Retired Michigan Supreme Court Justice To Run For U.S. Senate

Retired Michigan Supreme Court Justice Robert A. Young told Republicans gathered in Mount Pleasant Monday that he plans to campaign for the GOP nomination for the seat in Congress currently held by U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Lansing Democrat. He will have at least one primary opponent. Lena Epstein, who chaired President Donald Trump’s campaign in Michigan, said last month that she’s running for the seat.

Young is expected to officially announce his candidacy in the coming days. He made the announcement at a breakfast fundraiser at Birch Run Monday.

Stabenow, 67, is Michigan’s senior U.S. senator, having served since 2001. She represented Michigan’s 8th District in Congress from 1997-2001. Prior to that, she served in the Michigan Legislature.

Judy Rapanos, chairwoman of the 4th District Republicans, old The Detroit News that Young is in the race.(For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Detroit Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, like us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

“It was a wonderful, wonderful announcement,” Rapanos said. “When you get news like that, it riles up the crowd.

Epstein announced her Senate candidacy in May. The 35-year-old businesswoman said Michigan’s support for Trump in the 2016 presidential election shows that voters are ready for another political outsider. U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, of St. Joseph, also is said to be considering running for the seat.

Young, 66, stepped down in April after 18 years on the high court to return to private practice at the Dickinson Wright firm, where he is of counsel in the Lansing office. His term would have expired at the end of 2018. He served as the Michigan Supreme Court’s chief justice for an unprecedented three two-year terms, and was until his retirement the highest-ranking elected African-American in Michigan.

A Detroit native, he attended Detroit Country Day School, graduated from Harvard College in 1974 and Harvard Law School in 1977. He joined the Dickinson Wright firm in 1978, and was made a partner in 1982.

He was appointed to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1995 and to the Supreme Court in 1999. He also has served as an adjunct professor in pretrial advocacy at Michigan State University School of Law since 2015. Previously, he was an adjunct professor at Wayne State University from 1979-84 an again from 1997-2015.

Earlier this year, Republicans eager to reclaim Stabenow’s seat bandied around the name of Kid Rock as a challenger to Stabenow, and Ted Nugent said he might also consider a run, but neither was regarded as a serious candidate.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)