Editing David Bonior (section)

==Political career==
Bonior was a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] member of the [[Michigan State House of Representatives]] from 1973 to 1976. In 1976, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from [[Michigan's 12th congressional district|Michigan's 12th District]] (based in [[Macomb County]]) for the [[95th United States Congress|95th]] and to the twelve succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1977, to January 3, 2003. His district was renumbered as the 10th in 1993, after Michigan lost a House seat as a result of the [[1990 United States census]].

From 1991 to 2002, Bonior was the House Democratic Whip. He served as [[Majority Whip of the United States House of Representatives|Majority Whip]] in the [[102nd United States Congress|102nd]] and [[103rd United States Congress|103rd]] Congresses. He was [[Minority Whip of the United States House of Representatives|Minority Whip]] for the [[104th United States Congress|104th]] through [[107th United States Congress|107th]] Congresses. While the Democrats were in the majority, Bonior was the third-ranking Democrat in the House, behind [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker]] [[Tom Foley]] and [[House Majority Leader]] [[Dick Gephardt]].  While they were in the minority, Bonior was second-in-command behind Gephardt.

In Congress, Bonior generally had a progressive voting record, but opposed abortion in most cases.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_1_39/ai_94079351|title=FindArticles.com - CBSi|access-date=October 24, 2016}}</ref> In 1991 he strongly supported recognition of [[Ukraine]] as an independent nation and was critical of the [[Presidency of George H. W. Bush#Dissolution of the Soviet Union|Bush administration]] on that matter.<ref name=ukrweek/>

For most of his tenure in Congress, Bonior represented a fairly compact district in [[Macomb County, Michigan|Macomb]] and [[St. Clair County, Michigan|St. Clair]] counties northeast of Detroit.  However, after the [[2000 United States Census]], Michigan lost one of its 16 seats in the House of Representatives. The redistricting task process was controlled by the [[United States Republican Party|Republican]] majority in the state legislature, and Bonior's home in [[Mount Clemens]] was shifted from the 10th District to the 12th District. That district had long been represented by Democrat [[Sandy Levin]], a longtime friend of Bonior's.  At the same time, the state legislature radically altered the 10th, extending it all the way to [[the Thumb]]. The new district was considerably more rural and Republican than its predecessor; [[George W. Bush]] narrowly won the old version of the 10th federal congressional district, but would have won the new modern version of the federal 10th congressional district by a large margin. By all accounts, the 10th had been redrawn for the popular Republican [[Michigan Secretary of State]] and Macomb County resident [[Candice Miller]].{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

Due to this, Bonior did not run for reelection to the House, and chose to run for [[Governor of Michigan]], stepping down as House Democratic Whip in January 2002; [[Nancy Pelosi]] of California succeeded him as Whip. He lost in a heavily contested Democratic Party primary between former Governor [[James Blanchard]], and then-[[Michigan Attorney General]] and eventual party nominee [[Jennifer Granholm]], who went on to win the general election. As expected, Miller easily won Bonior's House seat and held it until eventually retiring in 2016. Proving how Republican-dominated the new district is, no Democratic nominee has won more than 40% of the vote since Bonior retired.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Michigan's 10th Congressional District |url=https://ballotpedia.org/Michigan%27s_10th_Congressional_District |access-date=2023-01-15 |website=Ballotpedia |language=en}}</ref>