Dingell’s district has been the family plantation since his dad got it in 1933!.
Actually, you’re right and wrong. Dingell pere and son have held a seat in Congress since 1933, but the district isn’t the same. When Dingell, Sr. first won a formerly historically GOP district in the FDR ‘32 landslide, it was one of Detroit’s city districts (for which there once used to be several). Dingell, Sr. essentially represented that same district until his death in 1955. When Dingell, Jr. won his dad’s seat in the ‘55 special, he still represented Detroit, but with the gargantuan demographics shift and massive shrinkage of the population beginning at roughly the same time he won the seat, his district moved westward away from Detroit proper and now is Ann Arbor-based. The district he originally represented no longer exists.
His seatmate, John Conyers, has also seen his district drastically expanded and augmented since he was elected in 1964 (when Detroit was still viable and had twice as many people as it does now). Conyers has a very unique distinction as a member of Congress a lot of folks don’t know about. More people have fled the district he has represented for 44 years than any other in the history of the country, which I estimate to be in excess of a half-million people. People wonder why Conyers hasn’t been voted out, but his constituents (the smart ones) have voted in another way - with their feet. When a half-million people flee the districts you’ve represented, it’s very telling.