Michigan senior Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat, announced on Wednesday that he will not be seeking reelection and intends to retire at the end of the 119th Congress. “I always thought there would be a time that I would step aside and pass the reins for the next generation,” said Peters, 66, who has represented Michigan in the U.S. Senate since 2014. “I also never saw service in Congress as something you do your whole life.”
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited, and along with the contests over the coveted Senate seat and governor’s mansion, there will also be open races for state attorney general, secretary of state, and as many as three competitive U.S. House seats. Both chambers of the state’s closely divided legislature will be up for grabs in the 2026 midterm elections as well.
In 2024, President Donald Trump won Michigan by around 80,000 votes, or 1.4%, while Democrat Elissa Slotkin defeated Republican Mike Rogers by four-tenths of a point to win the open U.S. Senate seat vacated by former Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Rogers’s near victory was an improvement upon the 2020 and 2018 results by the GOP, which saw Democratic Sens. Peters and Stabenow defeat Republican John James, who now represents Michigan’s 10th Congressional District in the U.S. House, by 1.7 points and 7.5 points, respectively.
The midterm elections are typically a bloodbath for the party in power, and with Republicans taking the White House and both chambers of Congress in 2024, conventional wisdom would say they are in for a beating at the next available opportunity. But the reactions by both parties to the 2024 election results have been far from conventional.
Trump’s second term is off to a blazing start. The president is fulfilling his campaign promises, albeit by executive fiat, at a clip not seen from a Republican administration since at least President Ronald Reagan. Not only is the GOP unified behind the president’s agenda, but Trump’s actions are quite popular nationally. The president has signed executive orders peeling back unpopular Democratic initiatives such as diversity, equity, and inclusion in the federal government and taxpayer funding of perverse genital mutilation surgeries for children.
Even Trump’s formerly unpopular position supporting the mass deportation of illegal aliens is widely accepted across the political spectrum due to the wild mismanagement of the southern border under the Biden administration. Unless Trump veers from the political mainstream, which he has shown no intention of doing, the Left’s reflexive “orange man bad” style of opposition will fall flat.
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Democrats won’t have entrenched, popular politicians such as Peters and Whitmer this time around. Even if Republicans struggle in the midterm elections, they will be running against weaker candidates. Pete Buttigieg, former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and secretary of transportation in the Biden administration, is said to be “taking a serious look” at the open Senate seat. Taking on a carpetbagger who only recently moved to the state, was elevated to national prominence largely due to his sexual orientation, and failed at every level of government he was awarded is an easier proposition than taking on an unassuming professional such as Gary Peters.
Of course, the Michigan GOP will need to recruit solid candidates and turn around its recent fundraising woes, but the stage is set for a return to power for Michigan Republicans. The national GOP would be wise to invest heavily in Michigan in 2026. Ohio, known as the bellwether state for a hundred years, is now solidly red. Outside fundraising will largely be unnecessary in the 2026 Ohio governor’s race, which should free up cash to invest north of the border. If Republicans play their cards right, and primary voters cast their ballots wisely, Michigan is certainly in play, and the Left’s supposed Midwestern “blue wall” could be a distant memory by the time votes are counted next year.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.