Lisa Carmella McClain is an American politician representing Michigan's 9th congressional district since 2023, previously the 10th district from 2021 to 2023. She serves as Chair of the House Republican Conference, the fourth-ranking position in House Republican leadership. Born and raised in Stockbridge, Michigan, she graduated from Stockbridge Junior/Senior High School in 1984, attended Lansing Community College, and earned her B.B.A. from Northwood University. She worked at American Express for 11 years and at the Hantz Group, a Michigan-based financial services firm, from 1998 to 2019. She and her husband Michael have four children and live in Romeo, a northern suburb of Detroit. She is Roman Catholic and has raised over $1 million for multiple sclerosis research.
McClain won the open MI-10 seat in 2020 with Trump's endorsement after Republican incumbent Paul Mitchell retired, defeating state Representative Shane Hernandez in the primary and Kimberly Bizon in the general with 66.3%. After redistricting renumbered her seat to MI-09, she won again in 2022 with 63.9% following a second Trump endorsement on February 7 of that year. She won again in 2024 with 66.8%, her widest margin yet. Her district covers northern Macomb County and St. Clair County northeast of Detroit. Across all three cycles she has not dropped below 63.9% and has never faced a primary challenge since her initial 2020 contest.
McClain serves on Armed Services, Budget, Education and the Workforce, and Oversight and Accountability, chairing the Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services. Her House Republican Conference chairmanship makes her one of the most institutionally powerful members of the Michigan delegation, responsible for coordinating messaging and communications strategy across the entire House Republican caucus. She introduced the Patient Advocate Tracker Act alongside Slotkin and Moolenaar, signed into law in 2022, and sponsored the bill to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 13 service members killed at Kabul Airport during the Afghanistan withdrawal, signed into law in December 2021.
McClain's donor list reflects her Armed Services committee assignment and leadership profile. Poet LLC is the world's largest ethanol producer, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, reflecting agricultural and energy policy interests that span committee jurisdictions. Kratos Defense and Security Solutions is a San Diego-based defense technology contractor with significant drone and unmanned systems work directly relevant to her Armed Services subcommittees. RDV Corp, the DeVos family holding company, appears here for the fourth consecutive time in the Michigan Republican series (Moolenaar, Walberg, Barrett, McClain). AIPAC contributed a split of individual and PAC funds. Valor PAC is a Republican leadership PAC aligned with veteran and military community interests.
Establishment Conservative
Committee Assignments
Caucus Memberships
Achievements
- Serves as Chair of the House Republican Conference, the fourth-ranking position in House Republican leadership, making her one of the most institutionally powerful members of the Michigan congressional delegation and one of relatively few Michigan Republicans to hold a formal House leadership role in the modern era. The Conference Chair is responsible for coordinating Republican messaging, communications strategy, and caucus cohesion across all House Republicans, a role that requires managing the full ideological range of the conference from Freedom Caucus members to Republican Main Street Partnership centrists.
- Sponsored the bill to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 13 service members killed by a suicide bomber at Hamid Karzai International Airport during the Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021. President Biden signed the bill into law in December 2021. The bill was one of the more symbolically significant pieces of legislation McClain sponsored in her first term, directly honoring the military sacrifice she frequently invokes in her public positioning.
- Co-introduced the Patient Advocate Tracker Act alongside Democratic incumbent Elissa Slotkin and Republican John Moolenaar, signed into law by President Biden in September 2022. The cross-partisan co-sponsorship of a veterans health IT bill with Slotkin, the Democrat who in the same cycle was running against Barrett in the most expensive congressional race of 2022, reflects a genuine capacity for bipartisan legislative work in a specific domain even amid intense partisan competition at the electoral level.
- Has won three consecutive general elections across two district configurations with margins of 32.6, 30.7, and 37.3 points, growing her vote share from 66.3% in 2020 to 66.8% in 2024, with no primary challenge in any cycle after 2020. The stability of her margins in a suburban Detroit district reflects both the underlying partisan lean of northern Macomb and St. Clair counties and her consolidation of the Trump-aligned Republican base in a district that gave her two Trump endorsements in her first two cycles.
- Raised over $1 million for multiple sclerosis research and treatment, a sustained philanthropic commitment that predates her congressional career and reflects a personal investment in a health cause unrelated to her committee or caucus work. The fundraising total is significant for individual disease advocacy outside of official legislative channels.
