Races for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat and a Lansing-area congressional seat are about to take shape in the coming weeks.
The field for the relatively quiet U.S. Senate race in Michigan is about to expand with several candidates expected to jump in soon, including actor Hill Harper’s long-awaited campaign launch on Tuesday, sources say.
Harper, a Democrat and first-time candidate, is expected to hold launch events in several locations including Detroit and Grand Rapids, according to Democratic allies and invites posted to Facebook.
Harper, known for his roles in ABC’s « The Good Doctor » and CBS’ « CSI: NY, » would be the highest-profile Democrat to challenge three-term Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Lansing, who is viewed as the early frontrunner for her party’s nomination. A source on his team said Harper’s launch video was shot by the Win Company ― veterans of several prominent 2022 campaigns, including Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman.
Harper, an Iowa native and Harvard Law graduate, is the author of several advice books and owns the Roasting Plant coffee shop on Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit. He’s expected to run to Slotkin’s left and has been cheered on by progressives wary of Slotkin’s centrist record and by a number of Black civic leaders who see in Harper a candidate with deep ties to the Black community.
Harper would join other Democratic candidates including Michigan State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh of Saginaw, former state Rep. Leslie Love of Detroit, Dearborn businessman Nasser Beydoun and attorney Zack Burns of Ann Arbor.
Slotkin has already amassed a substantial war chest, having raised $3 million in the first fundraising quarter alone and snagging endorsements from EMILY’s List, 14 labor groups and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham.
A competitive Republican primary is also brewing, with New York Stock Exchange Vice Chair John Tuttle, a Milford native, highly expected to make a run for the nomination, and former Michigan U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers taking steps toward a Senate campaign after months of flirting with a presidential run.
Tuttle, a political novice, is looking seriously at the race and is beginning to figure out who his consulting team will be, according to a GOP source familiar with his plans who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Republican strategists consider Tuttle an attractive candidate who’d be able to raise significant money, and national GOP officials have shown interest. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines of Montana called Tuttle a « strong potential recruit » in May.
Rogers, who is from Howell, has been living in Florida, where he’s registered to vote. But he and his wife have a sale agreement on a property in Michigan and will be closing soon, John Stineman, a GOP consultant and adviser to Rogers, told The Detroit News on Friday.
« Mike will have more to say about it in the coming weeks, » Stineman said.
Rogers, who represented mid-Michigan in Congress from 2001-2015, already has a « solid » voting record as a GOP elected official in the state and would be the « strongest by far in Michigan, » according to his former colleague, retired U.S. Rep. Fred Upton of St. Joseph. Upton noted that Rogers chaired the House intelligence committee and served on the Energy and Commerce panel before going into national security consulting in 2015.
« He’s got standing already, unlike Tuttle or somebody else.
