Stabenow: I'm running in 2018

[Vosem]

Republicans have much better targets than Stabenow in 2018 (as in 2012), so unless there's a true star candidate here I don't expect this race to be competitive. Republicans will be focused on keeping the Governorship.

Snyder maybe just because?

He could legitimately challenge Stabenow, but he strikes me as an "executive" type who isn't particularly interested in being part of a legislature. He might've agreed to run if the seat was safe, to stay in the game (a la Mike Johanns), but I don't think he'll challenge a reasonably popular sitting Senator.

[Vosem]

Republicans have much better targets than Stabenow in 2018 (as in 2012), so unless there's a true star candidate here I don't expect this race to be competitive. Republicans will be focused on keeping the Governorship.

Snyder maybe just because?

He could legitimately challenge Stabenow, but he strikes me as an "executive" type who isn't particularly interested in being part of a legislature. He might've agreed to run if the seat was safe, to stay in the game (a la Mike Johanns), but I don't think he'll challenge a reasonably popular sitting Senator.

You have to go back a long way in Michigan history to identify an outgoing Governor that had any real success after leaving office. The last ex-Governor that ran for a Senate seat was Soapy Williams--who was a popular Governor, by most standards--and he lost to Robert P. Griffin pretty handily.

George Romney served in the Cabinet and John Swainson was appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court, though to be fair those are different types of success. (Swainson resigned from the SCoMI to run for an open Senate seat in 1976, but he was convicted of perjury and actually never returned to public office after the resignation).

[Vosem]

Michigan is dead for the GOP.

That's a rather odd claim, since the GOP controls all statewide executive positions, both chambers of the state legislature safely, and a 9-5 majority in the House election. Although it does typically lose Senate and presidential elections, those are the only ones. The Republican Party is, on balance, probably the stronger of the two in Michigan.

With that said, it probably doesn't make much sense for the Republican Party to make Stabenow a target in 2018 when there's so much lower-hanging fruit, and she probably won't be challenged too seriously. But that doesn't mean the MIGOP isn't quite strong.