Pete Buttigieg is expected to announce Thursday he will not run for Michigan’s open Senate seat, according to a person briefed on his decision, clearing a path for a potential presidential campaign instead.
His decision was framed by several allies and people in his inner circle as putting him in the strongest possible position to seek the presidency, and based on a belief it would be exceedingly difficult to run successive campaigns in 2026 and 2028.
The former Transportation secretary acknowledged recently he had been “looking” at a Senate campaign, including meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to discuss the possibility.
Democrats are scrambling to hold onto the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters in a crucial swing state. Republicans see it as a top pickup opportunity after coming close to flipping the state’s other Senate seat last cycle.
Buttigieg, who ran for president in 2020, moved to Traverse City, Michigan, with his young family, after four years of working in former President Joe Biden’s Cabinet. The workload of Cabinet-related travel — and the prospect of starting a campaign soon after — weighed in his calculus, people close to him said.
Before opting out of a Senate run, Buttigieg also ruled out a run for Michigan governor. Polling indicated that had he run, he would’ve started in a dominant position in a primary.
“The hardest decision in politics is to pass on a race you have a very good chance to win,” said David Axelrod, the longtime Democratic operative who helped lead Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, and a mentor to Buttigieg who spoke with him Wednesday. “Pete was an A-list recruit and would have been a formidable candidate for the Senate had he chosen to run. But had he won in ’26, it would almost certainly have taken him out of the conversation for ’28. This certainly keeps that option open. Beyond that, I have a sense that he wanted to spend more time with his family, and with people in communities like his, where the conversations and concerns are so different than the ones you hear in the echo chamber of Washington.”
Buttigieg’s decision reshapes the Senate primary for a seat Democrats are desperate to hold after President Donald Trump won Michigan in November. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow told fellow Michigan Democrats she will run for the seat. And Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) has taken steps toward a Senate run, including hiring staff.
“He wanted to decide quickly enough to give other folks a chance to mobilize if they wanted to run,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who talked with Buttigieg several times as he made up his mind. “He handled it responsibly. He’s a rising star in the Democratic Party.”
Now Buttigieg is eyeing another presidential run in 2028, a contest that sees him polling behind only his party’s most recent standard bearer, former Vice President Kamala Harris, who is weighing a potential gubernatorial bid in California.
He also has maintained a robust fundraising network in the party, having raised more than $15 million for the Harris-Walz campaign last year.
If he runs for president, Buttigieg could be hampered by his involvement in an unpopular Biden administration. But there are other factors in the post-2024 landscape that could favor him. At a time when the Democratic Party is searching for new ways and places to reach voters, Buttigieg has long made those efforts central to his political project.
As he considers a run, he’s started to become more visible in recent days, something a person familiar with his strategy said will continue. In the last week alone, he joined “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” hosted a Bluesky ask-me-anything and an Instagram chat with Paul Rieckhoff, an independent veteran advocate and host of a weekly news show. The two talked about Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts to the Department of Veteran Affairs.
“We need you now more than ever,” Rieckhoff, who spoke about Buttigieg running for president, told Buttigieg.
Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
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