MI-Sen, MI-10: Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow said Friday that she would not run to succeed her fellow Democrat, retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the same day that multiple media outlets reported that Republican Rep. John James would seek re-election rather than wage a third Senate campaign. James’ apparent decision is a welcome development for House Republicans, who wouldn’t have enjoyed defending his competitive 10th District without him, but it leaves the party still looking for a strong candidate for Senate.
We say “apparent decision” because, as NBC’s Ben Kamisar notes, James doesn’t appear to have explicitly said he wouldn’t be campaigning for the upper chamber. The congressman on Friday morning reportedly filed FEC paperwork to raise money for his re-election campaign (though Rob Pyers notes he already did this in December), telling the Detroit News’ Kaitlyn Buss, “The plainest way I can put it is that I’m committed to the district.”
That wasn’t all that plain, though, as Kamisar writes, “that comment did not rule out a bid for Senate, and James could easily re-designate his House re-election committee to start raising Senate funds … James' office did not return a request for clarification as to whether the decision to file for re-election rules out a future Senate bid this cycle.” McMorrow, by contrast, unambiguously tweeted, “I won’t run for US Senate in 2024.”
However, while it’s possible the Republican may not have closed the door entirely on a statewide bid, the party faithful can probably keep their old “John James for Senate” t-shirts and beer koozies in storage this year unless he sends a signal that something has changed. But James will still need to prepare for a tough campaign to defend his suburban Detroit constituency, where he won by an unexpectedly small 48.8-48.3 margin in 2022 two years after Trump carried it 50-49.
No serious Democrats have announced a Senate bid yet, but that may be about to change. Rep. Elissa Slotkin has been talked about in the media as a likely candidate pretty much from the moment that Stabenow retired last month, and Detroit News reporter Craig Mauger said Friday she is “expected to announce soon.” Simon Schuster writes in Mlive.com that actor Hill Harper is also “privately telling Democrats he intended to run,” while an unnamed source says we should anticipate an announcement from “The Good Doctor” castmember in what Schuster describes as “the near future.”
Wolverine State Democrats are also watching to see if two statewide elected officials, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, will get in. Benson didn’t rule anything out to Schuster but sounded reluctant, saying that “my heart is committed to doing the work that Michiganders hired me to do.” Gilchrist, who would be the state’s first Black senator, reiterated his interest but didn’t provide any information about his deliberations beyond, “[M]y wife and I are talking about it quite a bit.”