Michigan’s 10th Congressional District: Paul Mitchell
Businessman makes tax reform a top priority
Five Republicans are running in the August 2 primary election in Michigan’s 10th Congressional District, which includes northern Macomb County, Port Huron, and the Thumb. WDET’s Pat Batcheller interviewed all the candidates, including businessman Paul Mitchell, who ran for Congress in the 4th district in 2014 and lost in the GOP primary. But he also led a successful campaign in 2015 against a statewide road funding proposal. 80 percent of Michigan voters rejected the measure, the largest defeat ever for a ballot amendment to the state constitution. Mitchell says if he’s elected, his first order of businesses will be repealing the United States Tax Code by December 31, 2018.
“People talk about tweaking it. It’s 74,000 pages,” Mitchell says.
Mitchell says his business background sets him apart from the other Republicans in the August 2 primary. He started a workforce development company, whose contracts included Detroit’s welfare-to-work program. When he retired, Mitchell says his business was training 6,000 people a year for jobs in health care. Mitchell also says defeating the group known as the Islamic State would be one of his top priorities if elected to Congress. Click on the audio player to hear the conversation.
