MI-SEN 2024 Megathread - Meijer out

[Spectator]

I’m sure James running for Senate is what he and the NRSC want, but it would simultaneously endanger MI-10 which he only barely won and went for every other Democrat statewide easily. Can’t imagine in a 3 seat or less House majority that that would be popular among McCarthy and the likes. Frankly I’m not even sure James would be a strong candidate either.

[Spectator]

Slotkin is the best choice IMO

https://twitter.com/reidepstein/status/1611041993303683077

She’s one of the strongest I’ll give her that, but that house seat is pretty vulnerable, given that she only won it by about 5 points last year.

Her 5 point win was essentially a landslide, especially against a highly touted state senator and in an R+3 GCB.

[Spectator]

Has Benson said anything? She makes the most sense since she wouldn’t be leaving a House seat open.

[Spectator]

Slotkin probably beats John James but it makes you wonder what people like Nessel and Benson are calculating if they pass on this opportunity. Both of them can't be governor. I guess Benson could run for Attorney General in 2026 since she is a Harvard-educated lawyer, but that seems like almost a lateral step rather than climbing the ladder.

[Spectator]

https://twitter.com/ChadLivengood/status/1612566102520877063

Yes, rehashing the 2022 Secretary of State race at the Senate level is an excellent line of attack 🙄

[Spectator]

Probably just me, but I think Slotkin should consider dropping out and running for reelection instead.

If Harper runs a progressive enough campaign, she will lose the primary, as black voters+progressives is enough to win the primary.

Not a chance.  He’ll be lucky to crack 10% in the primary.

A point I've made before is there's this bizarre mindset that Democrats are just as obsessed with celebrity candidates as Republicans are when with the obvious exception of Al Franken, it's very difficult to come up with any examples of them nominating one. If we include professional athletes you could count Heath Shuler although that was now quite awhile ago, and currently Colin Allred, but he was nominated largely on his legal work and work with the Obama Administration instead of his sports career (he didn't even play for a team popular in the area he represents.) After that the only example I can think of is John Hall who played in some B-tier yacht rock band that was mildly popular in the 70s and served two terms as very generic D backbencher in the House from 2007-2011. I'm sure if you dug hard enough you could find something like a State Senator somewhere who was on a reality TV show like 15 years ago, but regardless the point is clear.

Raphael Warnock and Wes Moore are the most obvious and recent examples of celebrities turned Democrat politicians.  And this really isn't hard if you inclusively define celebrity to mean "previously known for something other than politics" - a majority of Democrats' freshman House class in 2018 had no previous elected experience. 

I wouldn’t call those celebrities in the common sense of the word. No one knew who the hell either of those were prior to their runs unless you went to Warnock’s church or read Moore’s book.

[Spectator]

On the one hand, aesthetically Craig was perfect. On the other hand, if he was that horrible at actually campaigning, he would have stood no chance against Slotkin.

Rogers is certainly underwhelming and leaves much to be desired, but he's a much stronger candidate than the two hedge fund managers(McCormick/Hovde), so I still think MI is still viable for the GOP. He probably needs Trump to win MI though.

Yeah Craig would not have a run a good campaign if he was so incompetent at the very basics. He could've easily gotten the nomination in MI-Gov 22 and MI-Sen 24 if he wasn't a disaster. Him dropping out now is a sign that an actual campaign would not have succeeded.

Craig is among the most disappointing Republican "rising stars" of the decade, alongside Majewski in neighboring Ohio.

Majewski was never a “rising star”. He was a weirdo that painted a Trump sign into his yard.

[Spectator]

Who even is in the Trumpist lane in the primary? Rogers hardly seems it given his anti-Trump rhetoric up until the minute he ran for Senate.