Michigan Democrats are going to need a different candidate. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will soon announce that he will not be running for Senate in the Great Lakes State. The move is being viewed as preserving his prospects for a 2028 presidential run. His announcement, expected Thursday, shifts the political landscape as Democrats work to hold onto the seat being vacated by retiring Senator Gary Peters.
Buttigieg had even gone as far as meeting with Church Schumer about running for Senate, writes Politico.
Democrats are scrambling to hold onto the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters in a crucial swing state. Republicans see it as a top pickup opportunity after coming close to flipping the state’s other Senate seat last cycle.
Buttigieg, who ran for president in 2020, moved to Traverse City, Michigan, with his young family, after four years of working in former President Joe Biden’s Cabinet. The workload of Cabinet-related travel — and the prospect of starting a campaign soon after — weighed in his calculus, people close to him said.
Before opting out of a Senate run, Buttigieg also ruled out a run for Michigan governor. Polling indicated that had he run, he would’ve started in a dominant position in a primary.
“The hardest decision in politics is to pass on a race you have a very good chance to win,” said David Axelrod, the longtime Democratic operative who helped lead Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, and a mentor to Buttigieg who spoke with him Wednesday. “Pete was an A-list recruit and would have been a formidable candidate for the Senate had he chosen to run. But had he won in ’26, it would almost certainly have taken him out of the conversation for ’28. This certainly keeps that option open. Beyond that, I have a sense that he wanted to spend more time with his family, and with people in communities like his, where the conversations and concerns are so different than the ones you hear in the echo chamber of Washington.”
His decision reshapes the Democratic primary for Michigan’s competitive Senate seat. State Senator Mallory McMorrow, who became nationally famous for making “lizard faces” during the Democratic National Convention in 2024 while on stage, has informed party officials of her intent to run, and Representative Haley Stevens is taking steps toward launching a campaign. With the seat up for grabs, Republicans see an opportunity to flip it after narrowly missing out on Michigan’s other Senate seat in the last election.
Since relocating to Traverse City with his husband and young children after leaving President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, Buttigieg has aimed to balance personal and political considerations. The extensive travel involved in his role as Transportation Secretary.
Buttigieg’s time at Transportation can only be classified as a total failure. During a supply chain crisis, Buttigieg went on “paternity leave” to be with his adopted children. In 2023, a train disaster that left East Palestine, Ohio, poisoned was handled so poorly that he faced calls for his resignation. And, in 2024, he was embarrassed on national television when describing how he spent tens of billions of dollars to build a handful of EV chargers–the same kinds of chargers that his party’s activists are not violently attacking because they hate Elon Musk more than they care about climate change.
