Gary Peters is the senior United States Senator from Michigan, having served in the Senate since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was born in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1958 and earned degrees from Alma College and Michigan State University, later receiving an MBA from the University of Detroit and a law degree from Wayne State University Law School. Before his Senate career, he served three terms in the House representing Michigan's 14th Congressional District in the Detroit suburbs and worked as a financial advisor, professor at Wayne State and Oakland universities, and officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He was elected to the Senate in 2014 and reelected in 2020.
Peters chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees federal agency operations, cybersecurity, and emergency management. He has focused on manufacturing competitiveness, the automotive industry, Great Lakes environmental protection, and veterans' issues throughout his career. His moderate, pragmatic approach has made him effective in building bipartisan coalitions on issues including infrastructure investment and supply chain resilience. He is also a senior member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.