Fred Upton holds a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from the Kalamazoo-based 6th District of Michigan. Before redistricting, he had represented the state's 4th District.
A Republican, Upton would garner a reputation for being a pragmatic moderate. This was perhaps never more on display than in a series of votes he took in 2021. In the 2022 election cycle, he would've been pitted in a primary with another incumbent U.S. representative, notes Yahoo. Instead, Upton has apparently chosen a different path.
Announces his intentions to retire
Fred Upton won't run for another term in the United States House of Representatives, reports the Detroit Free Press.
Another round of redistricting placed him in the same District as his colleague, Republican U.S. Representative Bill Huizenga. Huizenga has already announced his intentions to run in the newly-drawn District.
Upton was first elected to Congress in 1986. That year, he soundly defeated incumbent U.S. Representative Mark D. Siljander in the Republican primary for the 4th District.
He would go on to win another 17 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. From 2011 to 2017, Upton served as chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Still a committee member, he has more recently been the ranking member of its Subcommittee on Energy.
In 2021, Fred Upton voted in favor of impeaching then-U.S.
President Donald Trump. He was one of several House Republicans to stand against the sitting president of their own party. The vote in question ensued from Trump's actions and lack thereof that led to the 2021 Capitol riot. Upton previously voted to impeach Democratic President Bill Clinton. This makes him the first U.S. representative to vote in the affirmative on the impeachment of two different presidents.
Upton would buck party leadership on a number of other high-profile votes that year. Including supporting the creation of a commission to investigate the riot as well as holding Trump ally Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena regarding the subject. He also voted in favor of stripping committee assignments from intensely controversial Georgia U.S.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Upton is among a list of anti-Trump Republicans having to make choices about their future. For his part, Trump responded with an unsurprising air of blathering. Upton's almost-primary-opponent Huizenga had a more dignified response. Praising Upton for his "commitment, service, and dedication" and his "statesman-like legacy."
Is a former Congressional and OMB staffer
Fred Upton is a graduate of Shattuck-Saint Mary's boarding school in Faribault, Minnesota, near the Twin Cities. He later earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Michigan. There, he was the sports editor of the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily.
Afterward, Upton became a member of the staff for U.S.
Representative David Stockman. After Stockman became the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Upton joined the staff there as well.
Upton has been married to Amey Rulon-Miller since 1983, and they have two children. Many of his ancestors helped found the home appliance company that would become the Whirlpool Corporation. Model and actress Kate Upton is his niece and is married to famed baseball player Justin Verlander.
