ICYMI: McDonald Rivet’s voting record shows pattern benefiting Democratic Party, family

In case you missed it, Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet has a history of voting to enrich her husband and her party.

  • As a Bay City Commissioner, she voted to sell two bridges to Bay City Bridge Partners. They then made $75,000 in donations to the Democrat party.

  • As state senator, she voted to triple the funding going to Michigan’s state land bank to $75 million. Eight months later, her husband was hired as its executive director.

  • As a congresswoman, she submitted a request for $850,000 in funding for an organization her husband partners with.

Doesn’t get any shadier than that!

Read more below.

McDonald Rivet’s voting record shows pattern benefiting Democratic Party, family
The Midwesterner
September 4, 2026

Congresswoman Kristen McDonald Rivet’s voting record as a state and federal lawmaker follows a pattern that seemingly benefits the Democratic Party and her family.

The trend dates back to Rivet’s time on the Bay City Commission, when in 2019 commissioners voted unanimously to approve a controversial privatization plan with Bay City Bridge Partners to lease, renovate and toll two of four bridges crossing the Saginaw River.

Federal Election Commission records show that since 2020, United Bridge Partners, the Colorado-based parent company for BCBP, and related United Bridge Operation have contributed at least $75,000 on the federal level to the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association PAC, which describes itself as “the only organization solely focused on electing Democratic lieutenant governors and candidates each year across the United States.”

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Rivet voted to triple funding for the state land bank to $75 million in June 2022 with House Bill 5783, and voted again for an additional $75 million with Senate Bill 7 in January 2023.

Eight months later, in September 2023, the Michigan State Land Bank Authority hired Joseph Rivet as its executive director to “provide overall leadership and strategic direction to the SLBA” as it doled out the massive funding increase from the legislature, according to the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.

Joseph Rivet in February 2024 helped steer $3 million to the Genesee County Land Bank, a partner with the state land bank that demolishes blighted homes.

That same year, Rivet won a seat representing Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, taking office in January 2025, when she immediately went to work to steer additional funds to the Genesee County Land Bank, ultimately securing $4.2 million for the land bank, according to her 2025 Year-End Report.

In August 2025, McDonald Rivet submitted a federal budget request for another $850,000 for the Genesee County Land Bank, according to MLive.

Read more here.

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