Population (2010) 705,975 | Cook PVI D+5 | |
 | ||
Current Representative Sander Levin (D–Royal Oak) Ethnicity 82.0% White
10.0% Black
3.4% Asian
2.1% Hispanic
0.3% Native American | ||
Michigan's 9th congressional district used to be contained within Oakland County in the southeast areas of the state of Michigan and encompassed most of the county. The district area has changed significantly in the 2012 redistricting, now south and east of the previous district borders. The district now includes the communities of Warren, Bloomfield and Sterling Heights.
History
The 9th congressional district is largely a successor of the old 11th congressional district, at least since Joe Knollenberg was the representative of both. The old 9th district's representative Dale Kildee now represents Michigan's 5th congressional district.
The only areas that survived in the 9th congressional district across the 2002 redistricting were Pontiac, Waterford, Auburn Hills, some of Orion Township, Oakland Township, Rochester and Rochester Hills. The 9th congressional district was for all intents and purposes the one eliminated by the 2012 redistricting. Portions of it were reassigned to 4 different congressional districts, all of which largely preserved other former districts.
The district from 1992-2002 was largely based in Pontiac and Flint, Michigan, with the strong Democrat voting record in these places compensating for the largely Republican leaning of most of the rest of the district's area.
Prior to 1992 the 9th congressional district did not overlap at all with the one that existed after 1992. It largely corresponded to the later Michigan's 2nd congressional district, covering most of the west coast counties starting with Muskegon and taking in a portion of Grand Traverse County. It also included about half of Ottawa County, Montcalm County, half of Ionia County, and two eastern townships of Kent County, Michigan.
Sander Levin has announced that he will be running for re-election in 2014. George Brikho, the only Republican candidate in the 2014 election, has been criticized for suggesting Adolf Hitler was a better leader than Hillary Clinton.