Pete Buttigieg says he is ‘looking’ a possible race in the Senate in 2026 in Battleground Michigan

Pete Buttigieg He said he is contemplating a career for the Senate next year in his adopted native state of Michigan.

“I have been looking at it,” said the former secretary of the Department of Transportation and former presidential candidate in his last interview, while indicating the emerging race to succeed Senator Gary Peters. The two -period Democrat announced in January that he will not seek re -election in 2026.

“I will continue working on the things that matter to me,” Buttigieg explained when he appeared Tuesday night at “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” by CBS.

Buttigieg emphasized: “I have not decided what that means professionally, whether it means that it is appropriate for a position soon or not. But I will make myself useful.”

Why did Pete Buttigieg met with this upper Democrat?

In a signal signal is contemplating a campaign of the Senate in the fundamental state of Great Lakes Battleground, a family source confirmed to Fox News that Buttigieg knew last week with the leader of the Senate minority Chuck Schumer In New York, the leader of the Chamber Democrats for a long time.

Buttigieg, 43, a former naval intelligence officer who deployed in the war in Afghanistan and served eight years as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was a long -term candidate when he launched his 2020 presidential campaign.

Appearance in Buttigieg in this most speculation radius radio program of 2028

But his campaign caught fire, and by little surpassed Senator Bernie Sanders de Vermont to win the Iawa Caucus before approaching Sanders in the New Hampshire Presidential Primary. But Buttigieg, together with the rest of the democratic field, left the race and supported Joe Biden when the then vice president of the formator won the primary South Carolina in a landslide, swept the contests of the Super Tuesday and finally closed the nomination before winning the White House.

The Millennial Democrat, who served as Secretary of Transportation of Biden for four years, has maintained popularity within the Democratic Party as one of his younger stars.

Buttigieg in recent months has stressed that its goal is to stay involved. In a radio interview in December near the end of his mandate as secretary of Transportation, he said: “I will find ways to make myself useful, and maybe that is running for a position, and perhaps that is not. I will take the next weeks and months to overcome that.”

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And shortly after Peters revealed in January that he would not seek re -election, a source familiar with Buttigieg’s thinking told Fox News Digital: “Pete is exploring all his options on how it can be useful and continue serving … he is honored to be mentioned by this, and is watching seriously.”

After their presidential campaign of 2020, Buttigieg and his spouse, chastten, they moved from Indiana Indiana to Michigan neighbor, and have a home in traverse City.

Buttigieg is not the only Democrat who looks hard to happen to Peters.

It is likely that state senator Mallory McMorrow launches a Democratic campaign. McMorow caught national attention in 2022 after pronouncing a speech on the floor in the Michigan Senate, which was seen as a model to counteract republican attacks.

Among the other Democrats who have expressed interest in the race are Michigan’s attorney general of two periods, Dana Nesse and representative Haley Stevens, D-MI.

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Former representative Mike Rogers, R-MI, He announced at the end of January that he was “strongly considering” a second consecutive republican race for the Senate in Michigan.

Rogers won the nomination of the Senate of the 2024 Republican Party in Michigan, but losing to the representative Elissa Slotkin, the nominated of the Democrats, in the elections last November in the race to succeed the Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, who retired. Slotkin, who greatly spent Rogers, exceeded it for approximately 19,000 votes, or a third of a percentage point.

Rogers is a former FBI special agent who later served as president of the Chamber’s Intelligence Committee during his mandate in Congress.

While Rogers was the first Republican to make a movement publicly to launch a 2026 Senate campaign in Michigan, republican sources told Fox News last month that others who can consider running are representatives John James, who is in his second mandate in the Chamber and was nominated for the Senate of the Republican Party in Michigan in 2018 and 2020, and the representative of a long time Bill Huizenga.

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The Michigan Senate race is considered a “shaking” by the best non -partisan political disability The Cook political report.

Republicans currently control Senate 53-47, after turning four seats from blue to red in the elections last November.

The party in power, clearly the Republicans at this time, traditionally faces winds against the mid -period elections. However, an early reading of map 2026 indicates that the Republican Party can offend in some key states.

Together with Michigan, Republicans will also go to Battleground Georgia, where first -term Democratic senator Jon Ossoff is considered vulnerable.

And in Swing State New Hampshire, the lifelong Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen, has not yet said if she will look for another term in the Senate when she is ready for re -election next year.

And the Republican Party is looking at Minnesota with a blue trend, where Democratic Senator Tina Smith announced last month that she would not seek re -election in 2026.

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But Republicans are also playing defense in the 2026 cycle.

The Democrats plan to go to the offensive in Maine with a blue trend, where the moderate senator of the Republican Party Susan Collins is ready for re -election, as well as in Battleground North Carolina, where Republican senator Thom Tillis is also in 2026.

And the Democrats are looking at Ohio with a red trend, where Republican Lieutenant Jon Husted was appointed in January to succeed Vice President JD Vance in the Senate. Husted will run next year to finish the term of Vance.

Julia Johnson de Fox News contributed to this report