I know she already ruled it out, but Gretchen Whitmer would undoubtedly be the best candidate here. I imagine she wants to keep serving as Governor to prepare for a potential White House bid / VP candidacy in 2028 (or 2024 if Biden doesn’t run), or maybe a cabinet position in the future.
That said, Slotkin would be a very good candidate and it seems like she may already be clearing the field to a degree. We’ll see, though. She would be giving up a competitive House seat, though, so I’m not sure if she’s my personal favorite. I’d rather have her defend her House seat and see someone like Haley Stevens run.
As for Republicans: they don’t have a great bench. Peter Meijer probably won’t win a Republican primary, and John James has already lost 2 senate races (but I wouldn’t be surprised if he ran again). Otherwise, not sure who the GOP’s top candidate is.
If both James and Slotkin get the nominations then they'd both be abandoning competitive House districts, so it almost cancels works out for Democrats if they can recruit good enough candidates in both districts.
