'Outsider' TV veteran jumps into swing state House race aiming to flip longtime red seat back to GOP

FIRST ON FOX: Longtime West Michigan meteorologist Terri DeBoer is launching a run for Congress as a Republican, hoping to represent the state’s 3rd Congressional District in a campaign centered on border security, economic issues and what she called restoring "fiscal sanity" in Washington.

"I'm an outsider," DeBoer told Fox News Digital in her first interview since becoming a candidate for Congress as a Republican running to unseat Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., who has held the seat since 2023.

"I am a West Michigan resident, and as an outsider, I believe that West Michigan is not blue, West Michigan is not red. West Michigan is all about solving the problems that we face, no matter who has those ideas, no matter what side of the aisle they happen to sit on."

DeBoer has spent more than 30 years on West Michigan television, working at stations including WWMT-TV, WOOD-TV and most recently FOX-17 (WXMI-TV), where she returned in 2024 after a brief break.

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She began her career in broadcast journalism as a news reporter before transitioning to meteorology in the early 1990s. Known to many viewers as "everyone’s mom," DeBoer has been a steady on-air presence during major weather events, including the 1998 derecho and the 2022 Christmas blizzard.

DeBoer says she sees similarities between her previous position, where she was affectionately referred to by many as "everyone's mom," and helping people navigate and prepare for tough weather ahead.

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"I am asking the people of Michigan's 3rd District to send me to Capitol Hill so that I can make a difference helping prepare people for the storms that we're facing and help steer us away from the impact of those storms," DeBoer said.

DeBoer, a wife, mother and grandmother, says her interest in politics was inspired by hearing former President Ronald Reagan speak in person during her senior year of high school. She said she thought to herself that if she ever had the opportunity to "serve my country," she would "step forward and do it."

DeBoer is the first major Republican candidate to enter the race in a district the Cook Political Report ranks as "Solid D," in a state that President Donald Trump carried in 2024 and that is known for narrow margins of victory.

Additionally, when Scholten won her election, she became the first Democrat to win that seat since the 1970s. 

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Zach Bannon called Scholten a "rubber stamp" for the "radical far left" in a statement to Fox News Digital and said Republicans are "on the offense."

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Other priorities from DeBoer, according to a press release and her newly launched campaign website, include pushing back against the "political elite" and "open-border policies" and advocating for affordability.

"For me, I am someone who is willing to listen to all great ideas, because I know that the problems that we have to solve, we are going to face, are going to need to be tackled by everyone, and so we need to come together and the best way to come together is to send an outsider to Washington," DeBoer said. "I have loyalty to West Michigan. I don't have loyalty to a party."

Republicans currently control the House by a 218-214 majority, with two right-tilting districts and one left-leaning seat vacant. Democrats need a net gain of three seats in the midterms to win back the majority for the first time in four years.