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I was born and raised in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. When I was young, I was blessed to know all of my great-grandparents – including Italian immigrants - and I grew up surrounded by a big family, rich with stories and experiences. My father was a second-generation Architect, and my mother was a homemaker and caregiver, raising four children, chauffeuring all the neighborhood kids around in her conversion van, and making sure we had everything that we needed. We were never wealthy, but we were mostly comfortable.

BORN

Like many Yooper kids, I was raised to appreciate nature and community. I grew up around family hunting camps, often with my grandfathers - Camp Pottsville on the Baravetto side and Ponderosa on the Blomquist side - hiking the woods, learning how to read basic game signs, shoot, hunt, and fish. While I hunt far less seriously than in my youth, I still maintain that wonderful November ritual, spending the evenings playing cribbage and trading good-natured barbs with the crew at Camp Misery in northern Dickinson County.From an early age, I was taught to be understanding, to welcome the stranger, to stand for those who cannot stand for themselves, and to embrace our differences.

ENDORSEMENTS

My name is Kyle Blomquist.I’m running to represent the people of Northern Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives, on a mission to unify working people and dramatically improve their lives.I’m running as a Democrat, but this campaign isn’t afraid to acknowledge the inherent flaws of a two-party system which too often functions to distract from our common struggles and common cause. Instead, my message is one of solidarity.

MEET KYLE

FOR MICHIGAN. FOR US.

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Growing up in the 1990s, much of my time was spent with friends, riding my bike around my small U.P. town, watching professional wrestling, playing video games, and finding my first great passion in the sport of football. While I was never naturally gifted - my feet too big, my stride too long and clumsy - I was tenacious and coachable. I put in the work and learned from my mistakes. Above all else, I became unwavering and dependable - especially as my physique grew to match my will - earning the trust of coaches and teammates. To this day, the faith of those I respect and care for is far more important to me than any personal accolade.

GROWING UP

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It’s not just you that feels left behind and preyed upon. What we have normalized isn’t normal, but we have to believe that a better world is possible. To the extent that members of Congress can effect change in a brutal, often-corrupt capitalist system, my guiding belief is this: the government has a responsibility to provide for their citizens’ basic needs and must ensure that its people cannot be priced-out of anything necessary for a full, happy, &amp; healthy life. This is not radical. This is necessary.

BOLD, NECESSARY POLICY FOR THE WORKING CLASS.

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Upon receiving our Master’s degrees, we returned to my hometown of Iron Mountain to join an Architectural practice that had seen better days. The Housing Market Collapse of 2008 and economic downturn that followed had reduced a once-thriving firm of around twenty staff to only one man: my father, working alone in a large, empty office. The first several years of our careers were wracked with uncertainty, sparse projects, low pay, crushing student loans, and collective sacrifice as the three of us worked to resuscitate the business created by my grandfather 60 years prior. Eventually, we found our footing, and in 2019, Megan and I purchased ownership of the firm which we still operate with a small team today.Even in the midst of our own reclamation project professionally, Megan and I wanted to do more for a community which was also struggling through difficult times. At first, this took the form of volunteering with the local Downtown Development Authority, Habitat for Humanity, and other organizations striving to make a difference. Eventually, it led Megan to become Chair of the DDA’s Board of Directors and me to join the Iron Mountain City Council where I still serve as Mayor Pro Tem after over a decade on the board. In the intervening years, we have seen a great resurgence in the community, filling vacancy, adding vibrance, and building futures.In 2018, Megan and I welcomed identical twins. They are rambunctious kids who love to ride bikes, play soccer, football, swim, camp, snuggle, and rough-house. They have made me a vastly better man, having known them, and they are my greatest source of pride. They have sparked in me a quiet desperation, a need to spare them the same anxieties we endure, which has led me to embark on this journey now.The truth is - despite my personal and professional successes - I feel completely helpless in affecting the pain and injustice I see in the world around me. Deep down, I still hold tight to the aspirations of a young would-be Architect who believed their work would improve people’s lives. Yet, I am confronted by the numerous ways I cannot do enough: I can design a bright, beautiful medical clinic, but I can’t ensure that everyone who enters receives the care they need or doesn’t leave bankrupt because of a cancer diagnosis. I can imagine luxurious apartment buildings or lavish homes, but I can’t do anything to house the most vulnerable amongst us. I can restore a century-old storefront building to its former glory, but I can’t do anything to ensure that the people who work there can afford to shop there or put adequate food on their family’s table. I can create rich learning environments, but each school project is haunted by the specter of gun violence, and despite every effort that I can make architecturally, there is really very little I can do to make sure that the children taught there won’t be shot there. There isn’t a hospital or home, shop or school that I can build to prevent children like my own from being starved and bombed in Gaza or torn from their parents here in America.In many ways, this campaign embodies that personal desperation and embraces the frustrations of the American people. I want my neighbors and friends in Northern Michigan to know that their pain is real, and their worries are valid.I want working-class families to know that a better world is not only possible, but imminent, if we only have the will to create it.In ways that even Architecture cannot, I want to empower common people to replace structures that were built to oppress and exploit them.

