First prominent Republican enters Michigan Senate race

In a post on Facebook, Land wrote that she’s building a campaign strategy and policy team and will be filing documents on July 1 to run in the primary.

{mosads}”I would like to thank everyone who has been encouraging me to run for US Senate. Representing our magnificent state of Michigan and your interests in Congress would be the greatest honor. We need conservative leadership now more than ever because of high unemployment, huge deficits, and a spendthrift Congress,” she wrote.

Land served two terms as Michigan secretary of State, leaving her post in 2011 due to term limits, and now serves as a Michigan representative to the Republican National Committee.

She won both of her secretary of State races by double-digits and has long been seen as a likely candidate in the race.

Reps. Mike Rogers (R) and Justin Amash (R) are also considering running.

Rep. Gary Peters, currently the only announced Democrat in the race, is the presumptive nominee for the party, having nabbed the endorsements of both of Michigan’s Democratic senators.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in a statement, cast Land as an “extreme” candidate who supported the 2012 national GOP’s platform policies to turn Medicare into a voucher program, ban same-sex marriage and privatize Social Security. 

“By embracing a national partisan plan that would derail economic recovery and privatize Security and Medicare, Terri Lynn Land made it clear she is just another out-of-touch Republican who would be a rubber stamp in Washington for the extreme, right-wing agenda,” said Justin Barasky, a DSCC spokesman.