Deborah Ann Dingell was born in Detroit, Michigan on November 23, 1953. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service in 1975, and a master’s degree in Liberal Studies in 1996—both from Georgetown University. In addition to working for General Motors Corporation (GM) for over 30 years, Dingell served as president of the GM Foundation and as chairwoman of the American Automotive Policy Council’s Manufacturing Initiative.

In 1999 Dingell and her husband, Democratic U.S. Congressman John Dingell, attended the second annual dinner of the Arab American Political Action Committee, an organization that seeks to help Arab Americans to pursue careers in government.

In 2006 Mrs. Dingell was elected to Wayne State University’s Board of Governors, where she served from 2007-14. Then-Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm (2003-11) also appointed Dingell to positions with the Early Childhood Investment Corporation and the Cherry Commission On Higher Education And Economic Growth. In addition, Dingell worked as a co-host for the Detroit Public Television program Am I Right?, and was a frequent panelist on a show called Flashpoint. The publication Crain’s Detroit Business listed Dingell as one of the “100 Most Influential Women in Michigan.”

In February 2014, Dingell’s 87-year-old husband—who had served in the House of Representatives since 1955—announced that he would be retiring from public life at the end of the year. That November, Mrs. Dingell won election to the House seat which her husband was vacating—that of Michigan’s 12th Congressional District. Soon after taking office, she became a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

In September 2015, Dingell joined more than 70 fellow House Democrats in signing a letter exhorting President Barack Obama to dramatically increase the number of refugees permitted to enter the United States from the war-torn, terrorism-ravaged nation of Syria. The letter claimed that Syrian resettlement in America had thus far been “insufficient in light of the current crisis” and “the dire circumstances” faced by the people of Syria.

In 2016 and 2018, Dingell received donations totaling $1,250 from individuals affiliated with the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

After House Republicans passed the American Health Care Act^[1] in May 2017 and then were welcomed and congratulated by President Donald Trump in a Rose Garden celebration outside of the White House, Dingell told MSNBC host Thomas Roberts: “Look, it deeply disturbed me. I watched in shock the picture of the Rose Garden after what happened in the House. I really wanted to cry. When you realize who it is that’s celebrating this and then hear that its the 13 white boys–sorry to say it that way–that are going to be doing this in the Senate I get very concerned.”

In February 2019, Dingell and fellow congresswoman Pramila Jayapal together introduced a “Medicare-for-All” bill designed to place the federal government in charge of virtually all of America’s health care system. Broader than a similar “Medicare-for-All” bill that Senator Bernie Sanders had introduced in 2017, the Dingell-Jayapal legislation aimed to expand Medicare so that it would also cover things like mental health, addiction treatment, dental care, and abortion services.

Dingell believes that:

• all women should have an unrestricted right to abortion-on-demand at any stage of pregnancy – subsidized by taxpayers, in cases of economic hardship;
• public and private employers alike should be legally required to implement affirmative-action hiring and promotion policies that give preference to African Americans and women, as compensation for historical injustices;
• the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is an excellent statute that can serve a strategic stepping stone toward the eventual implementation of a government-run, single-payer healthcare system;
• voucher programs designed to enable low-income parents to send their children to private schools rather than to failing public schools, constitute bad policy because they rob the public schools of vital resources;
• restrictions on immigration are basically racist because they tend to prevent Hispanics and other non-whites from entering the United States;
• social services should be available to all U.S. residents regardless of their immigration status;
• illegal aliens should be offered amnesty if they have been productive members of society;
• voter ID laws are, by and large, racially motivated attempts to suppress minority voting and should be eliminated;
• an ever-increasing reliance on “green energy” sources such as wind and solar should be put in place, along with the phasing out of fossil fuels, the imposition of carbon taxes, and the raising of vehicle CAFE standards;
• federal spending on infrastructure projects and job programs is crucial to the success of any economic recovery program; and
• the nationalization of banks and corporations is preferable to federal bailouts of those entities.

For details about Dingell’s voting record on a wide range of issues, click here.

Footnotes:

1. H.R.1628 – American Health Care Act of 2017

Additional Resources:

Debbie Dingell’s Voting Record

Further Reading: “Debbie Dingell” (Ballotpedia.org, Keywiki.org); “Dingell: ‘I Wanted to Cry’ Over [American Health Care Act]” (Daily Caller, 5-7-2017); “Republicans React to Push for Medicare-for-All by House Democrats…” (Daily Caller, 2-28-2019); Debbie Dingell’s Positions on Key Issues (OnTheIssues.org).