ARCHITECT

It was at Architecture school that I met Megan – a brilliant, studious, and principled young woman, who I married and have been working with ever since.

MARRIED

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<h2>we all want a government that serves its people, not just the wealthy &amp; powerful.</h2>Our mainstream Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington don't care about us. They're in office to protect their donors' bottom lines and build up their own. Join me in the fight to return government to the people, build robust social safety nets, create prosperity, and restore dignity to life, work, and retirement.

<h2>it's time to SET ASIDE PETTY PARTISANSHIP &amp; JOIN THE CLASS STRUGGLE.</h2>Over 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, unable to get a foothold in an economy built on exploitation. Most of us are closer to the poverty line than being millionaires, let alone billionaires. So why are we down here fighting each other for scraps when the real culprits are at the top? We are the American working class. We are the 90% and we’re growing all the time. We can grow disillusioned and apathetic, or we can grow impatient and resolute… then together, we can grow powerful.

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Following high school, I attended Grand Valley State University with an emphasis in engineering and art, before transferring to the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, where I pursued my second great passion: Architecture.The education of would-be Architects is a unique one, centered around analysis, design, documentation, and jury defense (understanding, intent, execution, and explanation). For an Architect, it is not enough to simply create something beautiful; we must know and nurture the user - the human beings who inhabit our buildings - and draw our designs in service to those people. I reveled in the possibilities, an opportunity to transform lives by designing inspired places for people to live, work, and play. Through my studies, I grew as a person, learning to exercise compassion in applying my craft. Empowering people became my focus, and Architecture was my tool to do so.As I entered Graduate school, my thoughts turned back to Michigan. As the Great Recession crushed the working class, few cities were hit harder or were more emblematic of our national struggle than Detroit. Exploited, divided, beaten, and all-but-broken under the fickle stroke of capitalism. I wrote and designed my Master’s thesis around urban renewal, housing, and mobilization in some of Detroit’s most blighted neighborhoods. Solutions were addressed at all scales – consolidation of empty space, creation of cooperative housing types, and implementation of a construction process which recycled oversized infrastructure and deployed under-employed people in reviving their own communities. While existing only in theory, this reflected my personal belief in the high potential of society when optimism is married with planning and ambitious reform.

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IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. (WBUP/WJMN) – Kyle Blomquist, 40, an architect from Dickinson County, has announced his candidacy for Congress in Michigan’s 1st District.Born and raised in the Upper Peninsula, Blomquist is a lifelong resident with family roots in Northern Michigan spanning more than three generations.

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UP Democrat joins First Congressional race, challenges Rep. Jack Bergman

Write a short blurb about an issue your campaign is highlighting. Try to keep the text a similar size between the various issue blurbs.

