Pete Buttigieg on Thursday ruled out a run for an open Democrat-held Senate seat in his adopted home state of Michigan.

And the move by the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, who served four years as Transportation secretary in the Biden administration, appears to clear the path for a potential 2028 White House bid by Buttigieg.

“I care deeply about who Michigan will elect as Governor and send to the U.S. Senate next year, but I have decided against competing in either race,” Buttigieg said in a statement on social media.

But Buttigieg emphasized that “while my own plans don’t include running for office in 2026, I remain intensely focused on consolidating, communicating, and supporting a vision for this alternative. The decisions made by elected leaders matter entirely because of how they shape our everyday lives – and the choices made in these years will decide the American people’s access to freedom, security, democracy, and prosperity for the rest of our lifetimes.”

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A source familiar with Buttigieg’s thinking told Fox News that the former transportation secretary is in a strong possible position to run for president in 2028 and that running for either senator or governor “in 2026 would have taken that off the table.”

The source noted that Democrats, in the wake of their election setbacks this past November – when the party lost the White House and the Senate majority and failed to win back control of the House – are seeking out new places to reach voters. The source emphasized that “Pete has been doing that from day 1” and that “he will continue to do so.”

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan is term-limited in 2026, and there was buzz that Buttigieg was considering a gubernatorial bid.

But the speculation regarding the Senate was much more intense, and Buttigieg had been eyeing a possible run for months.

“I’ve been looking at it,” he said earlier this month as he pointed to the emerging race to succeed Sen. Gary Peters. The two-term Democrat announced in January that he won’t seek re-election in 2026.

“I’m going to continue to work on the things that I care about,” Buttigieg said as he appeared on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” “I have not decided what that means professionally, whether that means running for office soon or not. But I will make myself useful.”

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In a sign of just how seriously he had been contemplating a Senate campaign in the pivotal Great Lakes battleground state, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News that Buttigieg recently met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, the longtime leader of the chamber’s Democrats.

The 43-year-old Buttigieg, a former naval intelligence officer who deployed to the war in Afghanistan and who served eight years as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was a long-shot candidate when he launched his 2020 presidential campaign. 

But his campaign caught fire, and he narrowly edged Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to win the Iowa caucuses before coming in a close second to Sanders in the New Hampshire presidential primary. But Buttigieg, along with the rest of the Democratic field, dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden as the then-former vice president won the South Carolina primary in a landslide, swept the Super Tuesday contests and eventually clinched the nomination before winning the White House.

But the millennial Democrat has maintained popularity within the Democratic Party as one of its younger stars.

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Buttigieg in recent months has highlighted that he aims to stay involved. In a radio interview in December near the end of his tenure as transportation secretary, he said, “I will find ways to make myself useful, and maybe that’s running for office, and maybe that’s not. I’ll take the next few weeks and months to work through that.”

That interview, on a news-talk program in New Hampshire – the state that has held the first-in-the-nation presidential primary for over a century – sparked some 2028 Buttigieg buzz.

While Buttigieg enjoys strong name recognition and is a proven fundraiser, he could have faced carpetbagger attacks if he had run for Senate in Michigan.

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After his 2020 presidential campaign, Buttigieg and his spouse, Chasten, moved from red-state Indiana to neighboring Michigan, and have a home in Traverse City.

Buttigieg wasn’t the only Democrat taking a hard look to succeed Peters.

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, the majority whip in Lansing, is likely to launch a Democratic campaign. McMorrow grabbed national attention in 2022 after delivering a floor speech in the Michigan Senate that was seen as a model for countering GOP attacks.

Among the other Democrats who’ve expressed interest in running are two-term Michigan Attorney General Dana Nesse and Congresswoman Haley Stevens.

Meanwhile, former Rep. Mike Rogers announced at the end of January that he was “strongly considering” a second straight Republican run for the Senate in Michigan.

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Fox News confirmed on Wednesday that Rogers is likely to announce his campaign in the coming weeks, and that he’s hiring veteran Republican strategist and 2024 Trump’s co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita as a senior advisor.

Rogers won the 2024 GOP Senate nomination in Michigan but narrowly lost to Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the Democrats’ nominee, in last November’s election in the race to succeed longtime Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who retired. Slotkin, who vastly outspent Rogers, edged him by roughly 19,000 votes, or a third of a percentage point.

Rogers is a former FBI special agent who later served as chair of the House Intelligence Committee during his tenure in Congress.

While Rogers was the first Republican to publicly make a move toward launching a 2026 Senate campaign in Michigan, GOP sources told Fox News last month that others who may consider running are businesswoman, commentator, and 2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon, Rep. John James – who’s in his second term in the House and was the GOP Senate nominee in Michigan in 2018 and 2020 – and longtime Rep. Bill Huizenga.

The Michigan Senate race is considered a “Toss Up” by top nonpartisan political handicapper the Cook Political Report. 

The Republicans currently control the Senate 53-47, after flipping four seats from blue to red in last November’s elections.

The party in power – clearly the Republicans right now – traditionally faces political headwinds in the midterm elections. Nevertheless, an early read of the 2026 map indicates the GOP may be able to go on offense in some key states.

Along with Michigan, Republicans will also be targeting battleground Georgia, where first-term Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is considered vulnerable.

And in swing state New Hampshire, longtime Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen announced on Thursday that she won’t seek re-election next year. 

The National Republican Senatorial Committee emphasized in a memo on Thursday that “the Granite State was already a great opportunity for Senate Republicans to expand the Majority, but yet another retirement vaults the seat into toss-up status, making it ripe for the taking in 2026.”

The GOP is also eyeing blue-leaning Minnesota, where Democratic Sen. Tina Smith last month announced she wouldn’t seek re-election in 2026.

But Republicans are also playing defense in the 2026 cycle.

Democrats plan to go on offense in blue-leaning Maine, where moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins is up for re-election, as well as in battleground North Carolina, where Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is also up in 2026. 

And Democrats are looking at red-leaning Ohio, where Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was appointed in January to succeed Vice President JD Vance in the Senate. Husted will run next year to finish out Vance’s term.