WASKINGTON D.C. (WKZO AM/FM) – Longtime U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan has announced she will not be running for reelection.
In a statement released Thursday morning, Stabenow says she will leave the U.S. Senate at the end of her term on January 3, 2025:
“Inspired by a new generation of leaders, I have decided to pass the torch in the U.S. Senate. I am announcing today that I will not seek re-election and will leave the U.S. Senate at the end of my term on January 3, 2025.
“As part of my own new generation, I was elected to the Ingham County Commission in 1974 at the age of 24. As the youngest and first woman to chair the Board, this began years of breaking barriers, blazing trails, and being the ‘first’ woman to reach historic milestones as an elected official, including the honor of being the first woman from Michigan elected to the U.S. Senate. But I have always believed it’s not enough to be the ‘first’ unless there is a ‘second’ and a ‘third’….
“For the next two years, I am intensely focused on continuing this important work to improve the lives of Michiganders. This includes leading the passage of the next five-year Farm Bill which determines our nation’s food and agriculture policies. It is also key in protecting our land and water and creating jobs in our rural and urban communities.
A member of the Democratic Party, she became the state’s first female U.S. senator after defeating Republican incumbent Spencer Abraham in the 2000 election. Before her election to the Senate, she was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Michigan’s 8th congressional district from 1997 to 2001. Previously she served on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners and in the Michigan State Legislature.
Stabenow was reelected to Senate in 2006, 2012 and 2018. She became the state’s senior U.S. senator upon Carl Levin’s retirement in 2015. Stabenow chaired the Senate Agriculture Committee from 2011 to 2015 and again since 2021. She became chair of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee in 2017.
