Congressman Bill Huizenga isn’t laying out a timetable for making a decision on whether to run for the U.S. Senate, but he’s feeling pretty good about the idea.
Huizenga announced last month he was weighing a Senate run to replace Gary Peters as Peters retires from the chamber. Huizenga tells us the reaction has been positive since he put out that word.
“I’ve gotten a lot of phone calls, a lot of encouragement, people who want to win the Senate seat here in Michigan,” Huizenga said. “The Republicans had a good election night just a few months ago, six months ago. There was unfortunately one exception to that, and that was the Senate seat.”
Huizenga says Mike Rogers had a good run for the Senate last time, but he believes insiders shouldn’t be the ones to pick the candidate to replace Peters.
“The Senate leadership has picked their candidate, same guy who ran last time, but I truly believe that this should not be a decision by Senate leadership. This needs to be from Michigan voters. So we’re keeping our options very wide open and moving ahead with this.”
Rogers has already announced his candidacy, so if Huizenga jumps in the race, there would be a primary. Huizenga tells us he’s not worried about leaving a Republican vacancy in the House as he believes there would be no shortage of good candidates to seek his current spot.
Huizenga was first elected to Congress in 2011 and serves on the House Financial Services Committee, among others. The last Republican to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate was Spencer Abraham, who served through 2001.
