Actor Hill Harper has officially entered the race to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), as the highest profile candidate challenging U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin for the Democratic nomination in 2024. 

Harper comes as progressive candidate with a lot of descriptors. The Iowa-born 57-year-old is a union television actor, a small business owner, nonprofit foundation founder, the author of six books – and most importantly as a small business owner who invested in Detroit’s comeback.

He owns the Roasting Plant coffee shop on Woodward Avenue in downtown and says he moved to Detroit in 2018 after buying the historic Charles T. Fisher mansion in the city’s Boston-Edison neighborhood.

Harper is running to Slotkin’s left on policy, supporting progressive causes like a “universal healthcare plan”, a $15 minimum wage and ending the filibuster in the U.S. Senate, which necessitates most bills needing the support of 60 senators to get a vote. 

Harper’s resume includes U.S. Marine Corps Officer Candidates School in 1986 and degrees from Brown University and Harvard Law. The extent of his political involvement is not clear, though he campaigned for President Obama in Iowa and later served on Obama’s Cancer Panel. He also was involved in the One Fair Wage campaign in Michigan.

The actor, who is best known for his roles in ABC’s The Good Doctor and CBS’ CSI: NY, has never run for public office before. He is that third African American candidate to enter the race for U.S. Senate in Michigan.

He says the Senate needs a “richness” of diversity, including life experience, and that he’d help fill that void.

The other two Black candidates are former State Rep. Leslie Love of Detroit and Michigan State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh of Saginaw.

“As an example, if I’m elected to the U.S. Senate, I will be the only U.S. senator who is a current dues-paying, card-carrying union member,” Harper told the Detroit News. “If I’m elected to the U.S. Senate, I will be one of very few small business owners in the U.S. Senate and, I believe, the only Democrat.

“People want to see themselves reflected in their representation, and right now Michiganders don’t feel that way about their Washington, D.C., representation,” he added.

Also, only three Black men currently serve in the U.S. Senate ― Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Tim Scott (R-SC) ― and no Black women. After the retirement of Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Southfield), Michigan has only one African American member in its congressional delegation, freshman Republican U.S. Rep. John James of Shelby Township.

“There’s a high degree of frustration by a lot of Democrats ― not just African American Democrats in Michigan ― that for the first time in 57 years Michigan does not have a Black Democratic representative in Congress,” Harper said. “And that is going backwards. I think that that folks want to see real people-powered representation over big-donor, establishment representation.”

Record fundraising

Slotkin, 46, got a head start campaigning four months ago, has already raised $5.8 million and has about $3.6 million in the bank as of June 30, her team said Monday. 

The Democratic third-term representative raised $2.8 million during the second fundraising quarter, which brings her total raised to $5.8 million in the four months since the Lansing Democrat launched her campaign in late February, which her campaign said is a record, exceeding what other Senate candidates in Michigan raised in their first two quarters.

About 89 percent of all donations have been $100 or less, spokesman Austin Cook said.

A former top Pentagon official, Slotkin built a national fundraising network during her three congressional runs and raised $10 million for her last race for Congress in which she defeated Republican former State Sen. Tom Barrett of Charlotte by 5 percentage points ― a contest that ranked among the most expensive in the country when outside spending was included.

Other declared candidates include Dearborn Arab American businessman Nasser Beydoun and Ann Arbor attorney Zack Burns. 

The contest for Stabenow’s seat could be key in deciding which party controls the chamber in 2025. Democrats hold a 51-49 edge now.