How Melissa Gilbert Responds to ‘IRS Tax Cheat’ Claims 7 Years After Her Congressional Campaign

Melissa Gilbert ran for Congress in Michigan’s Eighth District in 2016. She ended up dropping out due to well being points, however she received far sufficient into the race to have her opponent’s group hit her with a smear marketing campaign. Her Republican opponent, incumbent Mike Bishop, put out an announcement calling Gilbert an IRS tax cheat. Right here’s what the Little Home on the Prairie alum says concerning the assertion all these years later. 

Melissa Gilbert | Roy Rochlin/Getty Pictures

Melissa Gilbert’s response to ‘IRS tax cheat’ declare 

In her 2022 memoir, Again to the Prairie, Gilbert wrote that Bishop’s insurance policies “were at the opposite end of the spectrum from my beliefs.”

As quickly as the previous Laura Ingalls actor introduced that she’d formally be working for Congress in Michigan’s Eighth District, her opponent went on the assault. 

“His spokesperson put out a statement calling me an IRS tax cheat wanting a government paycheck and declared that my ‘values are out of whack with the district,’” she wrote. 

The assertion didn’t faze the actor. 

“I did owe a significant sum of money in federal and California state taxes, as the Detroit News had reported nearly two months earlier, but I also had a deal with the IRS,” she defined. “As they instruct you to do when a tax problem arises, I called them up and said I had gone through a divorce and lost a house, and asked to work out a payment plan, which they agreed to. Even the Detroit News, in a follow-up story, defended me. While the writer disagreed with my so-called Obama-Pelosi politics, he said I wasn’t a tax cheat. He even described his own tax issues similar to mine.”

Gilbert anticipated her opponent to take pictures like “IRS Tax Cheat” when she determined to run for Congress—“What’s the old saying? If you can’t stand the heat, don’t get under the blow dryer.”

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Why Melissa Gilbert determined to run for Congress  

After Gilbert moved to Michigan together with her husband, Timothy Busfield, she took an interest within the native politics. She was a fan of Democrat Mark Schauer and needed to assist out along with his 2014 marketing campaign. She and Busfield made some telephone requires her to get entangled and Schauer’s group was completely happy to have her aboard. On the finish of the race (a devastating loss for Schauer), he requested Gilbert if she’d be desirous about working for Congress. After giving it a whole lot of thought and speaking it over with Busfield, she determined to go for it. 

“The campaign experience left me feeling good about the way I had spent my time,” she wrote. “I liked being with people, hearing their stories, and letting them know I would try to figure out a way to help.”

Melissa Gilbert dropped out due to well being points

Gilbert skilled “tremendous pain” throughout her marketing campaign due to a herniated disc urgent on the nerves in her neck. As time went on, the ache grew higher and higher. 

“I was popping Percocet like they were Pez and regularly calling time-outs to get spinal blocks and epidurals,” she wrote. “The alarms finally went off when I asked my neurologist about morphine.” 

At that time, her neurologist instructed her she was “risking permanent spinal damage if I continued [with the race] rather than focus on taking care of myself.”

So she dropped out. 

Trying again, she thinks it was all for the most effective. She lives a cheerful, peaceable life now that wouldn’t have been attainable if she’d received the race.



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