But the winner, Wayne County Executive Bill Lucas, subsequently named House as lieutenant governor runningmate—thereby making her the first-ever woman to be nominated by Republicans for Michigan's second-highest office.

House came to Washington DC in 1989, where she served as director of intergovernmental affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce and in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

House served as International Political Liaison for the International Republican Institute (IRI) from 1993-2015 where, according to IRI President Lorne Craner, "Colleen oversaw much of our effort to secure Americans to train their counterparts in electoral politics and competing at the polling place.

"[1] In 1975, House married state representative John Engler in Bay City.

Long active at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., House was a lector at Masses, trained other parishioners to read portions of the Mass and served as a pontifical lector[4] House died from complications with dementia at her home in Washington, D.C., on December 24, 2022, at the age of 70.