DSCC Chair Sen. Gary Peters Update

SENATE DEM CAMPAIGN CHAIR GARY PETERS AT NATIONAL PRESS CLUB 8:30 AM SEPT 26--CONVERSATION WITH MEDIA TO UPDATE ELECTION 2024 SENATE NATIONAL AND STATE ISSUES AND PROSPECTS, TARGET RACES, IMPACT OF HARRIS-WALZ

Contact: Bob Weiner 202-306-1200 [email protected] and Bankole Thompson [email protected]

(Washington, DC)-- Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), will address media and members of the National Press Club and have a conversation to update the press and public on election 2024 issues and opportunities, as well as discuss target races and the impact of the Harris-Walz ticket.

Following an opening statement, Peters will conduct a question and answer session with credentialed media and National Press Club members. The event is being held on September 26, right before the Senate goes home to campaign, in order for the media and public to have the best information.

The event will be held 8:30-9:30 AM Thursday, September 26 in the Fourth Estate Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW (14th and F, 14th Street entrance) and is open to credentialed media and National Press Club Members.

***Credentialed media who are not Club members can request a QR code to expedite entry by emailing [email protected].

Peters, born in Pontiac, Michigan, is a 5th generation Michigander. He has represented Michigan in the U.S. Senate since 2015 after serving in the House from 2009-15. He became Chair of the DSCC in 2021 and was reappointed in 2023.  During Peters' term as Chair, the Senate Democrats regained the majority, and he is confident the Senate can hold it.  He and his team are working hard on fundraising, advertising, and a ground game to make that happen. Majority Leader Schumer stated, “Gary is a battle-tested, proven winner whose hard work led Senate Democrats to defy the political odds and to one of our best midterm results in recent history. Under his leadership, we will continue our campaign victories in 2024.” 

Peters is also Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Senate’s top oversight committee. He also serves on the Armed Services Committee and Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, where he is Chairman of the Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight, and Ports Subcommittee. During this Congress, he was also appointed to serve on the Appropriations Committee. He is the first Michigan senator to fully serve on this committee since 1959.

For a second straight Congress, the nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking recognized Peters as the most effective Senator in the U.S. Senate. In the 2021-22 Congress, Peters authored and was the principal sponsor of 19 bills that were signed into law—the most bills enacted into law by a U.S. Senator in a single Congress in over 40 years. Peters' current Senate term will expire in 2027.

The session will be moderated by Club members Bankole Thompson and Robert Weiner. 

Thompson is a nationally acclaimed journalist and standard-bearer for economic justice issues, a twice-a-week opinion columnist at The Detroit News, considered the leading Black opinion journalist in Michigan, founding dean of the anti-poverty think tank, The PuLSE Institute, the former longtime top editor of the Michigan Chronicle, and the first African American newspaper editor to interview former President Barack Obama.  His work is captured in his latest 2023 book Fiery Conscience, which was featured in Forbes magazine.

Weiner is a former Clinton and Bush White House spokesman and senior staff for Four-Star Gen./Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey, Reps John Conyers, Charles Rangel, Claude Pepper, Ed Koch, and Sen. Ted Kennedy.  He is currently President of Robert Weiner Associates News and winner of the National Press Club President's Award for recruiting young journalists as bylined op-ed writers, with over 1000 articles to date.

Weiner and Thompson want to thank Olivia Ardito and Tomas Alves for helping to generate and organize today's program, Dr. Patricia Berg for editing the release and materials, and National Press Club Events Manager George Arfken for enormous help on the logistics.