Callie Barr is asking Michigan's 1st Congressional District for a second chance — and she's betting that "enough's enough" resonates louder in 2026 than it did the last time she ran.
"I'm rooted here. I raise my kids here. My husband gets his care here. I know what it's like to have to travel to Ann Arbor, go downstate, to get specialized care at the VA. I'm in it with you," she said.
Barr, an attorney and former high school English teacher from Traverse City, lost to incumbent Republican Jack Bergman in the 2024 general election but is running again in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary against Kyle Blomquist and Wayne Stiles. The winner will face Bergman if he defeats challengers Matthew DenOtter or Justin Michal. Independent Zebulon Featherly is also on the ticket for the Nov. 3 election.
Barr grew up between Traverse City and Cheboygan and married her high school sweetheart, Matt, who enlisted in the Marine Corps after Sept. 11 and served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We were married very young, 18, 19, traveled all over the country," she said.
He came home with post-traumatic stress and a traumatic brain injury.
Barr earned a teaching degree from Central Michigan University, then shifted into nonprofit work advocating for military families.
“That was really my first foray into dealing with the federal government,” she said.
Barr earned a law degree from the University of Michigan and worked as a litigation attorney helping veterans access free legal services.
"We didn't have the representation and the voice that we deserved," she said of the district under Bergman, who she noted hasn't held a public town hall in more than eight years. "We're running on an affordable life. It's a very simple platform."
What sets her apart in the primary
Asked what separates her from Blomquist and Stiles, Barr pointed to labor support.
"I'm the only candidate on this side of the ticket that's endorsed by labor," she said, listing the UAW, the National Education Association, the Michigan Building Trades and Northern Michigan Building Trades IBEW 85. She's also backed by former U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, who represented the district for 18 years, and by local officials including the Marquette County sheriff.
"When we hire, we're going to have people that care about this community — that when you call the office, they'll pick up right away, that they're 100% on fire to get you what you need," she said.
Social Security: "make it fair"
Barr said she's brought former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who also served as Social Security commissioner, to the district to talk about the program's 2032 insolvency date, after which benefits would drop by roughly 20% — about $500 less a month for many recipients. Her fix is scrapping the payroll tax cap, not raising rates.
"Right now, for almost every American, we pay taxes for Social Security on 100% of our income," she said. "But if you're a trillionaire, you only pay taxes on the first small part of your income. That's not fair,” she said. "Removing the gap just means those 6% of Americans that aren't paying taxes on all of their income, like the rest of us are — we're going to make it fair now."
War powers and Iran
Barr said Congress has failed to check the executive branch on military action, including the recent conflict with Iran.
"Congress has the power of the purse, and we had whack-a-doodle tariffs all over the place, and Congress didn't assert itself," she said. "Now we have a war in Iran that, per our Constitution, per the law, requires congressional approval."
As a military spouse, she said the decision to go to war "should never, ever be taken lightly," and criticized the administration for dismissing experienced military leadership.
Veterans and the VA
Barr singled out the 2025 Veteran Choice Act, which Bergman supports, for opening the door to private companies filing veterans' initial benefits claims — something currently illegal.
"The companies that he's pushing to allow to do this have been cited by 43 attorney generals throughout the country as companies that take advantage of veterans," she said, adding the practice is opposed by the VFW. She said FEC filings show Bergman has taken nearly $30,000 in campaign contributions tied to those companies since 2024.
"I have spent my adult life fighting for military families and veterans, and I will make sure that they get the benefits that they have earned," she said.
FISA and data privacy
Barr said she would not support renewing warrantless surveillance powers under FISA, framing it as a growing concern in the age of AI.
"We need to make sure that the power of the government isn't being used against us," she said. "Our top six companies globally are data companies; they take our data, they use it, they make a tremendous amount of money off of it. Where's the benefit that we get from this?"
Ethics, term limits and a pay raise
Barr supports banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks.
"When you are elected to office, it's not your shot to just enrich yourself," she said. "This is bigger than you."
She pointed to a House ethics complaint filed against Bergman by a retired Navy chaplain and a retired judge over his chief of staff's undisclosed outside consulting business.
"You can't make hundreds of thousands of dollars in income and not disclose it," she said.
Barr also said she'd support a term limits pledge, citing concerns about aging members of Congress.
"We've had folks that have been in nursing homes when they should be serving in office," she said. "We need to be able to pass the torch gracefully."
She opposes a congressional pay raise under current conditions: "You don't get pay raises for not doing your job."
Farming and tariffs
On agriculture, Barr said targeted tools like tariffs can help protect farmers from foreign competition but only if used carefully.
"That's not being thoughtful," she said of broad, blanket tariffs.
Barr criticized the federal government for reneging on clean-energy grants farmers had already invested in. "We had folks that invested $100,000 into upgrading and modernizing things on their farms, and then we came through and said, nope, we're not going to give that to you anymore," she said, adding that she counts Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a former Senate Agriculture Committee leader, as a mentor on the issue.
Medicaid and rural hospitals
Barr has called for repealing Medicaid cuts in the federal budget bill Bergman voted for, warning that rural hospitals in the district can't absorb the loss.
"Already in the past year and a half, we have lost three labor-and-deliveries in this district," she said, referring to maternity units.
She also pointed to lapsed ACA subsidies driving up premiums by an average of about 260% for a 60-year-old earning $60,000 a year, pushing more people to go uninsured and rely on emergency, uncompensated hospital care.
"We need health care that people can have access to from birth to death," she said. "This is a human right."
Closing pitch
Barr said her 2024 run already moved the needle — Leelanau County flipped for her, and she said she grew the district's Democratic vote by roughly 40,000 — and that she was the first woman to be the Democratic nominee in the district's history. She frames the race as bigger than party.
"This is not a seat for Republicans or Democrats. This is a seat for the people of upper and northern Michigan," she said, pointing to Bergman's ethics complaint and Republican officials in the Upper Peninsula who've withdrawn their support, calling him "a liar" who "does not make good decisions for the people of the Upper Peninsula."
"We're in an environment where people have had enough," she said. "Enough is enough, and we're ready for change."
The Leelanau Enterprise plans to interview all candidates in the race ahead of the Aug. 4 primary and Nov. 3 general election. Follow along at Leelanaunews.com and in-print.