Controversies
- At a 2022 Trump rally, McClain falsely claimed that Trump had "caught Osama bin Laden." Bin Laden was located and killed in a May 2011 raid authorized by President Obama. The claim was widely fact-checked as false. As House Republican Conference Chair, whose role includes coordinating party messaging and factual accuracy in public communications, making a false historical claim about a major national security event at a campaign rally drew particular attention and criticism.
- In a 2025 Politico interview, McClain amplified a rumor that Social Security payments were going out to people born 150 years ago. The source of the apparent anomaly is a COBOL coding system default: when a recipient's birthdate is unknown, the system uses May 20, 1875 (the date of the Convention du Metre, when international weights and measures were standardized) as a placeholder. McClain presented the coding artifact as evidence of Social Security fraud without investigating or disclosing the technical explanation. The episode was cited by critics as an example of using unverified technical claims to amplify concerns about benefit programs.
- McClain was one of 157 members who voted against the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022, which codified federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages. She also signed the Texas v. Pennsylvania amicus brief in December 2020 contesting the 2020 presidential election results. Both positions are consistent with the mainstream of House Republican voting in those cycles but have drawn sustained criticism from civil rights and electoral integrity advocates.
- After U.S. citizen Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, McClain blamed Democrats for the killing and offered prayers for the ICE agents. Video analysis by the New York Times found that the agent had placed himself in a dangerous position but had not been run over as alleged. McClain's public response before the video analysis was complete drew criticism for attributing partisan blame for a law enforcement incident whose facts were still being established.
- McClain publicly criticized Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde's sermon at the Washington National Cathedral following Trump's 2025 inauguration, calling Budde's appeal for mercy toward immigrants and LGBTQ people "extremely out of line." The sermon, delivered in a formal liturgical setting to a congregation that included the president, drew significant national attention. As a Catholic speaking about an Episcopal liturgical event, and as House Republican Conference Chair whose role involves public communications, the intervention was widely covered and drew criticism from religious leaders across denominations.
Top Donors
| # | Donor | Total | Individuals | PACs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Poet LLC | $23,200 | $13,200 | $10,000 |
| 2 | RDV Corp | $19,800 | $19,800 | $0 |
| 3 | Kratos Defense and Security Solutions | $18,000 | $8,000 | $10,000 |
| 4 | American Israel Public Affairs Cmte | $16,050 | $6,050 | $10,000 |
| 5 | Valor PAC | $13,000 | $13,000 | $0 |
Poet LLC is the world's largest ethanol producer. Kratos Defense and Security Solutions is a drone and unmanned systems contractor directly relevant to her Armed Services subcommittees. RDV Corp (DeVos family) appears in four consecutive Michigan Republican profiles in this series. Valor PAC is a Republican leadership PAC with a military and veteran focus.
Recent Elections
2020 General Election (MI-10)
Won R +32.6%| Candidate | Results | |
|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | |
| [R]Lisa McClain✓ Winner | 271,607 | 66.3% |
| [D]Kimberly Bizon | 138,179 | 33.7% |
McClain won an open seat after Republican incumbent Paul Mitchell retired. Trump endorsed her before the primary. She defeated state Representative Shane Hernandez in the August primary.
2022 General Election (MI-09)
Won R +30.7%| Candidate | Results | |
|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | |
| [R]Lisa McClain (incumbent)✓ Winner | 238,300 | 63.9% |
| [D]Brian Jaye | 123,702 | 33.2% |
Following 2022 redistricting, McClain's seat was renumbered from MI-10 to MI-09. Trump endorsed her again on February 7, 2022. The redrawn district covers the northern Macomb County and St. Clair County area northeast of Detroit.
2024 General Election (MI-09)
Won R +37.3%| Candidate | Results | |
|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | |
| [R]Lisa McClain (incumbent)✓ Winner | 312,593 | 66.8% |
| [D]Clinton St. Mosley | 138,138 | 29.5% |
McClain ran unopposed in the Republican primary. Her 2024 margin of 37.3 points was her widest yet and one of the larger Republican margins in the Michigan series. She was serving as House Republican Conference Chair at the time of the election.
Michigan uses a standard primary and general election system. McClain has never faced a primary challenge after her initial 2020 contest and has not dropped below 63.9% in any general election. Her district was renumbered from MI-10 to MI-09 following 2022 redistricting. MI-09 covers northern Macomb County and St. Clair County northeast of Detroit.