Actor Hill Harper announced his first run for office on Monday, joining the U.S. Senate race in Michigan.
“We can all feel it: D.C. just isn’t getting things done for people. We need representatives who’ll take on special interests, get money out of politics and make our government work for all of us. That’s why today, I’m announcing my campaign for U.S. Senate in Michigan,” he tweeted on Monday.
Harper, known for his roles on “The Good Doctor” and “CSI: N.Y.,” joins a crowded Democratic field vying to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow. According to Harper, he is running for Senate because “we deserve a better brand of politics than politics as usual.”
“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. And that is going backwards,” Harper told The Detroit News. “I think that folks want to see real people-powered representation over big-donor, establishment representation.”
Currently, only three Black men are serving in the U.S. Senate: Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.).
The Harper campaign website touts him as a lawyer, actor, and single dad. He is also the founder of the non-profit Manifest Your Destiny Foundation for underserved youth, has written several books and owns a local coffee shop in Detroit.
Harper dedicated his campaign announcement video to his son, Pierce Hill Harper, whom he adopted.
“You see, the world you’re growing up in doesn’t feel like it’s getting any better. It’s getting more divisive and more dangerous. When you told me you were afraid to go to school because of shootings, that’s not freedom. Our economy works for the richest, while the most vulnerable have to work even harder than ever to keep up. That’s not freedom,” Harper shared in his campaign announcement video.
“At the core of so much of this are too many politicians in office who don’t really care about people,” he added.
Michigan’s Senate seat is crucial for Democrats since the seat flipped from Donald Trump in 2016 to Joe Biden in 2020. The Democrats are defending 23 of the 34 Senate seats up for reelection in 2024, including three seats in states that “backed Trump by at least 8 points in 2020: West Virginia, Montana, and Ohio,” according to CNN. Besides Michigan, the Democratic Party is also defending seats in other key battegrounds states, including Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.