Debbie Stabenow Won’t Seek Reelection in 2024, Making a Trickier Senate Map for Democrats

On Thursday morning, Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow announced that she will not seek reelection in 2024. “Inspired by a new generation of leaders, I have decided to pass the torch in the U.S. Senate,” Stabenow said in a statement.

While many congressional announcements can feel full of filler materials, statements like these warrant closer attention at every line. And as Democrats will now have to protect yet another seat in an exceedingly difficult Senate map, the question of who may earn the bid to do so is already buzzing.

Stabenow highlighted how she was the first woman from Michigan elected to the Senate, among other milestones. But, Stabenow continued, “I have always believed it’s not enough to be the ‘first’ unless there is a ‘second’ and a ‘third.’” This may give a clue as to who Stabenow may support among an already wide potential field of candidates.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer led a commanding reelection in November, on the same scale that led the media to fawn over Florida’s Ron DeSantis. Such a performance may be an antecedent to a presidential run, but Biden’s future decision, among other things, could readily skew that calculus. If so, a Whitmer bid for the Senate (especially one blessed by Stabenow) would be formidable.

Former Representative Andy Levin could also lead a strong candidacy. Levin, who is Jewish, was a target of inordinate spending from AIPAC—which has funded scores of conservative and election-denying candidates—in his primary loss to Haley Stevens in 2022. Previously endorsed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, J Street, and an array of unions, Levin offers progressives a unifying vessel to rally behind in a state hospitable for a strong Democratic performance.

Other rising Democratic stars in Michigan include: Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist (who would be Michigan’s first Black senator), Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (who won a crucial reelection in 2022), and Attorney General Dana Nessel (the first openly LGBT person elected statewide).

And then there is Pete Buttigieg. After catapulting from mayor of a town with a smaller population than Fargo, North Dakota, to momentarily well-known presidential candidate, to now being the face of transportation while millions of people get skeeved by big airlines, Mayor Pete had moved to Michigan earlier this year to apparently be closer to family.

But as 2024 approaches—and his boss may run for reelection—it seems Buttiegeig may have high hopes to carpetbag himself into winning a seat against a wide, strong field of candidates actually from the state.

Lauren Boebert seems to think that just because the House of Representatives is at a standstill, so is the entire U.S. government.

The far-right Colorado representative spent all Tuesday trying to spin the six consecutive fruitless votes for speaker of the House as a win, insisting that if Congress wasn’t able to do anything, then it couldn’t spend money.

But as MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle pointed out, that’s not the case at all.

Any legislation passed in the previous Congress, such as the enormous $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package, is already in motion. Just because the House is completely dysfunctional now doesn’t put that funding on hold.

It’s worth noting that federal spending also covers items such as Boebert’s salary, transportation, and security, so she should probably hope that it doesn’t stop.

Boebert is one of 21 holdouts against Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker of the House. She and 18 other far-right Republicans have voted against him every round. They were joined at the end of Tuesday by Representative Byron Donalds, whom the group put forward as a challenger on Wednesday. Representative Victoria Spartz switched Wednesday from voting “yes” to McCarthy to “present.”

Boebert insisted on the House floor Wednesday that McCarthy does not have the votes to become speaker and should withdraw. In the weirdest twist, Fox News host Sean Hannity noted that she and her cohort also do not have enough votes and should probably also withdraw.

The anti-McCarthy group is refusing to budge, though, and other Republicans have inadvertently begun to say the quiet part out loud: They don’t actually care that much about governing, anyway.

Kevin McCarthy has now gone 0–6 in his attempts to become the speaker of the House, with Wednesday’s three votes being entirely identical. Meanwhile, some right-wingers have been admitting that since the Republican project doesn’t stand for much, other than putting their thumbs down, they could realistically pick anyone for the job.

Indeed, Republicans, who spend their days decrying Democrats as radicals who will not compromise or “work with the other side,” are once again proving that they have no interest in actually governing. That’s the whole point of their project: little government involvement in helping people lead a better life. And they’re finding more avenues to articulate this. “The stakes for the speakership of the House are incredibly low,” Ben Shapiro argued, “because all the leader of the House, basically, has to do is say ‘no’ to most of Joe Biden’s proposals.”

