Paul Mitchell was a member of the United States House of Representatives. He held the seat from the 10th District of Michigan. The district is based in the region of the state colloquially known as "The Thumb".
He recently retired from Congress after expressing exasperation with the polarizing state of American politics. But, tragically, it wasn't long before he announced he'd been stricken with serious health issues.
Died on August 15
Paul Mitchell has passed away, reports CNN and Politico. Earlier this year, Mitchell announced that he'd been diagnosed with stage IV renal cancer.
The discovery was made after he began having problems with his back. In addition, cancer also led to a significant blood clot that he had to have surgically removed.
That surgery was successful. Sadly, however, renal cancer kept progressing and Mitchell died on August 15, 2021. Less than a month before, longtime Michigan U.S. Senator Carl Levin also died of cancer.
Mitchell was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 2016. His predecessor, Republican Candice Miller, had chosen not to run for re-election. Miller was chairperson of the House Administration Committee at the time.
In 2018, Mitchell won re-election to the House. In his second term, he became a prominent critic of Republican President Donald Trump.
As the tense political atmosphere continued, Mitchell announced he wouldn't run for another Congressional term. But things would still go on to escalate for him.
Trump would lose the 2020 Presidential election, but would subsequently peddle baseless conspiracy theories about his loss. Claiming he wouldn't have lost without supposedly widespread voter fraud, of which in reality there was not.
This eventually led to Mitchell severing official ties with the Republican party. He would serve the remainder of his time in the House as an Independent.
Mitchell had previously run for another House seat from Michigan. He was a candidate in the 2014 Republican primary for the seat from the 4th District, located near Lansing.
Incumbent Republican and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp was retiring. The nomination ultimately went to State Senator John Moolenaar, who would win the general election.
Mitchell's first elected office was as a city councilman for Saint Clair, Michigan. In 2013, he made a brief play for a seat in the Michigan State Senate. Before being elected to Congress, Mitchell chaired the Michigan chapter of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
Mitchell previously ran a medical school
Paul Mitchell was a native of Boston, Massachusetts. As a child, he and his family moved to Waterford Township, Michigan, in the Detroit region. He later graduated from Michigan State University.
Before his time in Congress, he was the owner and operator of Ross Medical Education Center in Saint Clair. He married his wife, Sherry, in 2008. They would have six children.
