Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., launched her campaign for the Senate on Tuesday, joining a Democratic primary that is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in the country next year — in a tightly divided state also set to be a competitive Senate battleground in the midterm elections.
Stevens joins state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and former Wayne County health director Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic primary for retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters' seat, which Democrats must hold to have any hope of capturing the Senate majority next year.
Stevens launched her campaign by focusing on the state's crucial auto industry and took aim in her announcement video at President Donald Trump, who carried Michigan by 1 percentage point in November.
Stevens touted her work in former President Barack Obama’s administration as the chief of staff for the White House Auto Task Force to bail out the auto industry, featuring video of Obama praising her work.
"But Donald Trump has a much different plan for Michigan. His chaos and reckless tariffs are putting tens of thousands of Michigan jobs at risk," Stevens said. "Donald Trump says he couldn't care less if auto prices rise. Well, as someone who spent my time in Congress fighting for Michigan jobs, Michigan families and Michigan workers, I couldn't care more."
Stevens also chided high prices, high housing costs and "more chaos," and she showed video of Trump and billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk.
"What the heck are they doing?" she said in her video.
Stevens is no stranger to competitive races, having flipped an open House seat in 2018 and narrowly won re-election in 2020. In 2022, she defeated fellow Democratic Rep. Andy Levin in a primary after decennial redistricting shifted their districts' boundaries, and she easily won re-election in the more Democratic-leaning 11th District that year and in November.
Stevens’ entrance ramps up the competitive Senate primary, which El-Sayed jumped into last week, immediately earningthe backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. McMorrow, who built a national profile when a speech responding to attacks from a GOP colleague went viral in 2022, launched her campaign this month with a call for new leaders in her party.
Both El-Sayed and McMorrow took swipes at Democrats in Congress in their announcement videos, previewing possible attacks against Stevens.
McMorrow said “the same old crap out of Washington” won’t fix things, showing criticism of Democrats protesting Trump’s joint address to Congress with messages on paddles. El-Sayed invoked the same moment, saying, “We’ve got to fight back hard against Trump and Musk with a hell of a lot more than paper paddles and broken promises.”
The GOP primary in Michigan is also taking shape, with former Rep. Mike Rogers announcing his campaign for the Senate last week, touting endorsements from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C.
Rogers fell just short in Michigan's Senate race last year, losing by less than half a percentage point.
It’s not clear whether national leaders will weigh in on the Democratic primary in Michigan, but competitive Senate primaries have been relatively unusual for the party in recent election cycles, as leaders have sought to avoid costly and divisive intraparty contests.
Last year, three of the party’s four nominees in targeted Senate races — Ruben Gallego in Arizona, Elissa Slotkin in Michigan and Colin Allred in Texas — either didn’t face primary opponents or won their primaries easily. Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks faced a hard-fought and expensive primary but ended up winning by nearly 10 points in her deep-blue state.
Democrats are grappling with multiple open Senate seats in competitive states ahead of the midterms, when they would need to net four seats to take control of the chamber. Democrats are also defending Michigan and Georgia, two states Trump won in November.
In New Hampshire, Democrats have started to coalesce around Rep. Chris Pappas to replace retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, with Democratic Rep. Maggie Goodlander announcing last week that she wouldn’t run for the Senate.
A competitive primary is brewing in Minnesota, where Democratic Sen. Tina Smith is retiring. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flannagan and former state Senate Minority Leader Melisa López Franzen have launched Senate campaigns, and Rep. Angie Craig is considering running.
