Melissa Gilbert is hoping to move from “Little House on the Prairie” to the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Hollywood veteran, who played Laura Ingalls Wilder on the NBC drama in the 1970s and ’80s, announced on Monday that she’s running for Michigan’s 8th Congressional District.
“Please join me in my fight for working families,” Gilbert tweeted.
The mother-of-two, a Democrat, will challenge freshman Republican Rep. Mike Bishop.
A native of Los Angeles, Gilbert and her husband, actor Timothy Busfield, have been living in Howell, Michigan, since 2013.
“I’m running for Congress to make life a little easier for all the families who feel they have fallen through the cracks in today’s economy. I believe building a new economy is a team effort, and we need to bring fresh voices to the table to get the job done,” Gilbert wrote on her campaign website.
Bishop’s campaign spokesman Stu Sandler wasted no time pointing out that Gilbert owes more than $300,000 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.
“Melissa Gilbert can afford to have a stylist and a Louis Vuitton collar for her dog, but cannot pay her taxes. Her Hollywood values are out of whack with the district,” Sandler said in a statement to CNN.
Gilbert served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 2001 – 2005.