Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters announces he won’t run again in 2026
Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters announces he won’t run again in 2026
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Peters’s retirement gives Republicans a shot at a Senate seat in a state Donald Trump won. Michigan’s senior Democratic senator announced on Tuesday that he won’t seek re-election in 2026, setting up what will likely be a fierce competition in a state Donald Trump won last year.
Sen. Gary Peters, who first won his seat in 2014, revealed his retirement and shared how he came to that decision in a video. “What we do becomes a unique, individual life story having many chapters. At this point in my life, I have been able to write many different chapters and I look forward to the new ones with both anticipation and excitement,” Peters said in the five-minute video.
“Our Founding Fathers envisioned members of Congress as citizens, serving their country for a few turns and then returning to private life. I agree. I believe now is time for me to write a few more paragraphs in my current chapter and then turn over the reins.”.
Peters narrowly won re-election in 2020, when former President Joe Biden won the battleground state back for Democrats after Trump took it in 2016. The 66-year-old lawmaker served as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2022, when Democrats held all of their swing district seats and flipped a seat in Pennsylvania. In 2024, Democrats lost four seats — in Pennsylvania, Montana, Ohio and West Virginia — while holding seats in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, despite Trump winning those states. Trump won Michigan again in 2024, along with the six other major swing states.
