The 2014 United States Senate election in Michigan was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Michigan, concurrently with the election of the governor of Michigan, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Incumbent Democratic Senator Carl Levin decided to retire instead of running for a seventh term. Primary contests took place on August 5, 2014, with U.S. Representative Gary Peters and former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land unopposed on the Democratic and Republican primary ballots, respectively. Peters defeated Land in the general election, becoming the only freshman Democratic senator in the 114th Congress.
This was the first open seat election in Michigan since 1994 and the first on this seat since 1918. As Republican Governor Rick Snyder concurrently won a second term, 2014 was also the first time since 1990 that the winner of the Michigan U.S. Senate race was of a different political party than that of the concurrent gubernatorial election.
After Terri Lynn Land declared her candidacy in June 2013, Republicans attempted to recruit U.S. Representative Dave Camp and Oakland County District Court Judge Kimberly Small to run instead. Camp, after earlier having said that he was not interested in running, reconsidered it, and Land indicated that she would consider dropping out if Camp decided to run. Republicans were initially reluctant to rally around Land, but after Camp and Small declined to run, other Republicans like U.S. Representative Justin Amash and Holland Mayor Kurt Dykstra also said no, and a late attempt to convince cardiologist Rob Steele to run failed, Land emerged as the de facto nominee.
Early on, the open seat was considered to be competitive. However, various missteps by the Land campaign as well as Land's reluctance to appear in public after suffering a meltdown in front of the media in May, weighed down the Land campaign, allowing Peters to open up a consistent lead in the polls beginning in September. The Republican establishment effectively gave up on Land's campaign the following month.
Peters agreed to four debates; Land did not respond to invitations. Negotiations between the Land and Peters campaigns broke down over the format of proposed debates between the two candidates.
With Dingell<br />
With Granholm<br />
With Levin<br />
With LOLGOP<br />
With Peters<br />
Peters was declared the winner right when the polls closed in Michigan.
Peters won nine of 14 congressional districts, including four that elected Republicans.
Land ended up paying a fee of $66,000 to the Federal Election Commission for a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act related to the 2014 campaign.
Peters would run again in 2020 to retain the Senate seat he won, while Land would go on to win a seat on the Board of Governors for Wayne State University in the same year.
Official campaign websites (Archived)