Detroit's Joe Tate enters crowded Democratic field for U.S. Senate

The former Democratic House Speaker says he's running so his constituents have a voice.

Former Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate. Photo: Samuel Robinson

State representative Joe Tate, D-Detroit, is joining a crowded field of Michigan Democrats running for Congress.

The race for Michigan’s Senate seat being left open by retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters is shaping up to me one of the most important for Democrats vying to regain the majority in 2026. A number of formidable candidates are testing the waters: former Wayne County health director Abdul El-Sayed, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens already announced campaigns.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Tate credited his grandparents, who came to Detroit from the South as part of the Great Migration.

“There was no hope of a fair shot in Alabama,” Tate said in a video released Monday.

Tate’s campaign was made public first by Bloomberg and AP, without any direct acknowledgment from Tate himself until he posted the announcement video the next day. Typically, candidates litter social media accounts with announcement news and share Act Blue donation links to drum up attention and raise money.

He told me at the commercial gym where we’re both members on Sunday it was a quiet launch day because it was Mother’s Day. He told me he’s running to give local residents a voice.

His campaign is hoping some of those residents have a short memory.

Though Tate will tout a number of notable achievements during his time as Speaker (repealing Michigan’s right to work law and state pension tax, universal background checks to purchase firearms, free breakfast and lunch for school children, clean energy laws and legalizing abortion rights), it’s impossible to ignore how the final days of his speakership ended.