Christina Hines spent her career protecting kids as a prosecutor. Now she’s running for Congress as a mom of three.
The Macomb County special victims prosecutor won her primary and is running to flip one of Michigan’s most competitive House seats. Her pitch: Congress has plenty of millionaires and not nearly enough moms.
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Christina Hines has spent her career in the rooms most of us hope our kids never end up in. As a special victims prosecutor, she built cases for survivors of sexual abuse and human trafficking, prosecuted cold-case assaults, and trained law enforcement across Michigan on how to interview child victims without retraumatizing them. It is heavy, necessary work, and it gave her a very specific understanding of what it means to protect a child.
She is also raising three of her own. Hines is a lifelong Macomb County resident and a working mom who talks about the daycare bill and the mortgage hitting the same account, the prescription copay, the grocery run, in the way that only someone actually living it can. When she says Congress has too many millionaires and not nearly enough moms who get things done, she means it as both a critique and a job application.
This summer she won the Democratic primary in Michigan’s 10th Congressional District, an open, closely divided seat anchored in southern Macomb County that both parties have circled as a top target. The race ahead is a competitive one, and Hines is running it the way she says she has run everything: by showing up, door after door, and listening. She told us she has knocked on 25,000 of them so far.
We asked her what campaign life actually looks like with three kids and a calling.
To read more profiles of moms running for office in 2026, click here
The quick stats:
- Location: Warren, MI (Macomb County)
- Office she’s running for: U.S. House of Representatives, MI-10
- Kids’ ages: Three young children
- First time running for Congress?: Yes (ran for Macomb County Prosecutor in 2024)
- Website: christinahinesforcongress.com
What does a typical campaign day look like for you — and where does your family fit into it?
There really isn’t a typical campaign day, which is not too far away from my job as a prosecutor. I have loved that about both roles, the fact that every day is a bit different, and that it’s filled with listening to other people’s stories and trying to help them through their challenges. I might start the morning getting my kids ready for school, spend the day fundraising, knocking doors or meeting with voters, squeeze in a meeting or interview, and then come home to dinner, and whatever chaos is happening in our house that night. My family isn’t separate from the campaign, they’re woven into it. My kids know what I’m doing, and they very often come to events, knock doors, stuff envelopes, and listen to me have conversations with voters all over the district.
What’s something about running for office that you didn’t expect — and that you wish someone had warned you about?
There’s a tendency to look at a map or a poll and think you understand a community, but there’s no substitute for actually sitting at someone’s kitchen table, knocking on their door, or listening to them tell you what’s happening in their life. Sometimes, I think people overlook or take those face to face conversations for granted on the campaign trail, and I didn’t expect that. Our campaign priorities didn’t come from a DC think tank: they came from real conversations with real community members across this district. After 25,000 doors, I can tell you that the people who live here know their community pretty darn well, and there’s no better way to represent your community than having conversations door to door to hear what’s really on people’s minds. It’s one of my favorite parts of the trail!
Has being a mother shaped how you think about the issues you’re running on? If so, how?
Absolutely. Being a mom makes policy feel very immediate to me. When I talk about the cost of childcare, health care, groceries, housing, or college, I’m not thinking about abstract numbers on a spreadsheet, I’m thinking about what those things mean for my own kids and for the families I meet every day. As a former child abuse and sexual assault prosecutor, I’ve always believed that protecting children and families is one of the most important responsibilities we have. Being a mother only makes that conviction deeper.
What has been the hardest sacrifice your family has made for this campaign — and how have you handled that as a parent?
The hardest part has been the time. There have been a lot of dinners missed, weekends spent campaigning, and moments when I’ve had to choose between being somewhere for my kids and being somewhere the campaign needed me. I’ve tried to be honest with them about why I’m doing this and to make the time we do have together really count. And I’ve been incredibly lucky to have a husband and a family who have carried me through the moments when I couldn’t do it all myself.
But I also remind myself that this is a calling in my life, and callings require sacrifice. I think it’s important for my children to see that, too, that sometimes we are called to give more of ourselves, to put our faith into action, and to lift our lives up in service of God and His purpose. I hope they learn that a life of purpose isn’t always the easiest life, but it can be a deeply meaningful one.
What would you want your kids to take away from watching you do this?
I hope they learn that you don’t have to be the richest, most powerful, or most connected person in the room to make a difference. I want them to see that when you believe something is worth fighting for, you show up and you do the work, even when it’s hard and even when you’re afraid. Most of all, I want them to understand that public service is about loving your community enough to take responsibility for its future. That this country is worth the effort and that we must endeavor to make it more perfect. If they grow up believing that they have an obligation to leave the world a little better than they found it, I’ll feel like I did something right.
Christina is endorsed by Vote Mama, an organization dedicated to breaking down the structural barriers that keep moms out of office — and building the kind of political power that actually reflects the realities of American family life. Learn more about Christina here.
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