On the ballot in 2024 will be a Senate seat in Michigan, where incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow is retiring. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who previously announced her campaign for the Democratic nomination to succeed Stabenow, led every Republican challenger against which she was pitted in new polling from Emerson College done earlier this month, suggesting a solid path ahead for the Democrats.
Slotkin also led among named candidates in the Democratic primary as measured by this pollster, although many respondents said they either didn’t yet know who they’d support or were intending on backing someone else. Not only including GOP candidates who’ve actually announced a campaign, the pollsters contemplated five Republicans who Slotkin might face in the general election in 2024, and she was ahead of all five, with from 42 to 45 percent of the support. The potential Republican challengers included former Congressman Peter Meijer and James Craig, a former deputy mayor of Detroit.
In general, Republicans have recently fared poorly in statewide elections in Michigan, having lost the state in the 2020 presidential race. Republicans also lost in high-profile races for governor and other state-level offices that were held there last year. Kristina Karamo, who was the Republican nominee for Secretary of State in Michigan last year and lost, is now the chairperson of the state GOP. She has previously expressed support for conspiracy theories about the handling of U.S. elections and even filed a lawsuit amid her 2022 contest that, at least at one stage, could have threatened thousands of mail-in ballots in Detroit with an insistence on such ballots being picked up by voters rather than mailed. Karamo lost in that lawsuit.
Elsewhere in the country, also closely watched will be the Senate race in Texas, where incumbent Republican Ted Cruz will be seeking another term. Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) already launched a high-profile campaign to challenge Cruz, though he’s since been joined in the Democratic primary by a Texas legislator who’s worked on gun violence issues in the state, Roland Gutierrez.
