With extensive experience in state and local politics before
coming to Congress, Candice S. Miller wielded significant
influence during her 14 years in the House, serving as vice
chair of the Homeland Security Committee and as chair of
the Committee on House Administration—the only woman
to lead a standing committee at the time. On Capitol Hill,
Miller focused on water quality issues in the Great Lakes,
protected military installments in her district, shaped
national security policy, and promoted the auto industry.
Candice Miller was born Candice Snider on May 7,
1954, in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, to Don and Jenny
Snider. She graduated from Lakeshore High School in St.
Clair Shores, Michigan, and attended Macomb County
Community College in Warren, Michigan, and Northwood
University in Midland, Michigan.1 Her family ran a marina
on Michigan’s Clinton River. Sailing, she said, “was our
livelihood but it was also our family sport and our family
hobby.”2 Initially discouraged from sailboat racing because
of her gender, Miller nonetheless became an experienced
sailor and joined the first all-women crew to sail the Port
Huron to Mackinac Island regatta in 1972—one of many
gender barriers she broke in her life. In 1984 she married
Donald Miller an Air Force pilot and circuit judge. The couple raised Wendy, Candice Miller’s daughter from a
previous marriage.3
Sailing also served as an entrée to politics for Miller when
she worked to stop a tax increase on marinas. “I stormed
down to the township board meeting to tell them off; next
thing I know, I am running for office,” she recalled.4 Miller,
at the time a single mother with a three-year-old daughter,
launched a campaign for a seat on the Harrison township
board of trustees in 1979. A year later, she won election as
the Harrison township supervisor where she served from
1980 to 1992. Buoyed by her experience in local office,
Miller set her sights on Congress in 1986. After defeating
four Republican opponents in the primary, she lost to the
five-term Democratic incumbent David Edward Bonior in
the general election.5
In 1992 Miller ran for Macomb County treasurer and
defeated the longtime incumbent Adam Nowakowski.6
Two years later, she defeated another veteran politician to
become the first woman to serve as Michigan secretary of
state. Miller sought to downplay her historic win. “I’ve
never been one to play gender politics,” she later recalled.
“I’ve been a series of ‘firsts’ as a woman in politics. But I was
the secretary of state, not the female secretary of state.”7 In her new position, Miller helped develop fraud-proof driver’s
licenses and instituted election reforms. She ultimately
served two terms as Michigan’s secretary of state.8
After the 2000 Census, Michigan lost a seat in the
House, forcing the state to redraw its congressional map.
Heading into the 2002 elections, David Bonior opted to
run for governor, opening a seat in the House from a new
district that encompassed portions of Macomb County,
Port Huron, and much of Michigan’s “thumb” north of
Detroit.9 Popular from her time as secretary of state, Miller
ran unopposed in the Republican primary and defeated
Macomb County prosecutor, Democrat Carl J. Marlinga,
in the general election, taking 63 percent of the vote to
become the first Republican woman to represent Michigan
in Congress in nearly 50 years. In her six re-elections, Miller
won by comfortable margins.10
As a first-term lawmaker, Miller successfully petitioned
the Republican House leadership for a spot on the powerful
Armed Services Committee. “When you think about
the issues facing us—Iraq, terrorism, homeland security,
having a strong national defense—there’s never been a
more important time to be on Armed Services,” she said in
2003.11 Miller served on Armed Services until 2008 when
she left to join the Committee on Homeland Security. On
Homeland Security, Miller chaired the Border and Maritime
Subcommittee and served as vice chair of the full committee
from the 112th Congress (2011–2013) until her resignation
from the House on December 31, 2016. She also received
assignments on the Government Operations Committee
during the 108th and 109th Congresses (2003–2007), and
the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee where
she served from 2007 to 2016. In 2013 Miller became one
of just three women in history to chair the Committee on
House Administration. Miller had earlier served on House
Administration during the 109th Congress (2005–2007).12
From her seat on Transportation and Infrastructure,
Miller worked on policy to keep the Great Lakes free from
contaminants and to guard the lakes from invasive species.