Individuals have a right to make choices with their own bodies. I will always champion reproductive rights for all women, celebrate and support the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and protect trans people from discrimination and oppression. We should be growing the rights, privileges, and acceptance of all people, not bullying and repressing the most vulnerable among us.

PERSONAL AUTONOMY FOR ALL

An Iron Mountain City Council member will seek to represent Michigan’s 1st District in Congress, campaigning as a Democrat in the 2026 election for the seat now held by U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet.Kyle Blomquist, 40, an architect, said his campaign will focus on fighting for working-class families.

IM council member running for Congress

Michigan’s natural resources are among the most precious in the world. I am committed to advancing a Green New Deal framework, transitioning to a sustainable economy, prioritizing clean energy, lowering utility costs in the Upper Peninsula, and safeguarding our air, water, and land from corporate exploitation, while creating good-paying jobs and ensuring environmental justice for all communities.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Kyle Blomquist, a Dickinson County architect and dedicated community leader, has announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives serving Michigan’s 1st Congressional District. Born and raised in the Upper Peninsula, he is a lifelong resident with deep roots in Northern Michigan, where his family has lived for more than three generations.

Blomquist seeking 1st District seat in Congress

Our government should serve its people, free of corrupting influence. I'll support legislation to overturn Citizens United, prevent billionaires from buying our elected officials through unaccountable PACs, and ban members of Congress from owning individual stocks. I’ll also fight to implement term limits for Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.

DEMOCRATIC REFORM

Upon their original conception, the federal minimum wage was intended to be a living wage, and the 40-hour work week was established to ensure a life outside of the workplace. In the intervening generations, the minimum wage has been treated instead as a level of maximum tolerable cruelty for many in the working class, while the 40-hour work week has become an arbitrary threshold that allows corporations to avoid responsibility for the well-being of workers. More than 40% of Americans work a job which fails to pay a living wage – enough to pay for basic necessities like housing, food, schooling, and a retirement contribution. The vast majority of this over-exploited, under-compensated workforce is employed by companies that post ever-growing profits for wealthy shareholders, while their employees turn to public assistance simply to survive. I support the increase of the federal minimum wage to once again be a viable living wage, with automatic increases tied to the rate of inflation, ensuring that we never again backslide into poverty wages.

American workers should be empowered to start and grow their families without financial hardship. I'll fight for universal childcare and paid parental leave, providing time for new parents to care and connect with their children and eliminating the high cost and low availability of daycare that disproportionately affect rural districts like ours.

CHILDCARE &amp; PARENTAL LEAVE

Gaylord, MI — Community organizations across Michigan’s First Congressional District have launched the MI-01 Meet the Candidates Project, a coordinated, non-partisan series of public forums that will bring congressional primary candidates directly to communities across the district in early 2026.Michigan’s First Congressional District spans a vast and diverse geographic area—nearly eight hours end to end. Historically, many voters in rural and remote communities have had limited opportunities to engage directly with congressional candidates in meaningful public settings.Primary-season events often focus on fundraising or brief appearances rather than substantive dialogue. The project gives voters the opportunity to listen, compare, and reflect before casting their primary ballots and gives candidates meaningful opportunities to engage the communities they might not otherwise reach.The Event in Gaylord is the first in this series of district-wide moderated candidate forums organized in Michigan’s First District. From February through April, local Indivisible groups and their community partners will host public forums in communities spanning the entire First District, from Ironwood in the western U.P to Sterling, just north of Bay City. This project honors the size, character, and capacity of each participating community. The events will be in-person, with some of them also accessible on-line.All events will be:● Non-partisan● Moderated and structured● Grounded in civility and respectful dialogue● Open and accessible to the publicThe Gaylord Event will be held February 13 in the upstairs meeting room of the Otsego County Library from 6:30 pm-8:00pm. Four candidates have agreed to participate in this public forum: Wayne Stiles (Democrat), Kyle Blomquist (Democrat), Justin Michals (Republican), and Zebulon Featherley (Independent). Members of the community are invited to submit written questions to volunteer staff prior to and during the forum to which each candidate shall respond in turn. All questions must be issue-related, and we suggest they pertain to how these issues affect voters in Michigan’s First District. Questions about this Gaylord event should be directed to Leah Cygan, Group Leader for Indivisible Courage Together at <a href="mailto:leahcygan@icloud.com">leahcygan@icloud.com</a>.

