In 1996, Kilpatrick challenged three-term incumbent
Barbara-Rose Collins in the 1996 Democratic primary for what was then the 15th District. She defeated Collins by a shocking margin, taking 51.6 percent of the vote to Collins' 30.6 percent. This was
tantamount to election in this heavily Democratic, black-majority district. She was reelected six times, never dropping below 80 percent of the vote. Her district was renumbered as the 13th District after the 2000 Census. She faced no major-party opposition in 2004 and was completely unopposed in 2006.
2008 Her first serious opposition came during the 2008 primary—the real contest in this district—when she was challenged by both former
State Representative Mary D. Waters and
State Senator Martha Scott in the Democratic primary. Kilpatrick's campaign was plagued by the controversy surrounding her son and his involvement in a text messaging sex scandal. On the August 5 primary election, Kilpatrick won with 39.1 percent of the vote, compared to Waters' 36 percent and Scott's 24 percent.
2010 In 2010, she was again challenged in the Democratic primary. Unlike in 2008, her opposition coalesced around State Senator
Hansen Clarke, who defeated her in the August 3 primary. “This is the final curtain: the ending of the Kilpatrick dynasty,” said Detroit political consultant Eric Foster of Foster, McCollum, White and Assoc. NPR and CBS News both noted that throughout her re-election campaign, she was dogged by questions about her son,
Kwame Kilpatrick, who is in prison on numerous corruption charges.
Michigan Live reported that her election defeat could in part be attributed to the Kwame Kilpatrick scandals. ==Personal life and death==