 MIN Trust in our federal government has fallen to dangerously low levels, driven by partisanship and perceptions of corruption. Restoring that trust is essential to a strong future for the United States. Our courts must remain free from political pressure and dedicated to impartial justice. Judges should be appointed based on their commitment to judicial independence and public officials must reinforce this principle. Just as our courts must be independent, an independent Federal Reserve allows the economy to be guided by economic realities rather than short-term political pressure. Additionally, excessive lobbying has weakened the voice of ordinary Americans. We must impose meaningful limits on the influence of special interests. That same principle applies to executive power. Emergency powers must be reviewed by Congress within a defined period, such as 90 days, and lawmaking must return to elected representatives rather than being shaped primarily by federal agencies. By restoring trust in our government, we can put our people first and continue the work of forming a more perfect union. Ending Homelessness in America
READ TIME: 1 MIN While most Americans picture a long-term unsheltered individual when they think of homelessness, the reality is that most people experience it temporarily due to a lost job or medical crisis. For this reason, and for the overall health of our economy, the United States must expand rental and mortgage assistance nationwide. When families are no longer burdened by housing insecurity, more income will flow through local communities and create greater financial stability. However, chronic homelessness also remains a persistent issue. For these individuals, stable housing must come first because the practical reality of their situation often traps them in addiction and makes it nearly impossible for them to hold a job. The chronically homeless need a permanent residence that provides safety, for themselves and others, and the foundation needed to address mental health and addiction. Homelessness is a solvable problem that can be addressed with coordinated investment. By making housing security a national priority, we can strengthen communities and build a more productive society. Criminal Justice Reform
READ TIME: 1 MIN Although we have at times fallen short of our ideal as a nation of laws, where no one is above the law, we are committed to making improvements and creating a more effective justice system. That begins with our police, who play a vital role in protecting communities. Building respect and trust between law enforcement and residents is essential. The federal government can support states with funding for accountability measures such as body-worn cameras and automated reporting systems to improve transparency and public confidence. Justice must also be compassionate and proportional. Too often, low-income defendants are unfairly overcharged and pressured into unfavorable plea deals. Federal policy can combat these practices by setting enforceable limits on stacked charges and establishing oversight to ensure fair plea negotiations. We must also expand mental health and addiction services as alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders. Making it easier for reformed individuals to clear their records strengthens economic opportunity and community stability. Together, these steps build a system that promotes liberty and justice for all. [2] |
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| —Michael Chiaradio’s campaign website (2026)[3] | ||
Campaign finance summary
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.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 15, 2025
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Michael Chiaradio’s campaign website, “Issues,” accessed February 19, 2026