Candidate Forum Held by Indivisible Courage Together in Gaylord

It's not radical to want our Children to be safe from gun violence in school, or church, or at concerts, or walking down the street. Until American's can re-learn how to be responsible gun owners, until our mental health crisis is taken seriously and addressed, I do not believe in open, unfettered gun laws. Owning a gun is a massive responsibility.

Meeting people’s needs is the most effective way to improve society and prevent crime. The U.S. spends nearly three times as much to imprison people as it does to educate them. I'll support substantial criminal justice &amp; prison reform, including reduced sentencing, humane conditions, reintegration programs, ending prison slavery, &amp; shrinking America’s prison population to mend communities.

INVEST IN PEOPLE, NOT PUNISHMENT

Billionaires and corporations should be accountable for the vitality of their workforce. I'll support progressive tax increases on the top 10% of earners, including the gains and wealth of billionaires. I’ll push legislation to restrict corporate stock buybacks, tie CEO pay to that of the lowest wage individuals within their companies, and strengthen antitrust laws.

ECONOMIC EQUITY

Join the Emmet County Democrats for a Meet and Greet with Kyle Blomquist in Petoskey. This event will be held at Northcoast Works. We will meet Kyle, and there will be plenty of time for questions and answers.

Meet and Greet with Kyle Blomquist in Emmet County

I believe that safety &amp; shelter are human rights, and that no government should be able to claim legitimacy so long as its people go without. Housing affordability has become a crisis, due in large part to the outsized influence of private equity. Corporate landlords use their wealth &amp; access to capital to out-compete working families for single-family homes, pricing them out of the American dream, and with it, the most crucial tool for building wealth and prosperity. When landlords collude to inflate rents – via both legal and illegal price fixing, the use of AI, intentional vacancy meant to give an illusion of scarcity – they create conditions that have led to nearly half of all renter households becoming cost burdened, spending more than 30% of the income on rent. This has not only increased the cost of living, reduced discretionary spending, and eliminated many households’ ability to save, it has also led to a rise in unhoused and underhoused individuals and families even while housing units sit vacant. It's time we decommodify housing by taking a Housing First approach. Rather than criminalizing homelessness, we must attack it at its core by providing adequate short-term shelters, staffed with social workers to tend to the needs of our under-housed populations. We must repeal the Faircloth Amendment – which in 1999 functionally ended the creation of public housing in favor of private investment - and create a “fast-lane” for public projects to enable a resurgence of public housing in America. Safe, quality at-cost housing for young and struggling families can create savings, acting as a springboard to eventual homeownership while competition on the low-end of the rental market will free many distressed single-family properties from “slumlords” for improvement by new owner-occupants, revitalizing our neighborhoods. Finally, we must loosen the grip of private equity on our housing supply. This includes a ban on corporations and hedge funds from purchasing single-family homes, as well as new laws and strict enforcement to prevent price fixing and artificial vacancy.

Shelter is a human right. I’ll push federal policy to decriminalize homelessness, repeal the Faircloth Amendment, create regulatory “fast-lanes” to provide affordable public housing for all who need it, and ban private equity from hoarding homes and pricing American families out of their own communities. In a nation of plenty, no one should go without a safe place to call home.

HOUSING FIRST

We must honor those who have served by caring for their physical and mental health. I’ll defend the Veterans’ Administration from brutal cuts that seek to undermine benefits. I’ll strongly resist attempts to privatize services based on cynical arguments of efficiency seeking to turn one of our most crucial governmental agencies into yet another profit center for wealthy corporations.

