The race for Michigan’s open Senate seat has its first high-profile candidate. Mallory McMorrow, a Democrat who flipped a state Senate seat in 2018 and gained national attention in 2022 with a viral floor speech,

WASHINGTON — Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow — who has criticized her party for being out-of-touch and too “academic” — lashed out at “Middle America” voters, stood by “coastal elites” and suggested that red and blue states could divorce “amicably” in social media posts from after President Trump’s 2016 election.

Raised in Whitehouse, New Jersey, and educated at Notre Dame, McMorrow is serving her second, four-year term in the state Senate at age 38. She is expected to announce soon her candidacy for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the Democrat Gary Peters.