Senator Todd Young (R., Ind.) told colleagues on Tuesday that former representative Peter Meijer is planning to announce a run for retiring Senator Debbie Stabenow’s seat (D., Mich.) within 48 hours, Politico scooped earlier today. Meijer, who launched a Senate exploratory committee back in August, did not immediately respond to a call from National Review Wednesday morning about his plans.
If Meijer launches a bid for the GOP Senate nomination, he will face former Detroit police chief James Craig and former House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers in the primary. Whoever wins the GOP nomination is expected to face an uphill general-election battle in blue-leaning Michigan, where Representative Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.) is currently the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. Actor Hill Harper is also running as a Democrat.
Meijer, an Iraq veteran and heir to the Meijer grocery chain fortune, has been teasing a run for a while now after first publicly acknowledging his interest in running in an interview with the Dispatch earlier this year. “We learned a really hard lesson in November of 2022,” Meijer told me back in February. “We need to look at who can win the general election in November of 2024. And I think it’s important that we have that focus in mind, and so I’m not discounting any possibility.”
Recall that Meijer, who in 2021 voted to impeach then-president Donald Trump, lost his GOP primary to a Trump-backed opponent in 2022. That impeachment vote during Meijer’s single term in office would likely haunt him in a statewide primary, especially if Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner, endorses a candidate in the race.
A source flags for National Review that Jamie Roe, who formerly worked as general consultant for Meijer’s 2020 congressional campaign, is now consulting for the Rogers campaign.