SUPPORT VETERANS AT HOME

An often-under-discussed challenge for young working families is the need to secure quality, affordable childcare prior to school age. In fact, the average monthly cost for full-time daycare in Michigan is ~$900 per month for a single child. In rural communities, like much of Northern Michigan, these costs can grow even higher, due to a lack of supply and reliability. This puts immense strain on families, often navigating blossoming careers and new parenthood amid a sea of anxiety and uncertainty. As working parents of twin boys, this is a challenge my wife Megan and I know all too well, paying sometimes in excess of $20,000 per year at times when money was especially tight. If we want to grow our communities and reverse the emptying of our rural towns, we must be able to support working families when they need it most. If we want to encourage people to work and contribute to the richness of our society, we must not force them to choose between a paying often-obscene childcare costs or giving up their careers. That is why I support free universal childcare for all working parents in America, extending K through 12 education to birth, and investing in our young families exactly where they are.

Prosperity in work is a human right. I'll champion living wages, paid time-off for all American workers, and pass the PRO Act to protect our unions' rights to organize. With the advent of AI &amp; automation, I’ll join the bold few in Congress fighting to preserve the working class by proposing 32-hour workweeks, the return of a national public works program, and a federal jobs guarantee.

PROSPERITY IN WORK

Our public funds are better spent doing domestic good, not enriching weapons manufacturers. I'll resist the endless expansion of our military budget - with the lone exception of personnel pay and benefits. This includes the unwinding of foreign military presence, bringing more of our men and women home to serve in their communities, not subject to the whims of war profiteers.

DEMILITARIZE FOR DOMESTIC GOOD

Technological advancement should exist for the prosperity of the working class. Instead, AI is on pace to devastate the American workforce, education system, and environment while increasing energy costs and promoting illegal surveillance. I support the regulation of AI to protect our privacy, personal likeness, and intellectual property. I support the regulation of data centers and oppose their construction in Northern Michigan.

REGULATE AI & DATA CENTERS

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MEET THE CANDIDATES

Americans should be encouraged and empowered in their pursuit of knowledge and valued careers, not burdened with lifelong debt. I'll support student loan restructuring and forgiveness for 44 million Americans, reform for-profit higher education, and work to create tuition-free access to public colleges and universities.

TUITION-FREE HIGHER EDUCATION

The right to bear arms includes important, inescapable responsibilities. Gun ownership is something that the people of Northern Michigan take seriously, especially when it comes to protecting our children. I support universal background checks, safe storage, “red flag” laws, mandatory gun dealer licenses, and bans on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and bump stocks.

RESPONSIBLE GUN SAFETY

Strengthening the rights of indigenous peoples is just and necessary. I’ll support Land Back policy while recognizing the sovereignty of Native American tribes, preserving self-determination and tribal governance, fostering economic and cultural revitalization. The United States must honor treaty obligations, address historical injustices, and ensure Native communities have the resources to thrive.

TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY

Immigration is our strength and should be treated as a point of pride. I’ll join efforts to abolish ICE, shrinking the immigration enforcement apparatus, prioritizing border security to address legitimate concerns like the fentanyl crisis. I'll support conditional amnesty with viable, expedient pathways to citizenship and oppose mass deportation, keeping vibrant communities intact.

EMBRACE IMMIGRATION

“I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.” - Eugene V. Debs The cure to American economic inequity is so obvious, so universally understood, accepted, and popular, that in a functioning democracy it would have been done already. However, taxation of the ultra-wealthy should not be treated merely as a convenient and plentiful funding source for providing social goods to the American people (though it is absolutely that as well). The existence of the billionaire class is inextricably linked to the hardship of the working class. The wealth of billionaire class is fueled by the exploitation of workers and victimization of marginalized people, including immigrants, the incarcerated, the poor, and the homeless. The surplus of the billionaire class is a direct result of the under-compensated labor of the working class, as well as the direct cause of affordability crises. And perhaps above all, the influence of the billionaire class is a direct attack on democratic rule. It is crucial that we begin to aggressively reverse to state of economic inequity that feeds the lives and livelihoods of the American working class to the ultra-wealthy, subordinating the health and happiness of working people to the greed of shareholders. For that reason, I support tax increases on the top 10% of earners, including significant tax increases on the gains and wealth of billionaires, making sure the most powerful finally pay something vaguely resembling their fair share. I will push legislation to tie CEO pay to that of the lowest wage individuals within their companies, holding executives accountable for the vitality of their workforce. I will support legislation to regulate and greatly restrict corporate stock buybacks, ending the practice of destructive layoffs and wage suppression which sacrifices the worker for shareholder value. I will support stricter antitrust legislation to preserve competition, rein in monopoly, and police corporate collusion and price-fixing.

Every American worker deserves a comfortable retirement. I support broad expansion of Social Security, including the uncapping of Social Security tax. These changes would affect only high-income earners and billion-dollar companies, aimed at making Social Security solvent long-term, increasing retirement benefits for all of us, and pulling our seniors out of poverty.

DIGNITY IN RETIREMENT

Quality education is essential for individual well-being and national prosperity. I’ll support initiatives to improve funding for K-12 public education, including STEM and special needs programming, improve conditions in rural, urban, and low-income districts, establish federal minimum teachers' salaries, while combating attempts to shift taxpayer money via voucher programs.

STRONG PUBLIC EDUCATION

Like the vast majority of Americans, I believe that healthcare is a human right, and I will make Medicare for All one of my major legislative priorities.&nbsp; Among the grotesquery that was the “Big, Beautiful Bill” and the rhetoric that preceded it, there was one echoing sound-bite parroted by every Republican lawmaker (including MI-01’s own partisan transplant, Jack Bergman): in the only developed nation that doesn’t provide it’s citizens with healthcare, some felt yet too many, undeserving people were receiving healthcare, and they were willing to jettison millions of our most vulnerable, raise private insurance premiums, close rural hospitals and nursing homes, and accept the deaths of tens of thousands of people to ensure that a fictious subsect of people didn’t receive access to basic care.&nbsp; It is no longer adequate to propose incremental improvements, tweaking the edges of our broken healthcare system. It is long past time for the wealthiest nation in history to join the rest of the modern world in acknowledging healthcare as a basic human right and providing it to all citizens, regardless of age, income, or employment. That means free healthcare that is universal, comprehensive, and inclusive with no premiums, co-pays, or deductibles. Quality healthcare when you need it, without concern for networks or state lines, eliminating inhumane claim denials, care avoidance, and the threat of medical debt forever.

Healthcare is a human right. I’ll fight for universal, comprehensive, and inclusive healthcare, where you are, when you need it, ending our cruel private health insurance system, which results in care avoidance, claim denial, and medical debt. It’s time for America to join the rest of the modern world in providing care for all people regardless of age, income, or employment status.

MEDICARE FOR ALL

Representing the people of Northern Michigan is a sacred trust. I will never invite corrupting influence into my campaign or allow personal profit to taint my actions in Congress. I refuse to take any money from corporate PACs or organizations like AIPAC. When elected, I will never hold any individual stocks, cryptocurrencies, or invest in any sectors that I might be tasked to regulate.

100% CORRUPTION-FREE

Safety is a human right, and humanity is universal. I’ll be a strong voice for peace, supporting diplomacy over violence. I call now and throughout my candidacy for an end to the genocide in Gaza, the resumption of U.N.-administered humanitarian aid, a halt to all U.S. political and material support for the state of Israel, and the recognition of a Palestinian state.

JUSTICE & HUMANITY ABROAD

Architect & father running for Congress in Michigan's First District because it isn't radical to believe basic needs should be treated as human rights. 