In a surprising announcement Thursday morning, Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow said she will not run for re-election in 2024, giving us our first potentially competitive open seat contest of the cycle.
The 72-year-old’s decision adds to an already challenging presidential year map for Democrats, where they’re defending 23 seats to just 11 for Republicans. Among those nearly two dozen are ones that President Biden lost by double digits in Montana and West Virginia, and by eight points in Ohio. Biden carried Michigan in 2020 by almost three points after Donald Trump had won it in 2016 by just 10,704 votes.
There are now two open seats on the 2024 map, following Indiana Sen. Mike Braun’s decision to run for governor. However, the open Indiana seat is easily favored to stay in Republican hands, while the GOP already indicates they intend to target this new Michigan open seat. But recent statewide elections in the state, coupled with a long list of strong potential Democratic candidates and the possible difficulty of getting strong Republicans through a primary, mean Democrats
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