Dr. Matt Longjohn, a doctor and former National Health Officer for YMCA, has announced he is running for the Sixth Congressional District seat in Michigan held by Fred Upton for the last 30 years.

Dr. Longjohn’s chief issue is to improve the health and quality of life for everyone in Southwest Michigan.

A Democrat. he promises to be a powerful voice against the plans by Washington politicians and special interests “to force middle class families to pay more for less care, cause millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions to lose coverage and gut long-term care for seniors.”

Dr. Longjohn grew up in a tight-knit middle-class community and his family’s roots in Southwest Michigan go back to the Civil War. He is a graduate of Portage Northern and Kalamazoo College.

When he was born, his father worked as a janitor and his mother was a gym teacher. He went through medical school as a single dad, taking out large student loans which he is still paying off today, 20 years later. In his last year of medical training, he reconnected with his childhood sweetheart, Valerie., and after they married they raised their two boys, Till and Max, in Matt’s family’s farmhouse in Vicksburg before moving to Portage in 2010.

Longjohn has spent his entire career creating and running large community health programs. Most recently, he served as the National Health Officer for the YMCA, one of the nation’s oldest and largest charities. He was the first physician leader in the Y’s 170-year history, and ran community health programs to improve health, reduce costs and create jobs.

He and his team supported local community work in Augusta, Benton Harbor, St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, and 250 other cities across the nation, positively impacting 73 million people. Earlier in his career, Matt led an innovative coalition in Chicago, which helped inform First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign and inspired the creation of Healthy Kids Healthy Michigan.

Upton, a Republican,was first elected to Congress in 1986 and will be seeking his 16th two-year term in 2018. The Sixth Congressional District includes all of Allegan County.