“Those of us who grew up along the shores of the Great
Lakes understand that they are more than just a recreational
joy, they are a way of life,” Miller observed.13 When
President George W. Bush vetoed the Water Resources
Development Act—a bill to combat low water levels in
the Great Lakes which she helped draft—Miller criticized
the President’s decision to block what she called a “vital
investment” in the health of the lakes.14 Miller also opposed plans to use the Great Lakes to alleviate water shortages in
other regions of the country.15
With her lengthy political résumé, Miller quickly
made her mark among House Republicans. But in 2003
she faced a setback when she was accused of pressuring a
House colleague, Michigan Republican Nick H. Smith, to
change his vote on a Medicare reform bill—a priority of the
Republican leadership and a measure Miller favored. When
the House Ethics Committee looked into the incident—
which included an investigation of Majority Leader Thomas
Dale DeLay of Texas as well—it ultimately admonished
Miller, DeLay, and Smith.16
Given Michigan’s deep ties to the auto industry, Miller
worked to protect car manufacturers during the Great
Recession and criticized opponents of federal loans to
the auto industry. “We tried to remind our colleagues of
everything that this industry has meant to our great nation,
and again we received indifference and we were told, just let
them go into bankruptcy.”17
Miller voted in favor of the massive auto industry rescue
bill in 2009, but did not support the economic stimulus
package that year, in part because she felt it did not do
enough to help America’s car manufacturers and their
employees.18 In 2009 she joined Democrat Betty Sutton
of Ohio to introduce the Consumer Assistance to Recycle
and Save Act (CARS). The CARS Act included the popular
measure “cash for clunkers” in which customers received
vouchers to purchase vehicles with better fuel economy.
“This will stimulate auto sales, which is clearly the way
forward,” Miller remarked.19 But she opposed what she said
were overly strict fuel-efficiency standards for new vehicles,
arguing that they threatened a fragile auto industry.20
From her seat on the Armed Services Committee, Miller
protected the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in her
district, and in 2005 she successfully kept it off the Base
Realignment and Closure list. The Selfridge Air Base, which
her husband formerly commanded, employed thousands
in the Detroit area.21 In 2009 Miller used her position on
the Homeland Security Committee to help secure federal
money to create a pilot program at the base to enhance
security and intelligence operations along America’s
northern border.22 And in 2014 she successfully added an
amendment to a defense appropriations bill that prevented
the Air Force from divesting the A-10 aircraft housed at
Selfridge. “For the past 13 years, the A-10 has been the
champion and workhorse aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan. It might be old, but it’s effective, and there currently isn’t
another aircraft that can take its place,” Miller’s office said
in a press release.23
As chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on
Border and Maritime Security, Miller—whose district
included the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, a major
border crossing between Canada and the United States—
sought to strengthen security along America’s borders,
and looked to tighten travel restrictions.24 In 2015 her
Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel
Prevention Act passed the House. “We simply cannot give
people from other countries special access to our country
if we don’t have all of the information that we absolutely
need to ensure that they are not a threat to our national
security,” Miller warned.25 Miller also sponsored the Border
and Maritime Coordination Improvement Act in 2016
which authorized the creation of joint task forces to improve
communication between border and maritime agencies in
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).26
Reducing illegal immigration became a primary focus
during Miller’s time on the Homeland Security Committee.
In 2010 she opposed the Development, Relief and
Education for Alien Minors Act, which offered residency
protection to young undocumented immigrants who had
been brought to America by their parents.27 And in 2012
her bill requiring DHS to devise a program to tighten
border control in the Southwest passed the House.28
She also sponsored a measure to modify the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution by replacing the word
“persons” with “citizens” to exclude undocumented
immigrants from the reapportionment process.29 “I don’t
mind losing a seat because American citizens have moved
somewhere,” Miller exclaimed. “But to lose a congressional
seat because of illegal immigrants is outrageous.”30
In the 113th and 114th Congresses (2013–2017), Miller
served as chair of the Committee on House Administration,
which controls the internal operations of the House of
Representatives and oversaw federal elections. She was the
only woman to chair a House standing committee in either
Congress. During her two terms leading the committee,
Miller reduced costs in the House by hundreds of millions
of dollars, instituted new transparency measures to enable
the public to access Members’ expenses, and worked to
make sure servicemen and women overseas could easily vote
in elections back home. Under Miller’s leadership in the
113th Congress (2013–2015), the House Administration Committee also worked to improve communication and
outreach to Member offices, offering new professional
development opportunities. In the 114th Congress (2015–
2017), the committee improved access to new technology in
the House, worked to limit taxpayer funding for presidential
elections, and marked up the Election Assistance
Commission Termination Act, which would have canceled
certain federal election programs.31
In 2016 Miller surprised many when she announced
her decision to not seek re-election. “We all know when
it is time to move on,” she said. But Miller did not step
away from public office entirely.32 A few weeks later she
announced her candidacy for Macomb County public works
commissioner to continue her work on the Transportation
and Infrastructure Committee at the local level. Miller easily
defeated the longtime incumbent Anthony Marrocco in
2016 and currently serves as the public works commissioner
back home in Macomb County.33
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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