McMorrow drops out of U.S. Senate contest

Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow (D- Royal Oak) announced this afternoon (Sunday, July 5) that she was formally suspending her campaign for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Gary Peters who announced last year he would not be seeking reelection.

She first took office in the Michigan Senate in January of 2019 and gained statewide and national attention in April of 2022 when she responded from the Senate floor to accusations by another lawmaker that McMorrow wanted to “groom and sexualize” elementary school students. McMorrow was a speaker at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

A rumor about the possibility of McMorrow dropping out of the Senate race has been circulating in recent weeks and the story of her formally suspending her campaign was first carried this afternoon by The Detroit News. Shortly thereafter McMorrow made her announcement on social media.

In her announcement McMorrow said that large amounts of outside funding in the political contest was among the reasons that she decided to end her campaign. She did not indicate that she would be endorsing either of the two remaining candidates seeking the Democratic party nomination in the August 4 primary, U.S. House member Haley Stevens or Abdul El-Sayed, former health director for Wayne County.

Although McMorrow since spring of this year had been rising in political polling, her position in polls of late had noticeably declined, leaving her in third place in some polls with a standing of seven percent. El Sayed has gained and slightly leads in some recent polls above Haley Stevens.

McMorrow’s name will still appear on the primary ballots which have been printed. She had been endorsed in the past week by the Detroit Free Press, while Stevens has been endorsed by The Detroit News and Downtown Newsmagazine.