Michigan Republicans try to assure party about chances of success by adding more Senate candidates

National Republicans are working to assure the party that they will find a strong candidate to run in 2024 to replace Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who announced her retirement in January.

While a few high-profile GOP candidates have entered the race, the party still faces a challenge to find who can take on Democrats in the crucial swing state next year that could help decide the majority in the Senate. A reliably blue state for years, Michigan’s open Senate seat is ranked as “Lean Democratic” by Cook Political Report.

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Democrats have largely coalesced around Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who is leading the field that includes five other candidates. She is the only Democrat with congressional experience.

So far, there are seven Republican candidates: former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, Nikki Snyder, a member of the Michigan Board of Education; Michael Hoover, a small-business owner; J.D. Wilson, a political newcomer and businessman; Alexandria Taylor, a former Democrat who worked on a lawsuit last year to invalidate mail-in ballots from Detroit; Sherry O’Donnell, a physician and pastor who ran for Congress unsuccessfully last year; and former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers.

The two candidates expected to make significant headway are Rogers and Craig. Rogers is the only Republican with experience at the federal level, having served for Michigan’s 8th Congressional District from 2001 to 2015. He said in his campaign announcement that he thought politics were behind him but felt pushed to run for Senate because “something is broken,” according to Bridge Michigan. Many analysts have said Rogers is the GOP’s best chance to flip the seat if he can get the nomination, according to the Michigan Advance.

Craig led Detroit through racial justice protests in 2020 and ran for Michigan governor in 2021. He launched a bid for the 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary but failed to make the ballot after he was one of five candidates who submitted fraudulent signatures, per Bridge Michigan. He announced his bid for Senate in early October.

Rogers and Craig’s entries into the race can likely be attributed to pitching from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as a source told the Washington Examiner in August that they were holding conversations with five prospective candidates, including the pair.

Still, GOP senators are looking to assure their colleagues that Republicans have a chance at winning the seat in Michigan. Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) told Republican senators on Tuesday that former GOP Rep. Peter Meijer will launch his bid for Senate this week, citing a conversation that he had with one of Meijer’s family members, according to Politico. Meijer was among the five candidates spoken to by the NRSC.

The former congressman was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump in 2021, which could make his run difficult, according to NRSC Chairman Steve Daines (R-MT).

“Can he win a primary and a general election? That’s always the question,” Daines said of Meijer in a September interview with Politico.

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Meijer’s decision to run would land him in the already-crowded primary field, on which the NRSC told the Washington Examiner in August it would not weigh in. Though Senate Republicans are focusing on more viable targets like West Virginia, Ohio, and Montana, they cannot afford a messy primary in Michigan that could lead to a repeat of the 2022 midterm elections.

Several centrist Republicans were beaten by hard-line conservatives, who then went on to lose to Democrats, leading to a narrow GOP majority in the House and a continuation of Democratic control of the Senate.