Veteran Democratic Senator Announces Retirement, Setting Up a Battleground Showdown for His Seat

One of the battleground states in the 2024 presidential election is going to be key to the Senate in 2026.

Second-term Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan has announced, he will not be seeking re-election, according to The Detroit News.

And that puts a Wolverine State Senate seat in play for the midterm elections.

In a report published Tuesday, The Detroit News noted that now-Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin eked out a victory over Republican Mike Rogers in a swing state carried by now-President Donald Trump.

While Trump won Michigan by about 30,000 votes, according to results published by Politico, Slotkin defeated Rogers by about 19,000 voters, according to the Detroit News.

It was the narrowest win of any Democratic Senate candidate, the News reported.

With Peters bowing out, Democrats will be defending an open Senate seat while trying to recover ground from a Republican Party that holds a 53-seat majority in the chamber.

Doing that in Michigan without the benefits of incumbency will be tough. However, even if he’d stayed on, Peters would have been a top target for Republicans in 2026, according to Fox News.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement posted to the social media platform X that Peters’ departure was overdue.

Gary Peters is reading the room. After spending years ignoring illegal immigration & destroying his state’s auto industry, Michigan is better off without him. We’re committed to giving them a fighter that will stand with President @realDonaldTrump to restore economic prosperity &… https://t.co/JAZv7XslSL

— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) January 28, 2025

“Gary Peters is reading the room,” Scott wrote. “After spending years ignoring illegal immigration & destroying his state’s auto industry, Michigan is better off without him.”

Peters has been a national force in Democratic politics, leading the party’s efforts to elect candidates to the Senate in 2022 and 2024.

In the 2022 midterms, Peters “earned praise,” the Associated Press reported, “for aiding the party’s strong performance in the 2022 midterms by winning a number of hotly contested races to hold control of the Senate.”

But in the November elections, the GOP took hold of the Senate thanks to Republican candidates flipping several seats.

Now, Peters’ own seat might be next.

Republican activist Scott Presler, a key player in Trump’s election win in November, as well as the victory of Republican now-Sen. Dave McCormick over Democratic incumbent now-former Sen. Bob Casey, wrote on X that Peters’ departure creates a “potential pickup opportunity.”

BOOM: Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) is NOT running for re-election in 2026.

This creates an open Senate seat & a potential pickup opportunity.

All eyes on Michigan.

— ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) January 28, 2025

According to the inside-the-Beltway publication Axios, Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary under former President Joe Biden, is considering a run to succeed Peters.

A former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Buttigieg moved to Michigan in 2021, according to a Washington Post report from that year.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat widely disliked among conservatives for her flagrantly progressive politics — among other reasons — is unable to run for re-election to head the state government because of term limits.

Until Peters’ announcement about leaving the Senate, speculation about the state’s governor’s race had dominated Michigan political discussion.

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