To clarify a couple of facts ....
I couldn't find a thread for this, so I made one. Here are the basics of the race:
Democrats
Senator Debbie Stabenow was first elected to the senate in 2000 narrowly, however, she had previously served in the House for several years. In total, she has been an elected official since 1979. She was easily reelected to the senate in 2006 and 2012. She is unlikely to face any primary challenge
http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Debbie_Stabenow.htm
According to her issue statements and voting record, she is solidly liberal.
Stabenow served four years in the U.S. House. Prior to that, her first elected office was to a county government position -- Ingham County Board of Commissioners -- in 1974. She served four years there, followed by twelve years in the Michigan House of Representatives, and four years in the Michigan Senate. She lost the Democratic primary for Governor in 1994, but won her first of two terms in the U.S. House two years later.
I do agree that she has a solidly liberal voting record. Her approval ratings from Americans for Democratic Action have, for the years 1997 to 2015, been an average of 95.25% (for some reason, ADA has not yet published their approval scores for last year).
http://www.adaction.org/pages/publications/voting-records.phpI don't think any Republican can beat her. Judge Young would certainly be an interesting match, and has the potential of doing better than her 2006 and 2012 opponents, but I think there is very little chance of he or anyone else getting with 4 points of her.
