Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow became the first Democrat to announce her candidacy for retiring U.S. Sen. Gary Peters’s (D-MI) seat Wednesday. The race is expected to be one of the most hotly contested in the 2026 elections.

State Senator Mallory McMorrow of Michigan, a Democrat from the Detroit suburbs, jumped into her state’s U.S. Senate race on Wednesday, becoming the first prominent candidate to enter the contest, which will help decide control of the chamber next fall.

We need new leaders. Because the same people in DC who got us into this mess are not going to be the ones to get us out of it,” McMorrow declared in her campaign launch video.