Stabenow's retirement scrambles Michigan Senate race in 2024

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Thu Jan 5, 2023, 03:17 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: AP

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a member of the Democratic leadership, announced Thursday that she will not run for a fifth term in 2024, a surprise decision that opens up a seat in the key battleground state. The news shocked many Democrats in the state because the 72-year-old Stabenow had not previously indicated that she would not seek reelection.

Stabenow’s impending retirement turns Michigan’s next Senate race into one of the most competitive in the country as Democrats try to preserve their slim majority. “Inspired by a new generation of leaders, I have decided to pass the torch in the U.S. Senate. I am announcing today that I will not seek reelection and will leave the U.S. Senate at the end of my term on January 3, 2025,” Stabenow said in a statement.

Democrats will face a test to find a candidate with Stabenow’s broad support. On the GOP side, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which works to elect Republicans, said in a statement after Stabenow’s announcement that it would “aggressively target this seat in 2024.”

While the current political climate in Michigan favors Democrats following a midterm election where they flipped the state House and Senate, the state is still expected to be one of the nation’s premier battlegrounds in the 2024 presidential election. Only one Michigan Republican, has held a seat in the Senate in the past 40 years.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-politics-debbie-stabenow-michigan-afb0e42225f76bd8def5eab701ae1297

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Short article at post time.

Article updated.

Original article/headline -

Democratic Sen. Stabenow of Michigan won't run again in 2024

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a member of the Democratic leadership, announced Thursday that she will not run for a fifth term in 2024, opening up a seat in the key battleground state.

The news likely comes as a shock to many Democrats in the state because Stabenow had not previously indicated that she would not seek reelection.

“Inspired by a new generation of leaders, I have decided to pass the torch in the U.S. Senate. I am announcing today that I will not seek reelection and will leave the U.S. Senate at the end of my term on January 3, 2025,” Stabenow said in a statement.

Democrats will face a test to find a candidate with the broad support of Stabenow, first elected to the Senate in 2001. She has easily won reelection since then.

[DownriverDem]

1. 2024

is a presidential election year that will bring out a lot of Dem voters. We have a deep bench here and the repubs have a lot of crazies.

[Lonestarblue]

2. Too bad. Dems face a tough year in 2024 because they have more seats at risk than Republicans.

At least she’s giving enough warning so the Party can spend some time recruiting a good candidate.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. I don't buy the narrative the media ONLY generates when it comes to Democrats

where "more seats" up ALWAYS means we are SOL. During years when the GOP has "more seats", they are always considered "safe seats". It's the same kind of propaganda that the pundits went along with when the politicos, pollsters, and poll aggregators were spouting RW narratives, including one of the most egregious that insisted that people like Patty Murray, our new Senate Pro tempore, was suddenly "in trouble", yet she won her seat by nearly 15%.

I know I have posted the list before and except for maybe Tester, Sinema (which becomes a slot), and possibly Jacky Rosen who would be running for her first re-election in a swingy purply-blue state of NV, I can't see some kind of red wave wiping out our Democratic Senators.

Below posted here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3005536
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Here are the "Class 1" Senate seats up in 2024 -

Democrats

Baldwin, Tammy (D-WI)
Brown, Sherrod (D-OH)
Cantwell, Maria (D-WA)
Cardin, Benjamin L. (D-MD)
Carper, Thomas R. (D-DE)
Casey, Robert P., Jr. (D-PA)
Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA)
Gillibrand, Kirsten E. (D-NY)
Heinrich, Martin (D-NM)
Hirono, Mazie K. (D-HI)
Kaine, Tim (D-VA)
Klobuchar, Amy (D-MN)
Manchin, Joe, III (D-WV)
Menendez, Robert (D-NJ)
Murphy, Christopher (D-CT)
Rosen, Jacky (D-NV)
Sinema, Kyrsten (D-AZ)
Stabenow, Debbie (D-MI)
Tester, Jon (D-MT)
Warren, Elizabeth (D-MA)
Whitehouse, Sheldon (D-RI)

