Top Six U.S. Senate Candidates from Michigan Will Debate One Another at Mackinac Policy Conference

Sandy Baruah, President and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, announced today that the Mackinac Policy Conference later this month will play host to a combined debate between the top three Democrat and Republican candidates for the soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat in Michigan. Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow announced in January 2023 that she will retire at the end of her term, opening up her seat for this year’s election. She was first elected to the chamber in 2000 and is a member of Democratic leadership at the national level, but said she will look to hand power to younger lawmakers while she returns to private life. Invitations went out to Democratic candidates Nasser Beydoun, Hill Harper, and U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, and Republican candidates Former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, Sandy Pensler, and Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers. “We are doing this very similar to how we did the gubernatorial debate in 2018. We’re going to take the top three polling candidates in each party and that will provide our invite list,” Baruah said. The research and polling firm Glengariff Group conducted a statewide poll to determine the candidates that the Chamber invited to take part in the debate. According...