Congress
State Sen. Mallory McMorrow announces Michigan Senate bid
Mallory McMorrow formally launched a bid on Wednesday to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
The state senator framed herself as an outsider, declaring that the “same old crap out of Washington” wouldn’t fix their problems.
“We need new leaders. Because the same people in D.C. who got us into this mess are not going to be the ones to get us out of it,” she said in a two-and-a-half minute announcement video.
McMorrow, 38, is seen in the party as an effective communicator and a rising star. She attracted attention at last year’s Democratic National Convention after holding up an oversized copy of “Project 2025,” the conservative policy blueprint that ultimately became the backbone of Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn approach to government spending.
She previously said that she wouldn’t support Sen. Chuck Schumer as Senate Minority Leader. He faced intense intraparty backlash for voting to advance a Trump-backed government funding bill opposed by many others in the party.
She has also cautioned that the Democratic Party shouldn’t overcorrect.
“I think that Democratic values and Democratic priorities, especially compared to the chaos that’s being unleashed by Donald Trump right now, are still popular with voters,” she recently told Blue Light News. “We just have to be better messengers and better advocates for people.”
And amid a broader debate in the party over its handling of transgender issues, McMorrow’s launch video included footage of a 2022 viral speech she gave in the Michigan State Senate responding to a state GOP lawmaker who accused her of “grooming” children.
McMorrow’s state Senate district includes part of the city of Detroit and some of its suburban communities.
McMorrow brings to the race a national donor network that she built off her viral speech; by October of 2022, she amassed nearly 13,000 donors from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, raising a total of $2.35 million.
She won’t have the field to herself, and the state is expected to be one of the most hotly contested in the 2026 cycle. Reps. Haley Stevens and Kristen McDonald Rivet could also run, as could Wayne County Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services Director Abdul El-Sayed.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took himself out of contention for the open Senate seat, fueling speculation he’d mount another bid for the presidency in 2028.
Republicans see the state, which Trump won in 2016 and 2024, as a top pickup opportunity on the Senate battlefield. Former Rep. Mike Rogers is expected to launch a bid for the GOP nomination, and Republican Tudor Dixon is also weighing a bid.
Adam Wren contributed to this report
President Donald Trump and top White House officials are privately lobbying Republican senators to delay a ban on intoxicating hemp that’s set to kick in this fall.
At the Trump administration’s urging, the government funding patch the Senate is working to pass this week would push off the forthcoming ban of some cannabis products derived from hemp. But several Republican senators are demanding a vote to strip the delay out and let that prohibition kick in come November.
They’re hearing from the White House about it.
Trump called Sen. Ted Budd on Tuesday night, after the North Carolina Republican filed an amendment to ensure the ban kicks in as mandated on Nov. 12, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to describe the private discussion. On the call, the president discussed creating a federal regulatory framework for hemp but did not ask Budd to withdraw his amendment, the individual added.
“I’ve been asked by lots of people to stand down on this amendment,” Budd told reporters Wednesday.
Budd noted that the Trump administration has had almost nine months to come up with a plan for implementing the ban.
“So why all of a sudden pop up for some seemingly innocent delay?” he asked, accusing the White House of instead preparing to “jam this on some must-pass” funding package at year’s end to further delay the prohibition.
A White House official granted anonymity to discuss the private debate said the Trump administration is seeking “a modest four-week delay” through the Dec. 11 expiration of the funding patch “to allow for productive conversations to continue.” Some synthetic cannabis products would be permanently banned in the meantime, the official added.
The administration lobbying has successfully swayed some Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who said in an interview that “the White House has committed to me that they’re committed to regulate the industry.”
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of hemp-rich Kentucky said the issue came up “in a big way” during Senate Republicans’ private lunch meeting Wednesday. Paul said he spoke in support of delaying the ban and said those arguing for a delay “aren’t very rational.”
“They’re wanting to hold up the funding for the government over one month,” he said. “It’s kind of insane.”
Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is in the Capitol meeting with holdout GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiania as he tries to lock down their support for his confirmation as permanent leader of the Justice Department.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) declined to respond directly Wednesday to Speaker Mike Johnson’s refusal to denounce his former son-in-law Rep. Max Miller over abuse accusations leveled by Moreno’s daughter: “These aren’t accusations in my world,” he said.
“In my world, this is the reality,” Moreno told reporters at the Capitol. “This is not something that is theoretical to me. This is my lived reality of my daughter and my family every single solitary day.”
In an interview with Dasha Burns for Blue Light News’s The Conversation, Johnson declined to take sides in the dispute between Miller (R-Ohio) and Emily Moreno. He called for a House Ethics probe to “play out.”
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