I have not always been the biggest fan of Pete “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg. I thought the way he conducted his 2020 presidential primary campaign was craven. He made his name in a shrewd way, sure, but at the expense of pushing the party away from the kinds of populist ideas it now regrets not embracing.

Pete Buttigieg is taking a serious look at seeking a Senate seat in Michigan after Sen. Gary Peters announced he wouldn’t run for another term, according to a person familiar with his thinking.

Peters led the Democrats' Senate campaign efforts from 2021 to 2025 and helped the party hold control of the chamber in 2022 before Republicans flipped it last year.

Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan announced Tuesday that he will not seek reelection in 2026, leaving Congress at the end of his second term and opening up a highly competitive battleground Senate seat.

His unexpected retirement in the battleground states comes in an already difficult Senate cycle for Democrats.

They will need to defend an open seat in a battleground state that President Trump carried in 2024. And Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ruled out a run.

The Washington Post’s senior political reporter Aaron Blake contends the defeated Democratic Party is without an obvious leader coming out of the 2024 race and has yet to define a clear message to voters.

In the heat of the 2020 Democratic primary, Joe Biden attacked Pete Buttigieg in a now-deleted ... New York Times called you the “Democratic Party’s acknowledged best-of-class communicator.”

Democrat Gary Peters' announcement means Michigan will have an open U.S. Senate seat for the second time in two years.

Buttigieg, who was mayor of South Bend, Indiana, moved to his husband Chasten’s home state of Michigan in 2020 after losing to President Biden in the Democratic primary that same year.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is eyeing a potential bid to represent Michigan in the US Senate after Democrat Gary Peters announced Tuesday he would not seek a third term, leaving open one of the most competitive seats in the 2026 cycle.