Mallory McMorrow formally launched a bid on Wednesday to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
The state senator framed herself as an outsider, declaring that the “same old crap out of Washington” wouldn’t fix their problems.
“We need new leaders. Because the same people in D.C. who got us into this mess are not going to be the ones to get us out of it,” she said in a two-and-a-half minute announcement video.
McMorrow, 38, is seen in the party as an effective communicator and a rising star. She attracted attention at last year’s Democratic National Convention after holding up an oversized copy of “Project 2025,” the conservative policy blueprint that ultimately became the backbone of Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn approach to government spending.
She previously said that she wouldn’t support Sen. Chuck Schumer as Senate Minority Leader. He faced intense intraparty backlash for voting to advance a Trump-backed government funding bill opposed by many others in the party.
She has also cautioned that the Democratic Party shouldn’t overcorrect.
“I think that Democratic values and Democratic priorities, especially compared to the chaos that’s being unleashed by Donald Trump right now, are still popular with voters,” she recently told POLITICO. “We just have to be better messengers and better advocates for people.”
And amid a broader debate in the party over its handling of transgender issues, McMorrow’s launch video included footage of a 2022 viral speech she gave in the Michigan State Senate responding to a state GOP lawmaker who accused her of “grooming” children.
McMorrow’s state Senate district includes part of the city of Detroit and some of its suburban communities.
McMorrow brings to the race a national donor network that she built off her viral speech; by October of 2022, she amassed nearly 13,000 donors from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, raising a total of $2.35 million.
She won’t have the field to herself, and the state is expected to be one of the most hotly contested in the 2026 cycle. Reps. Haley Stevens and Kristen McDonald Rivet could also run, as could Wayne County Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services Director Abdul El-Sayed.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took himself out of contention for the open Senate seat, fueling speculation he’d mount another bid for the presidency in 2028.
Republicans see the state, which Trump won in 2016 and 2024, as a top pickup opportunity on the Senate battlefield. Former Rep. Mike Rogers is expected to launch a bid for the GOP nomination, and Republican Tudor Dixon is also weighing a bid.
Adam Wren contributed to this report
