Democrat Callie Barr tries again to unseat Bergman in 1st Congressional District race

Democrat Callie Barr is trying a second time to unseat incumbent US Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet in Michigan’s 1st Congressional District.

In 2024, Barr earned 38% of the vote to Bergman’s 59% in a four-way race.

This time, Barr’s part of a seven-way race for the seat representing the northern Lower Peninsula and all of the Upper Peninsula in Congress. In addition to Barr, Bergman also faces Libertarian Arnett Satterla, independent candidate Zebulon Featherly, Green Party candidate LaVeta Davenport, US Taxpayers Party candidate Doc Kovaly and Working Class Party candidate Liz Hakola.

Barr spoke with WCMU about her goals for the district.

David Nicholas: Callie Barr, thank you very much for joining us.

Callie Barr: Thank you so much for having me.

DN: First question is, how would you define yourself politically?

CB: You know, I'm a patriot. I believe in representing the people of upper and northern Michigan to deliver what we need here. I often say this isn't a seat for Republicans or Democrats, it's a seat for the people of upper and northern Michigan, and being a fifth-generation Michigander from Cheboygan, Michigan, I'm deeply, deeply rooted here.

And so right now, to me, it's about returning this seat to the people who live and work here and just want a shot to be able to afford life.

DN: And what specific ideas or plans do you have to address affordability?

CB: Yeah, well, right now I'm running against an incumbent, Jack Bergman, who's done nothing but increase our costs while actually costing the taxpayer. I mean, he's the number-one spender, number-one out of 435 members of Congress, the number-one spending on lodging. I mean, even during COVID, when members were getting reimbursed like $600, he was reimbursed over $61,000. And along with that, he's done things like vote to cut Medicaid.

I would not do that, right? Medicaid funds our rural hospitals. He didn't extend the (Affordable Care Act) subsidies. I would not have done that, right? Because that is something that has increased our insurance premiums across this district.

He supports the war in Iran. That has increased the cost of gas and diesel, which has increased the cost of our food and our groceries and the things that we buy at the store.

He supports the tariffs, which has increased our costs for our small businesses and also for us, the consumer, and damaged our relationship with Canada.

So, when we think about decreasing costs, what we need to do is get someone out of Congress right now who is at every point increasing our cost of living here, while also at the same time using our taxpayer dollars to live a pretty lavish lifestyle.

And so, enough's enough. And so, I support policies that will decrease our costs, which means tackling insurance, making sure we can negotiate every drug price, making sure our rural hospitals are fully funded, not supporting a war right now that is driving up the cost of gas and everything else.

DN: And what is your position on US foreign policy specifically in Iran?

CB: So, no one's crying that we fight terrorism, right? And I want to be clear about that. The problem is, though, is when you go into a country and you have no plan, and when you are, like I said, increasing, the cost for us, right?

We're spending billions of dollars there. We don't have a plan. It's increasing our gas prices.

The other thing is, we're not at full military readiness. You know, I come from a military family. My husband is a Marine for 15 years. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan. And what concerns me is that we fired inspector generals. We fired JAG officers. We fired military leaders and commanders who had decades of knowledge and experience in the Middle East because they weren't yes men and yes women.

And so, that is also very concerning that we don't have a military that's at its full capacity and full military readiness to do the job that they're over there being asked to do. And frankly, I don't even know that they know what the plan is because there isn't a plan.

And so all of that, we need leaders in Congress right now, leaders in Congress that are going to have to take a look at this and figure out how we work to negotiate so that we're not in an endless conflict in the Middle East again, like my family was a part of for 20 years.

DN: What is your position then on tariffs and trade wars, specifically with Canada?

CB: I mean, this is ridiculous. Canada is a friend of ours and has been. We have been so damaged, not just with our friendships, but economically as well.

When we look at our Canadian friends coming across and sue Canada, they're not coming anymore.

We've seen just significant declines and it has resulted in the loss of millions and millions of dollars of economic benefit to us. These tariffs have not … these were not thoughtful. They’re chaotic. They've damaged our relationship with Canada. They've damaged our own economy. They were thoughtless and stupid. And we should not be supporting something that not only hurts one of our closest relationships, but also just hurts us too.

DN: And what is your position specifically on the construction of data centers in Michigan?

CB: We are the Great Lakes State and we have to do everything we can to protect our water. And we need regulation to protect our water.

We also need to make sure that there is strong local control that means something, that local communities can make decisions and have voice to actually realize that.

And that also means that we need absolute transparency. We need to know what risks are. We need to know what the impact on the environment is. And the other thing is that our local communities in no way are paying for any kind of energy infrastructure upgrades or costs associated with data centers.

DN: And finally, how would you address the ongoing debate over the Line 5 pipeline running under the Straits of Mackinac?

CB: Yeah, as a congressional representative, I think about, what are the things that you can actually do as a congressional representative? Because, of course, a representative is not going to, cannot by law, overturn a federal permit, a state permit, a state court decision, which is where that line is right now.

But what you can do is help to advance towards a clean energy future.

We had tax incentives and subsidies to do exactly that, to help us have the jobs of the future when it comes to working towards a cleaner energy future.

And this was supported by environmentalists. It was supported by our businesses. It was supported by labor because it was a way to have jobs and training and to start thinking about how we can diversify our energy sources, because we want to have reliable and affordable energy.

And of course, we want to continue to move towards energy sources that help protect this wonderful environment that we live in and that we are stewards over of.

And so, to me, that's really important, that we revitalize that effort, which this administration has pulled us back years in that kind of progress.

This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.