Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ decision not to run again in 2026 has created a rare open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, setting up a competitive contest in a state that backed Donald Trump for president in 2024 while also electing a Democrat to the Senate.
Michigan’s 2026 U.S. Senate race is taking shape after Democratic Sen. Gary Peters said he will not seek another term, leaving an open seat in one of the nation’s most closely divided states. At the same time, Michigan’s 2026 gubernatorial contest will also be an open-seat race because Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited.
Republicans are coalescing early around former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who ran for the state’s other Senate seat in 2024 and narrowly lost to Democrat Elissa Slotkin. The Associated Press reported at the time that Slotkin’s lead grew to about 18,700 votes when the race was called, and the final margin was roughly 19,000 votes—just under 20,000.
Rogers has again received an endorsement from Trump, and Republican campaign committees have portrayed him as their leading candidate. In an interview with The Daily Wire, Rogers argued that 2024 results show a path to victory, saying he has “enough votes in the bank to win this election,” and claiming he received “more Republican votes than any other statewide candidate for a state of Michigan office in the history of the state by 300,000 votes.”
Rogers has been pitching an economic message that includes a housing proposal he recently rolled out. According to The Daily Wire, his plan would expand the use of 529 savings plans to cover first-time home down payments and would defer student loan payments while borrowers are saving toward a down payment. Rogers also criticized Democratic policies affecting the auto industry, saying, “They damn near put out of business two great American car companies with all these EV mandates.”
On the Democratic side, several candidates are competing in a crowded primary. An Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media survey released in late January found state Sen. Mallory McMorrow leading with 22%, followed by U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens at 17% and physician and former state health official Abdul El-Sayed at 16%; 38% said they were undecided.
The campaign has already featured intraparty sparring and controversies highlighted by conservative and Republican-aligned groups. The Daily Wire cited a video showing McMorrow saying she would not be able to control herself and that “beers” could be thrown “in people’s faces” if she saw Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh at a tailgate. The outlet also reported that Stevens faced criticism from some Democrats after she filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; The Daily Wire, citing The New York Times, said some colleagues viewed the move as a stunt, while Stevens responded that she is “not one for political theater” and said she was acting on public health grounds.
The Daily Wire also reported that El-Sayed sent an October fundraising email on the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that did not mention Hamas and criticized Israel’s military action in Gaza. The outlet reported that El-Sayed later apologized to Jewish community leaders for how the email landed while saying he stood by its substance, and that he separately condemned Hamas’s attack as “heinous” while accusing Israel of “genocide.”
At a recent United Auto Workers candidate forum in Detroit, the Democratic contenders criticized one another over ideology and political strategy. The National Republican Senatorial Committee publicized clips and characterized the exchange as evidence of a divisive primary, while The Daily Wire reported that McMorrow questioned El-Sayed’s focus on “rhetoric” and argued Stevens was too close to corporate interests. The Daily Wire also reported that El-Sayed embraced positions including “Medicare for all” and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Michigan has been a difficult state for Republicans in recent Senate contests: no Republican has won a U.S. Senate race there since 1994, according to the AP. But the state’s split-ticket outcome in 2024—Trump winning the presidential race while Slotkin won the Senate contest—has kept both parties focused on the 2026 fight as a potential test of national political currents.
