LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A lawmaker from Detroit is joining the crowded field of Democrats vying for the battleground state’s open Senate seat, one of the most critical races as the party aims to regain a majority in the 2026 midterm election.

Michigan state Rep. Joe Tate launched his campaign Sunday to compete against three other Democrats seeking the seat left open by retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Tate spoke about his campaign goals and referenced his grandparents, who came to Detroit from Alabama as part of the Great Migration.

“I’m running for the U.S. Senate, because I want to continue to keep that promise that my grandparents came up to Michigan for,” he said.

To become the Democratic nominee, the former marine and NFL football player will have to convince voters to look past significant setbacks to the state party under his leadership.

Tate made history in 2022 when he became the first Black speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, the highest position in the chamber. That fall, Democrats swept statewide offices and gained historic “trifecta” control of both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office.

Democrats passed significant legislation on gun control, climate change, reproductive rights and labor, repealing the state’s “right to work” law.

But their momentum stalled ahead of the 2024 fall elections and fell apart after Republicans won back the state House in November. Tate announced after the election that he would not seek a leadership role among House Democrats the next year.

In the final days of the legislative session, internal divisions among Democrats caused Tate to abruptly end the session. The move effectively killed dozens of bills including key Democratic priorities on economic development, road funding, ghost guns and reproductive health data.

Republicans took control in January, and the Legislature has been deadlocked on most topics since.

Many Democrats and Republicans alike have blamed Tate for disastrous final days when Democrats still had control.

Nine bills from the 2024 session approved by both chambers have still not been presented to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The new Republican speaker of the House has said it was Tate’s job to get them to Whitmer’s desk.

“It’s just unfortunate that some people decided to stop coming to work when the job wasn’t done,” Tate said in response, referencing one Democrat and the entire Republican caucus who boycotted the final days of session in order to stall it.

Tate said he is proud of the work Democrats accomplished while they held the majority in the Legislature, referencing legislation on universal background checks to purchase firearms and free breakfast and lunch for school children.

“I see kids with full bellies in schools because of what we did,” he said.

A deep bench of Democrats began to eye the U.S. Senate seat after Peters this year announced plans to retire at the end of his term. U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and former gubernatorial candidate and public health official Abdul El-Sayed have all launched campaigns for the position.

On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is running again after losing to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in the state’s 2024 U.S. Senate race by just 19,000 votes.

–Reporting by Isabella Volmert, Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Fourth-term U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens has launched her run for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday with a video focused on the economic crisis caused by President Donald Trump’s volatile tariffs policies.

Walking through a lot full of pickup trucks and SUVs to make the case that she’s the candidate who will protect the state’s critical auto industry, she says “His chaos and reckless tariffs are putting tens of thousands of Michigan jobs at risk.”

“We absolutely need to put an end to the chaos agenda,” Stevens said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Stevens, a Democrat, is the fourth well-known candidate to join what is quickly becoming one of the nation’s most-watched Senate races, with the Republicans’ 53-47 majority at stake in a battleground state Trump won in November.

Related: Congresswoman Haley Stevens says tariffs on Canadian and Mexican products could crash US auto industry

Quickly a top possible contender after Democratic Sen. Gary Peters chose not to seek reelection, Stevens will oppose State Sen. Mallory McMorrow and former gubernatorial candidate and public health official Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic primary.

On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is trying again after losing to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in the state’s 2024 U.S. Senate race by just 19,000 votes.

Stevens will seek to defend her tenure in Congress in the Democratic primary as McMorrow and El-Sayed establish themselves as outsiders. McMorrow is known nationally for her viral moments and El-Sayed has the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Before Congress, Stevens served on the U.S. Treasury’s auto task force following the 2008 financial crisis as President Barack Obama’s administration bailed out General Motors and Chrysler. She said Trump’s taxes on imports are creating another crisis for the Michigan economy, which rides or stalls based on the auto industry’s condition.

“People are very much at a boiling point around the uncertainty of tariffs,” she said.

Stevens has been an ardent voice from Michigan against Trump’s tariffs, particularly those leveraged against Canada. She said they are disruptive to the auto industry and are having a “dizzying” effect on companies of all sizes whose leaders cannot make plans as Trump repeatedly changes positions.

However, Stevens is among the Democrats who have sought to clarify they are not inherently anti-tariff. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently gave a speech in Washington calling for tariffs to be used like a “scalpel.” Shawn Fain, president of the nation’s top autoworker union based in Michigan, endorsed Trump’s auto tariffs as leverage aimed at bringing back domestic manufacturing jobs.

Stevens, who sits on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said she too would support tariffs that are strategically designed to make America competitive with China’s manufacturing, but said Trump’s approach is too chaotic to be effective.

“What I do not support are shoot-by-the-hip, erratic tariffs that give us no rules of the road or path to understand how we can succeed,” Stevens said.

Stevens sailed to victory in her last election representing Oakland County, a key voting block in the battleground state. After flipping what had been a reliably Republican seat in 2018 and narrowly defeating her opponent in 2020, she cruised to reelection in 2022 and 2024 after her district was redrawn and became more favorable to Democrats.

–Reporting by Isabella Volmert, Associated Press

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The race for the U.S. Senate in Michigan is heating up. 

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed declared Thursday morning he is running for the state’s open Senate seat next year.

El-Sayed, who is running as a Democrat, previously served as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services for Wayne County. Before that, he ran for governor in 2018 and lost in the primary to now-Governor Gretchen Whitmer. 

Democratic state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Republican Mike Rogers are also in the running to replace Sen. Gary Peters, who vacates his seat next year.

Read more: Mallory McMorrow wants to bring a new generation to the US Senate

El-Sayed joined The Metro on Thursday to discuss why he is running, how his experience as a doctor and scientist inform his vision as a political leader, and what he sees as the most pressing issues facing Michiganders.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Thursday, April 17:

• Bookstock, Detroit’s largest used-book sale, supporting literacy initiatives across the state
• Auto industry taking an economic turn due to tariffs
• Flint program providing financial support to new moms expands to Wayne County

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.