Dale Kildee

Dale Edward Kildee (born September 16, 1929) is a retired U.S. Representative from Michigan, serving from 1977 until 2013. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

His district included Flint, Saginaw and Bay City. In July 2011, Kildee announced he would retire after his current term was up in 2012. He was succeeded by his nephew Dan Kildee.

Kildee was born in Flint, Michigan on September 16, 1929 to Timothy and Norma Kildee. He was the fourth of five children. In his senior year of high school, he won the American Legion Medal of Citizenship. In 1947, Kildee received his high school diploma from St. Mary's High School.

He earned his B.A. from Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, Michigan in 1952. He earned a teacher's certificate from the University of Detroit in 1955. He did graduate work in history and political science at the University of Peshawar in Pakistan from 1958 to 1959 under a Rotary Foundation Fellowship. He earned an M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1961. He was a teacher at the Detroit Jesuit High School from 1954-56. Coming back in 1956 to Flint, Dale taught Latin until 1964.

Kildee served as a member of the Michigan State House of Representatives 81st district from 1965 to 1974. He later served as a member of the Michigan State Senate from 1975 to 1976.

Elections

Photo Kildee from the 1977 Congressional Pictorial Directory

In 1976, incumbent Democrat U.S. Representative Donald Riegle resigned after being appointed to fill the vacant seat in the U.S. Senate caused by the death of Philip Hart. State Senator Kildee won the general election with 70% of the vote. He won re-election 17 times, each with at least 56% of the vote except in 1992, 1994, and 2010. In 1992, he defeated Megan O'Neill with 54% of the vote. He won Genessee county with 74%, while he lost the district's other two counties: Oakland and Lapeer. In the 1994 rematch, he defeated her with just 51% of the vote, the lowest winning percentage of his career. In 2010, he defeated Republican farmer and businessman John Kupiec with 53% of the vote. Kupiec won Tuscola county with 60%, while losing the district's other three counties. Kildee won Bay (49%), Saginaw (61%), and Genesee counties (55%).

Tenure

In 2010, he revealed that he would be voting for the Senate version of the Health Care reform bill without the Stupak Amendment language restricting federal abortion funding. In addition, reports surfaced that he is attempting to convince pro-life Democrats in the Stupak coalition to vote for the bill. In 1997, he founded the House's Native American Caucus to advocate Native American issues.

Committee assignments

He was a senior member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and serves as ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Education Reform and a member of the Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations. He was also a member of the House Committee on Resources, where he sits on the Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands and the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. From 1993 on, he served as co-chair of the Congressional Automotive Caucus. From 1997 on, he served as co-chair of the Native American Caucus.

He met his future wife Gayle, a French teacher, while teaching at Central. They married in 1965 and had three children, two boys and a girl. Both sons became army captains; their daughter became a commercial property manager.

In November, 2011, Patrick Kildee, a second cousin of the congressman, accused Kildee of sexually abusing him more than 50 years ago when he was 12 years old. In response Kildee called the allegation untrue.