Portia Roberson

Portia Roberson (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Michigan's 13th Congressional District. She lost in the Democratic primary on August 2, 2022.

Roberson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Elections

2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Michigan District 13

Shri Thanedar defeated Martell Bivings, Simone Coleman, and Christopher Dardzinski in the general election for U.S. House Michigan District 13 on November 8, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Shri Thanedar (D)	71.1	166,650
	Martell Bivings (R)	24.0	56,187
	Simone Coleman (Working Class Party)	3.8	8,833
	Christopher Dardzinski (U.S. Taxpayers Party)	1.2	2,769
	Other/Write-in votes	0.0	5

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 234,444
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Lorrie Rutledge (D)
Anthony Carbonaro (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Michigan District 13

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Michigan District 13 on August 2, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Shri Thanedar	28.3	22,314
		Adam Hollier	23.5	18,517
		Portia Roberson	16.9	13,318
		John Conyers III	8.6	6,778
		Sherry Gay-Dagnogo	8.2	6,440
	Submit photo	Sharon McPhail	6.4	5,043
		Michael Griffie	4.6	3,636
	Submit photo	Sam Riddle	2.3	1,841
		Lorrie Rutledge	1.2	916
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	6

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 78,809
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Michigan District 13

Martell Bivings advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Michigan District 13 on August 2, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Martell Bivings	100.0	19,618

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 19,618
= 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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

U.S. Taxpayers Party convention

U.S. Taxpayers Party convention for U.S. House Michigan District 13

Christopher Dardzinski advanced from the U.S. Taxpayers Party convention for U.S. House Michigan District 13 on July 23, 2022.

		Candidate
✔		Christopher Dardzinski (U.S. Taxpayers Party)

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= 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.

Working Class Party convention

Working Class Party convention for U.S. House Michigan District 13

Simone Coleman advanced from the Working Class Party convention for U.S. House Michigan District 13 on June 26, 2022.

		Candidate
✔		Simone Coleman (Working Class Party)

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= 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

To view Roberson's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

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

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Portia Roberson is the proud daughter of the late Pearl and ret. Judge Dalton Roberson. She is a graduate of Cass Tech High School, University of Michigan, and Wayne State Law School. A native of Detroit, Portia is a former public defender and former Wayne County assistant prosecutor. In 2009 Portia was appointed by President Obama to lead the office of intergovernmental and public liaison for the U.S. Department of Justice, she later returned to Detroit to lead the White House initiative Strong Cities, Strong Communities where she partnered with municipal leaders to secure millions in federal funding. The program provided resources for housing, public safety and transportation initiatives in Detroit. In 2013, Bing appointed Roberson to serve as Corporation Counsel, the City’s top legal position. Portia currently serves as the CEO of FOCUS: HOPE, a non-profit, civil, and human rights organization that provides workforce training to more than 500 students per year; feeds more than 42,000 senior adults per month; educates approximately 250 children in Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Portia is also the current chair of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission.

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?

We must protect a woman's right to choose
Congress must focus on lifting working families and taking care of the most vulnerable, our senior and kids
We must protect democracy and our right to vote

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I watched my mom struggle and eventually succumb to Alzheimer’s disease. As difficult as those times were, I was grateful that my mother was able to receive the best available care right up to her last moments. LET ME BE CLEAR, NO AMERICAN SHOULD HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT COST WHEN DEALING WITH A HEALTH CRISIS! Yet, two-thirds of all personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills and 70% of Americans with medical bills had to cut their food expenses to avoid bankruptcy. As your next congresswoman, I will support universal health care coverage; reduce prescription drug prices, premiums, and out-of-pocket costs; rein in overall health care expenses; and tackle the deep-seated inequities in our healthcare system. I will fight to make sure our healthcare system is driven by the needs of the patients and not the profit motive of the health care management corporations and big pharma.

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.

External links

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Candidate

U.S. House Michigan District 13

Personal

Footnotes

[show]

Michigan's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Gary Peters (D)

Elissa Slotkin (D)

Representatives

District 1

Jack Bergman (R)

District 2

John Moolenaar (R)

District 3

Hillary Scholten (D)

District 4

Bill Huizenga (R)

District 5

Tim Walberg (R)

District 6

Debbie Dingell (D)

District 7

Tom Barrett (R)

District 8

Kristen Rivet (D)

District 9

Lisa McClain (R)

District 10

John James (R)

District 11

Haley Stevens (D)

District 12

Rashida Tlaib (D)

District 13

Shri Thanedar (D)

Democratic Party (8)

Republican Party (7)

	v • e State of Michigan Lansing (capital)
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Portia Roberson

Contents

Elections

2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Michigan District 13

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Michigan District 13

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Michigan District 13

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

U.S. Taxpayers Party convention

U.S. Taxpayers Party convention for U.S. House Michigan District 13

Working Class Party convention

Working Class Party convention for U.S. House Michigan District 13

Endorsements

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2025 Elections

2026 Elections

2024 Election analysis

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

Get Engaged

Services

Additional analysis

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