Jon Hoadley

Hoadley was born on August 14, 1983, to Michael and Diane Hoadley. He has an older sister.[1][5] Hoadley grew up in Vermillion, South Dakota.[6] After high school, he moved to Michigan and graduated from Michigan State University.[1][5]

Hoadley has been involved in LGBT and progressive political advocacy since college, and has worked on political campaigns since 2004.[6] He has worked for the Gill Action Fund, managed the campaign opposing South Dakota Amendment C, and served as executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats.[1][3][5] Currently, he serves on the Michigan Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Prior to his election to the Michigan Legislature, he became president and owner of Badlands Strategies, a progressive public affairs consulting firm. During this time he managed a local campaign to defend Kalamazoo's local non-discrimination ordinance, and assisted with a similar campaign in Royal Oak.[1] He also managed the campaign to elect Justice Bridget Mary McCormack and worked with the Unity Michigan Coalition.[3][5][6]

He was elected to serve the 60th district in the Michigan House of Representatives in November 2014[2][3][4] and re-elected in 2016 and 2018.

In his first term in the Michigan House of Representatives, he served on the House Elections Committee and the House Appropriations Committee, where he has served as the Democratic vice chair of the Judiciary and Agriculture subcommittees and sat on the Higher Education subcommittee.[1][7]

In his second term in the Michigan House of Representatives, he served on the Appropriations Committee. He was the Democratic vice chair of the Higher Education and Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development subcommittees. He also served on the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Subcommittee.

Hoadley was a candidate in the 2020 U.S. House election in Michigan's 6th congressional district. He won the Democratic primary on August 4, 2020, and challenged incumbent Representative Fred Upton in the November 3, 2020, general election. According to his campaign website, Hoadley ran on a platform of progressive policies, such as a Green New Deal and single-payer healthcare system.[8] His campaign website stated that he has been endorsed by Democratic politicians and organizations including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and the Sunrise Movement.[9]

The day before Michigan's Democratic primary, a blog Hoadley had kept as a college student was deleted from the Internet. In the blog, Hoadley had discussed drug use and sex and made controversial comments about women and children.[10] Hoadley's campaign said the blog was "bad college poetry."[11] The LGBTQ Victory Fund said Hoadley's controversial comments were satirical and taken out of context. The group accused the National Republican Congressional Committee of using homophobic tropes against Hoadley in relation to the blog.[12] In a Facebook video, Hoadley apologized for the comments, and his Democratic primary challenger, Jen Richardson, apologized for her part in publicizing the comments.[13][14]

Hoadley is openly gay[4] and lives in Kalamazoo with his partner, Kris.[1][6]

• Official website
• Representative Jon Hoadley government website
• Jon Hoadley at Ballotpedia
• Appearances on C-SPAN

• Profile at Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission