Actress Accused of Owing More Than $360,000 in Back Taxes Is Running for Congressional Seat in Michigan

Actress Melissa Gilbert once starred as Laura Ingalls Wilder on "Little House on the Prairie," but now she's set her sights on a new frontier: Michigan's eighth congressional district.

The actress announced her candidacy on Monday, and already questions are mounting about Gilbert's tax issues. In June, the Detroit Free Press reported that the Internal Revenue Service filed a tax lien against the actress, claiming that she owed more than $360,000 in federal income taxes.

Actress Melissa Gilbert speaks onstage at the Atlanta Ultimate Women's Expo at Georgia World Congress Center, May 3, 2015 in Atlanta. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

Gilbert, 51, said then that her tax debt was due in part to her acting career, the economy and her divorce. She told the newspaper that "like so many people across the nation, the recession hit me hard."

Gilbert said she ran into a "perfect storm of financial difficulty" and had worked out a payment plan with the IRS. A campaign spokesman declined to comment further on the situation to the Detroit Free Press.

"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," Gilbert announced on her campaign website. "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."

Excited to announce my run for U.S. Congress in Michigan's 8th. Please join me in my fight for working families. https://t.co/WTUEZukVeX

— Melissa Gilbert (@GilbertforMI) August 10, 2015

The actress, who lives in Livingston County with her husband, is running as a Democrat in the heavily Republican district in Michigan in the 2016 election.

In 2014, Rep. Mike Bishop (R) won the race to replace former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers. Bishop beat his Democratic opponent, Eric Schertzing, 54 percent to 42 percent.

Stu Standler, Bishop's campaign spokesman, has already hit Gilbert on her tax issues, saying in a statement that she "can afford to have a stylist for her dog, but cannot pay her taxes."

"Her values are out of whack with the district," he said in the statement to the Detroit Free Press.

While Gilbert has never held a political office before, she was the president of the Screen Actor's Guild from 2001 to 2005, according to NBC News.

Gilbert's campaign did not respond to a request for comment from TheBlaze.