LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow is not running to keep her seat in 2024 and leaving her life of politics will be a major change. FOX 47 News sat down with the long-serving senator to look at her legacy and where she sees politics headed today.
“I've always believed that it's important to be able to hand the torch, to hand it off to the next generation of leaders while I'm still active," she said of her decision against running in the next election cycle.
Stabenow said another factor in her decision is her mom.
“For me personally, my mom's 96, lives in the Lansing area. I have great desire to spend precious time with her in addition to doing my job, but rather than the rigors of a campaign," she said.
Stabenow acknowledged that politics in America have entered a deeply troubling time.
“We are in a very challenging time where there are those in social media, both people in other countries that want to divide us as well as people in this country who just want to spew out hate and racism and division," she said. "It makes it very, very hard. I think what I focus on is trying to show folks that government, our democracy, can work for them.”
This week’s showdown in the U.S House of Representatives, she tells us, is a good example of electing the very people who don’t believe in the value of government.
“We're now seeing what happens when you have people elected, who don't believe in governing, who don't believe in our democracy, and so it's very concerning," she said.
Stabenow has two more years left serving the people of Michigan.
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