Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow expected to run for Gary Peters’ US Senate seat, AP sources say

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    AP sources said Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow is planning to run for U.S. Senate.
    
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    She hopes to win Gary Peters’ seat after he revealed that he would not seek re-election.
    
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    On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is also expected to run.
    

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  AP sources said Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow is planning to run for U.S. Senate.
  
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  She hopes to win Gary Peters’ seat after he revealed that he would not seek re-election.
  
• 
  On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is also expected to run.
  

AP, Lansing, Mich.According to many persons familiar with her plans, Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow is getting ready to run in the state’s Democratic primary.

Following her widely shared 2022 speech on the Michigan Senate floor, which was praised as a model for fending off Republican attacks, McMorrow’s profile skyrocketed after she was first elected to the state Legislature in 2018. Her name immediately became one of the leading candidates for the 2026 Senate race following Democratic

The backstory

McMorrow’s plan to run in the 2026 Democratic primary for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat was confirmed by two individuals who spoke with her. In order to discuss intimate conversations, the participants insisted on anonymity.

In an Associated Press statement, McMorrow’s office claimed that she is “taking a very close look at how she can have the greatest impact for Michiganders.”

In the highly anticipated fight to succeed Peters next year, McMorrow would be the first Democrat to enter the race. While Republicans see a chance to increase their 53-47 advantage in a state that Donald Trump won in the previous presidential election, Michigan would be a crucial seat for Democrats to hold.

The most well-known possible contender is former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who relocated to Michigan in 2022. According to someone familiar with Buttigieg’s plans, he has ruled out running for governor and is concentrating on a possible bid for the Senate. McMorrow’s arrival might make things more difficult for Buttigieg, who would have to face up against another well-known contender with closer links to Michigan in the Democratic primary.

Several contenders, including McMorrow, first considered running for governor or the U.S. Senate after Peters’ retirement announcement threw a big curveball into Michigan politics. Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor in her second term, has a term limit.

Since her vehement floor address in 2022, in which she criticized a Republican lawmaker for attacking her in a campaign fundraising email and accusing her of “grooming” youngsters for advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, McMorrow has acquired a sizable following.

“I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom” who would like “every kid to feel seen, heard and supported not marginalized and targeted because they are not straight, white and Christian,” McMorrow stated.

In 2024, the state senator made headlines again when she brought an enlarged copy of Project 2025—a playbook for the next Republican administration created by the Heritage Foundation—to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Longtime associates and former officials from the first Trump administration wrote Project 2025, which calls for a drastic increase in presidential power and the termination of up to 50,000 government employees in favor of presidential loyalists.

The opposing viewpoint:

Former U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, who lost the state’s 2024 Senate election to Democrat Elissa Slotkin, is also anticipated to declare a new campaign soon.

The Associated Press is the source of this information.