The kicker line in Capt. Mike Bouchard’s most frequent TV advertisement in his race for U.S. Congress is this: “Socialism? That’s never gonna win on my watch.”
That sounds just swell, but his opponent for
Michigan’s 10th District U.S. House seat is Christina Hines, 36, a level-headed former prosecutor who’s laser-focused on rising costs affecting families in the working-class district.
Hines, who has lived nearly her entire life in the district, which covers southern Macomb County and Rochester and Rochester Hills in Oakland County, is no socialist. She is a mom and adjunct law professor at Wayne State University who has worked tirelessly to hear and understand her would-be constituents’ concerns.
Between this congressional race and her unsuccessful bid in 2024 to become Macomb County prosecutor, she said she and her team have knocked on 40,000 doors, including outreach to “working families that I think have not felt heard by the Democratic Party.”
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the district as leaning Republican in the general election race to replace John James, the Republican nominee for governor.
But we believe CHRISTINA HINES can flip the this red district blue, and give its residents the diligent service and serious representation they deserve.
The parachute candidate
Given Hines’ deep roots in the district, Bouchard’s anti-socialism ad carries a bit of irony: Playing on his very commendable Army service, the ad shows Bouchard doing a parachute jump – not unlike his landing in the 10th District, which is a new place of residence for the son of longtime Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.
“I was in Iraq a year ago,” Bouchard, 32, noted in an interview with the Free Press editorial board, and went straight from the Army to being a congressional candidate.
That happened because 20 Michigan Republicans – including proud father Michael Bouchard, whose image features prominently on his son’s campaign website – launched the Draft Captain Mike Bouchard super PAC in July 2025, while the younger Bouchard was still deployed.
Remarkably, the “draft” movement worked.
Voters should make no mistake, though: The Bouchard on the ballot is not the veteran politician, nor is he adequately prepared to serve in Congress.
Let’s look at one of the most critical issues lawmakers must soon address: If Congress does nothing (what it’s best at), Social Security recipients will face a 20-24% cut in their monthly benefits as soon as 2032.
This would be devastating. A Rutgers Law School assessment notes that “More than half (52-56%) of Social Security beneficiaries derive 50% or more of their total income from Social Security and approximately a quarter (24-27%) garner 90% or more from these benefits.”
So it would seem that a congressional candidate in a working-class district would have a solid plan to address this.
She's got plans, he's got talking points
Hines, for example, advocates eliminating the annual withholding cap for high earners. U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, a Republican seeking re-election in the competitive mid-Michigan 7th District, argues for a combination of steps, including lifting the withholding cap on high earners, raising contributions and gradually raising the age at which American workers get their full Social Security benefit.
Bouchard?
During an interview with the Free Press editorial board, he appeared to be unfamiliar with the withholding cap and when asked how he planned to make Social Security solvent, trotted out the Republican canard of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse.
No one likes waste, fraud and abuse. But such savings that can be realized in the Social Security program aren’t in the same hemisphere as the amount of money needed, and any congressional candidate should know that, and offer realistic solutions to something so critical to so many would-be constituents.
The Social Security Trust Fund faces a $25 trillion shortfall over the next 75 years, the standard window in considering solvency. The program faces a cash-flow deficit of $3.8 trillion over just the next 10 years. DOGE, the Trump administration’s chaotic and harmful theatrics aimed at waste, fraud and abuse claims to have saved $110 billion – less than 3% of Social Security’s 10-year shortfall – but the Government Accountability Office found that 96% of the purported savings lacked sufficient verification.
That’s just one of many policy matters Bouchard was unable to address. He also appeared unfamiliar with Title IX changes that essentially invalidate the legal identity of transgender people and Title X changes that reorient grant funding for clinics serving women away from contraception and toward conception.
Hines, deeply steeped in daily life of the district, has no such obvious knowledge gaps – nor is she pinning her campaign on hollow bromides like hating socialism and government waste.
She cares about kitchen-table issues like the price of groceries, gas and child and elder care, and supports solutions to address the burgeoning housing crisis. She says Congress can help her district with “investment into our electric grid, into water and sewage, making it a lot easier for places like Centerline or Roseville or Fraser, small communities like that, to be able to afford those improvements, which means that more people will want to rehab or build housing there.”
Hines isn’t running for Congress to be something. She wants to do some things. Christina Hines – diligent, dedicated and prepared ‒ is the obvious choice for 10th District voters.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The Freep's pick for the 10th U.S. House District | Endorsement
