KMR Took Credit for Funding She Voted Against… Multiple Times
Out of touch Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet has repeatedly taken credit for federal funding that she voted against.
McDonald Rivet went as far as to hold a press conference at the Fire Department in Bridgeport celebrating funding that she voted against and hold a roundtable with local faith leaders in Flint celebrating funding that she voted against.
“Self-serving politician Kristen McDonald Rivet is blatantly lying to Michiganders. It’s a slap in the face to voters and she should be ashamed of herself.” – NRCC Spokesman Zach Bannon
Read more from National Review here or see excerpts below:
‘Vote No and Take the Dough’: House Dems Take Credit for Community Projects After Opposing Spending Bills
National Review
Audrey Fahlberg
February 23, 2026
In late January, Democratic Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet held a press conference celebrating $866,000 in federal funding she had lobbied Congress to include in a late 2025 appropriations bill.
“In an emergency, every second counts. Firefighters know that better than anyone else,” she wrote in a post–press conference social media post, which included photos of her standing beside firefighters. “We just announced new federal funding that will help the Bridgeport Fire Department respond faster and protect firefighters from dangerous toxins.”
Left unmentioned in McDonald Rivet’s remarks was the fact that she voted against the mammoth spending bill that secured the Bridgeport Fire Department funding for her own district.
Like many swing-seat House Democrats who had lobbied appropriators to include community funding projects in their districts last year, McDonald Rivet opposed the appropriations bill that included fire-station-facility improvement funding that she’d specifically earmarked over concerns that the appropriations bill in question didn’t extend the enhanced, pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies that were set to phase out on January 1.
McDonald Rivet is not alone in championing community-project funding she voted against. The Michigan congresswoman’s “no” vote is part of a larger trend in Congress in recent years, where many members oppose mammoth spending bills only to take credit for earmarked community funding projects on the campaign trail.
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