Republicans

Barrasso, John (R-WY)
Blackburn, Marsha (R-TN)
Braun, Mike (R-IN)
Cramer, Kevin (R-ND)
Cruz, Ted (R-TX)
Fischer, Deb (R-NE)
Hawley, Josh (R-MO)
Romney, Mitt (R-UT)
Scott, Rick (R-FL)
Wicker, Roger F. (R-MS)

Independents
King, Angus S., Jr. (I-ME)
Sanders, Bernard (I-VT)

[Polybius]

6. Manchin, Brown, Tester, and Sinema worry me

But, we can make it up in..shit, maybe Texas? Yikes! They're all safe seats.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. I'm not worried about Sherrod

as he seems to have a strong working class constituency.

There are a pile of urban areas in OH - most notably Cleveland - that need some major GOTV efforts.

[Polybius]

8. I guess I'm really only fully worried about WV

Do you there there is any path to winning there in 2024?

[BumRushDaShow]

11. It would probably require an "every county" strategy

similar to what Fetterman did here in PA. There ARE Democrats living in WV and thanks to Robert Byrd, there are a number of government facilities that were located there too. So it's one of those slog things.

The state has a population just a bit bigger than my city (Philly) and probably has many enclaves.

One of the things that I had hoped for at one time was to see Capito maybe go (I) since she has often joined the Collins-Murkowski pair on some legislation. But we'll have to see how things go this session.

[Polybius]

12. Personally, if Manchin doesn't run for re-election I wouldn't spend a dime there

He's our only hope to win in that state. If he does run against an unknown, he probably has a 42% chance of winning, but that's decent odds. I would want the DNC to spend a huge amount of money there.

But imagine if he doesn't run, and Governor Jim Justice gets the Republican nomination. I'd be shocked if he didn't get 65% of the vote.

[mobeau69]

3. Draft Mallory McMorrow.

[Zorro]

10. Mayor Pete

[redstatebluegirl]

13. I Love Mayor Pete but they will label him a carpetbagger and not a true Michigander.

I have family up there, and they would never vote for him because he wasn't raised in Michigan.

[Kid Berwyn]

18. Love your idea. She's a FIGHTER!!!!

FTR: Would say go with Democrat Karl Marlinga, but the DNC failed to help Marlinga in the US House race. So, instead, we got the disgusting hypocrite John James, a rising GZP star loser and one of the crooks in suits who nominated Smarmy Kevin McCarthy for the Speakership yesterday.

[mobeau69]

19. Powerful. Thanks for posting.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. Ok, we have two years to argue about who to support for that seat.

My first thought: Slotkin. I like Dingell, but she must also be thinking about retirement.

[GreenWave]

9. Not to worry. Soon our resident Steve Karnecki will show us who to root for.

[Mysterian]

14. Have a Dem candidate who's not a corporate toady

and it should be a win.

[NullTuples]

15. So many Dems retiring in this era when we need them most and without growing replacements...

It's something that's stuck in my craw for a while now. Yes, it's getting hard and yes you are tired of it but for God's sake why didn't you grow replacements, the next generation to follow you, instead of blocking Gen X out for decades? Whoever replaces you is going to have to start from scratch. No power network to inherit and continue to curate, no connections, no experience. No knowledge of specific Republican weaknesses.

This is going to hurt.

[SKKY]

16. Perhaps I'm not seeing the full picture...

...but it would seem Mallory McMorrow is the obvious choice. But, I've also heard Pete Buttigieg is now a Michigan resident, so the bench is fairly deep. I'd be fine with either, but Pete already has a national presence, and we need to help others bubble up to the surface, which is why I think McMorrow would be excellent.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. The media brainwashed itself with the "Democrats in disarray" narrative for so long

that every election for Democrats will always be a disaster.

AP originally had a fact-based headline stating she wasn't going to run again and "someone" made them change it to a smear-opinionated version.