WASHINGTON — Senator Debbie Stabenow, the senior Democratic senator from Michigan and a member of the party leadership, announced on Thursday that she would not seek a fifth term next year.
The statement by Ms. Stabenow, 72, made her the first Democrat to say she would not be on the ballot in 2024 and created an opening in the battleground state, giving her party another seat to defend when Democrats were already bracing for challenges to incumbents in Republican-leaning states such as Ohio, Montana and West Virginia. But Democrats had a strong showing in Michigan in November and quickly expressed confidence in holding the seat.
Ms. Stabenow, the chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee who was first elected in 2000, said she hoped to continue to serve the state outside of elected office.
“Inspired by a new generation of leaders, I have decided to pass the torch in the U.S. Senate,” Ms. Stabenow, the first female senator from Michigan, said in a statement.
“Under the cloud of unprecedented threats to our democracy and our basic freedoms, a record-breaking number of people voted last year in Michigan,” she said. “Young people showed up like never before. This was a very hopeful sign for our future.”
A New Congress Begins
The 118th Congress opened on Jan. 3, with Republicans taking control of the House and Democrats holding the Senate.
Republicans promised to mount a strong campaign for the seat.
“We are going to aggressively target this seat in 2024,” Mike Berg, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement. “This could be the first of many Democrats who decide to retire rather than lose.”
In Michigan, Ms. Stabenow’s announcement set off a frenzy among ambitious Democrats. Representative Elissa Slotkin called allies in the state on Thursday saying she was preparing to announce her candidacy for the Senate as soon as next week. State Senator Mallory McMorrow, who raised millions of dollars after going viral last year defending L.G.B.T.Q. rights, released a statement minutes after Ms. Stabenow’s announcement praising the senator but saying nothing about her own plans.
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The state’s biggest Democratic names disavowed any interest. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Mayor Mike Duggan of Detroit would not run for the Senate, aides said. And Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary who last year moved his official residence from his native Indiana to Michigan, where his in-laws live, said he is “fully focused on serving the president in my role as secretary of transportation and not seeking any other job.”
A Slotkin aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions, said she was “seriously considering running.”
There is little polling to work from. Richard Czuba, a veteran Michigan pollster, said he had done no surveys of potential Senate candidates from either party. Representative Debbie Dingell, a Democrat closely aligned with the state’s labor movement, said she needed more information before backing a candidate — or gauging interest for herself.
“I think that we’ve got to celebrate Debbie today and figure out who the strongest candidates are and not have a free-for-all,” Ms. Dingell said, “and that’s going to take a while.”
The Republican bench in Michigan is shorter than Democrats’. Kevin Rinke, a former car dealer who lost a largely self-funded Republican primary campaign for governor last year, told allies he was considering running. Peter Meijer, the congressman who lost his primary after voting to impeach President Donald J. Trump, said on Thursday he had “no comment” about his interest in the seat.
Democrats have not yet picked the head of their Senate campaign operation. It was led the past two years by Senator Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan, who has said he is not interested in doing the job again after overseeing a one-seat expansion of the majority.
Ms. Stabenow was first elected to local office in 1974 at age 24. She served in the state legislature and the U.S. House before winning her Senate seat in 2000 by defeating the Republican incumbent Spencer Abraham. In the Senate, she is known as an effective and hardworking lawmaker who for the next two years will be overseeing the effort to renew major farm legislation.
“No one embodies the true Michigan spirit more than Debbie Stabenow,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and majority leader. “From the state legislature to the House of Representatives, and for the last two decades in the United States Senate, Debbie has made a difference for Michiganders every step along the way.”