Some conservatives are even explicitly arguing that Congress’s inability to pick a speaker and conduct the people’s business is good, because, as Representative Tim Burchett, who backs McCarthy, says happily, “If we’re not doing anything, we’re not doing anything.”

And just as some on the right are openly revealing how hollow the conservative project really is, others are admitting how the wheels of Republican politics tend to turn: not by the will of voters but by which way the wind of the most conspiratorial among them blows. Representative Guy Reschenthaler, who has backed McCarthy’s speakership bid, said Tuesday that the Republicans holding out might change their mind once Fox News’s Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity weigh in. Since then, the stalemate has only grown, and there is no clear end in sight.

As with nearly every drama in Congress, we are reminded once again of the apathetic, cynical conservative project, one that is devoid of any concern with making people’s lives better.

Kevin McCarthy yet again failed to secure the House speaker gavel, after six rounds of voting stretched over two days.

Despite holding a majority in the House, Republicans still can’t coalesce behind McCarthy—or any other candidate for that matter.

McCarthy secured only 201 votes, with Democrat Hakeem Jeffries again securing a plurality of 212 votes. As in the prior two rounds of voting, 20 Republicans voted against McCarthy and for Florida Representative Byron Donalds instead. An additional Republican, Representative Victoria Spartz, voted present for the third time, as a separate form of rebuking McCarthy. Despite the endless hours stuck in the House’s chambers, the dissenters haven’t shown any indication of budging yet.

McCarthy’s loss is especially impressive, given that it means three failures on the same day that former President Donald Trump endorsed his bid for House speaker.

It’s not clear when this floor fight will end, and the House cannot begin governing until there is a speaker. There’s no set deadline, so the drama could be resolved this week or take weeks, or even months, to resolve.

Earlier in the day, Representative Lauren Boebert said former President Donald Trump called the 20 Republicans blocking McCarthy’s bid and told them they “need to knock this off.” No luck, yet.

This post has been updated.

Byron Donalds has become the new preferred House speaker candidate for the Republican bloc opposing Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the gavel. The Florida congressman made waves Tuesday when he defected from McCarthy, voting instead for Representative Jim Jordan on the third vote.

Donalds was nominated for House speaker twice on Wednesday, and secured all 20 Republican votes against McCarthy.

Who is Byron Donalds beyond, as his initial nominator, Representative Chip Roy, said, a “Christian,” a “family man,” and now the second Black man nominated to lead the House?

Donalds, like Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Having earned degrees in finance and marketing, Donalds worked at various financial and wealth management firms.

As a young man, Donalds had been arrested on a marijuana charge, which was apparently dropped through a pretrial diversion program. A few years later, Donalds pleaded guilty to a felony bribery charge for his role in a plot to defraud a bank—the charge was later expunged. “These were the actions of a young kid, I can’t undo that,” Donalds told a Fox affiliate in 2014.

Donalds first unsuccessfully ran for Florida’s 19th congressional district in 2012. In 2016, he was elected to the Florida state House, going on to win the 19th congressional seat in 2020.

The Florida congressman came into Congress alongside a group of Republicans who called themselves the “Freedom Force,” a counterpart to the Democratic “Squad” that vowed to combat the supposed “evil” of socialism.

Part of this mission apparently entailed lobbying for federal funding for a cobalt plant—one started by an entrenched Republican consultant who once ran the Conservative Leadership PAC and led a firm that netted nearly $1 million from Republican campaigns.

Donalds also enjoyed support from former President Donald Trump in 2020 and 2022. Donalds returned the initial favor, voting to object to the certification of Arizona’s and Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election results.

In November, Donalds competed against Representative Elise Stefanik for the role of conference chair, the fourth-highest-ranking position in leadership. Stefanik, who has proudly positioned herself as a Trump supporter, had already endorsed Trump for the 2024 elections; Donalds has not yet done so. Stefanik won the position.

Alliances, just like those in the broader competition for House speaker, are not entirely clear. Trump and many of his allies have stood behind McCarthy. Meanwhile, Donalds and the 19 other Republicans going against McCarthy, who previously echoed how much they love Trump, now say even his support isn’t enough.