Out former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and out Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel are leading the pack in an early poll on the 2026 U.S. Senate primary in Michigan, showing potential for the Senate to have two out LGBTQ+ members.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) is the current senior U.S. senator from Michigan. He announced last week that he would not be seeking reelection, and speculation immediately started about whether Buttigieg would run in that election. Buttigieg lives in Traverse City, Michigan – the hometown of his husband, author Chasten Buttigieg – after the couple bought a home there for their family in 2022.

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A poll from Blueprint Polling found that 77% of likely Democratic primary voters have a positive view of Buttigieg, the highest among the potential candidates that the poll asked about. In a close second place was Nessel, getting a favorable view from 72% of likely Democratic primary voters.

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No other Democrat came close. Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist (D) was in third place with a 45% favorable rating.

When asked who they would vote for, 40% said Buttigieg. Nessel got 16% support, and everyone else got less. Thirty percent of respondents were undecided.

Blueprint then asked participants who they will vote for if Buttigieg doesn’t run, and Nessel came in first with 39% of the vote. “Undecided” got 37% of the vote in this scenario, and Gilchrist was in second place with 9%.

The political landscape in Michigan can change in the next two years, but at this very early stage, the two out LGBTQ+ candidates are dominating the primary. There is currently only one out LGBTQ+ U.S. senator, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). Out Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) held her seat only for the period following the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) until an election could be held and resigned quietly at the end of 2024. Out Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) did not seek reelection in 2024.

Buttigieg – who is also the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and became the first out LGBTQ+ presidential candidate to win a state’s primary when he won Iowa in 2020 – said that he is “taking a serious look” at running for the Senate in 2026. Axios said that a source “close to Buttigieg” told them, “Pete is exploring all of his options on how he can be helpful and continue to serve. He’s honored to be mentioned for this and he’s taking a serious look.”

“I’m excited” that Buttigieg might run for the Senate, Rep. Mark Schauer (D-MI) told The Hill. “I think he is a rare political talent, which he’s demonstrated as the Transportation secretary and on the campaign trail.”

Nessel made a name for herself on the national stage when she pushed for aggressive prosecution of those involved in the 2020 false elector scheme, that is, people who pretended to be Michigan’s representatives to the Electoral College in order to falsely say that the state voted for the GOP candidate in the 2020 election and not President Joe Biden. She has also been a key proponent of LGBTQ+ protections and got the state supreme court to rule that anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination is prohibited under state law.

“She is pleased to see this has been embraced by Democratic voters and is exploring the open U.S. Senate seat as a potential avenue to continue this critical work,” Nessel spokesperson Kimberly Rush told Hotline.

Michigan is a purple state, which means that Democratic primary voters are likely going to be looking for a candidate who both represents their values and has a chance to win in the general election against a Republican candidate. Kamala Harris lost the state by 1.4% of the vote in the 2024 presidential election, but the Democratic senate candidate – Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) – won her election by 1.3%.

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