(Bloomberg) — Pete Buttigieg and State Senator Mallory McMorrow are weighing whether to mount a campaign for Michigan’s Senate seat after Senator Gary Peters announced he wouldn’t run for another term.
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Buttigieg served as Transportation Secretary in President Joe Biden’s administration and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, narrowly winning the Iowa caucuses, making him one of the party’s best-known younger leaders.
Buttigieg is exploring all of his options on how he can continue to serve and is taking a serious look at a bid, a person familiar with his thinking said.
The departure of Peters from the Senate will have a ripple effect on the state’s race for governor in 2026, when Gretchen Whitmer’s second and final term expires. Both Buttigieg and McMorrow were seen as likely candidates to replace her.
“I’m taking a very close look at both the Senate seat as well as the Governor’s race. I plan to have a number of conversations in the coming days about where I can do the most good for Michiganders,” McMorrow said in a statement.
The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, now lives in Traverse City, Michigan, his husband Chasten Buttigieg’s home state. That move ignited speculation he may seek elected office in Michigan, a crucial swing state seen as friendlier to Democrats than Indiana. President Donald Trump won Michigan last year even as Democrat Elissa Slotkin won her race to hold the state’s other Senate seat for the party.
That Governor’s race already has two candidates. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, a Democrat, announced he would run for the seat as an independent and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson also announced she would run for the Democratic nomination.
(Adds details in second paragraph. A previous version corrects the spelling of McMorrow in headline)
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