Longtime Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan says that as soon as Democratic Sen. Gary Peters announced earlier this year that he wouldn’t seek re-election in the key Great Lakes battleground state in next year’s midterms, “my phone started to ring and it hasn’t stopped ringing.”
Huizenga, who was first elected to the House in 2010 and represents Michigan’s 4th Congressional District, which covers parts of the southwestern part of the state, highlighted that he’s getting “encouragement” to seek the Senate from “grassroots folks,” as well as donors.
“I have been very flattered and honored to have this kind of support emerging,” he said.
The Senate seat in Michigan is a top target for the GOP in the 2026 midterm elections to flip from blue to red, as the party aims to expand its current 53-47 majority in the chamber. And the emerging showdown is expected to be one of the most expensive and bruising battles of the cycle.
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Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan speaks at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Portage, Michigan, on Nov. 1, 2024. (Bill Huizenga campaign)
Huizenga, who is now the vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee, pointed to “the connections that I’ve got and have built up over the last now going into my eighth term here” when asked about fundraising.
“It’s donors in Michigan. It’s donors nationally,” he touted. “I’ve got a network of folks that have been very, very helpful in the past, and they’re very interested in helping me out again.”
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But Huizenga isn’t the only Republican making noise about a Senate run.
Former Rep. Mike Rogers announced at the end of January that he was “strongly considering” a second straight Republican run.
And Rogers, a former FBI special agent who later served as chair of the House Intelligence Committee during his tenure in Congress, is likely to announce his campaign on Monday.
Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers speaks during a Trump/Vance campaign rally in Flint, Michigan, on Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Rogers won the 2024 GOP Senate nomination in Michigan but narrowly lost to Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the Democrats’ nominee, in last November’s election in the race to succeed longtime Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who retired. Slotkin, who vastly outspent Rogers, edged him by roughly 19,000 votes, or a third of a percentage point.
Asked if a campaign launch by Rogers would affect his decision-making process, Huizenga said “quite honestly, no.”
“I think the question that everyone needs to answer is, who can win? Who can win the state of Michigan, and Michigan politics has shifted, and that’s the reality,” he said.
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Michigan was once part of the Democratic Party’s blue wall states that helped boost the party’s candidates in presidential elections. But President Donald Trump narrowly carried Michigan in his 2016 and 2024 White House victories.
“What we don’t know is whether that Trump coalition of union households, Hispanics, the Arab American population and African Americans, especially males, that came out and supported Donald Trump, along with those independents and Republicans, whether that coalition is going to be held,” Huizenga said.
Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan arrives at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Portage, Michigan, on Nov. 1, 2024. (Bill Huizenga campaign)
And Huizenga pointed to his double-digit re-election margin last year in a competitive House District (his seat is one of 35 House seats Democrats are targeting in next year’s midterms). Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer narrowly won the district in her 2022 re-election victory, and Trump carried the district by six points last November.
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An endorsement by Trump, whose sway over the GOP is stronger than ever, is expected to play a significant role in the Republican Senate primary in Michigan.
And while Trump has yet to weigh in on the race, Rogers earlier this year hired veteran Republican strategist and 2024 Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita as a senior advisor.
Michigan Republican Senate nominee and former Rep. Mike Rogers, right, speaks alongside former President Donald Trump during a campaign event hosted by Trump at the Falk Productions manufacturing facility in Walker, Michigan, on Sept. 27, 2024. ( Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Asked about his relationship with Trump, Huizenga called it “very good” and claimed that “there is one elected official that has spoken at all three of his last rallies [in Michigan], in 2016, 2020 and 2024, and that’s me.”
As for his timetable, Huizenga said: “I’m still going to do my evaluation here, and need to kind of push through on the fundraising and need to make sure that I’m able to get the support that I really need to have to be able to do this kind of run.”
“We’re still more than a year out from the filing deadline, and so there’s a lot of runway here, and so I’m not in a huge hurry,” he added. “It needs to be done soon. But it would seem to me, sometime this summer or right after Labor Day, is more than enough time to make sure that we got the right candidate.”
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And in what appeared to be a comment directed at Rogers, Huizenga added that “it’s better to have the right person at the right time, rather than somebody early on.”
Besides Rogers and Huizenga, business executive, conservative commentator and 2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon has said she’s seriously mulling another run for governor, or for the Senate, in 2026.
And Republican businessman and auto dealership executive Kevin Rinke, who ran for governor in 2022, is also thought to be considering another statewide run next year.
Mallory McMorrow, a Democratic Michigan state Senator, launched a 2026 campaign for the U.S. Senate in the Great Lakes battleground state earlier this month. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)
Earlier this month, Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow launched a campaign for the Democratic Senate nomination.
Reps. Kristen McDonald Rivet and Haley Stevens are considering a run, as is Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Last month, Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who later served as Transportation Secretary in former President Joe Biden’s administration, ruled out a campaign after seriously considering a bid.
