Businessman Sandy Pensler joins crowded GOP Senate field

Grosse Pointe businessman and entrepreneur Sandy Pensler announced Friday he is joining the crowded race for the Republican nomination for an open Michigan U.S. Senate seat next year.

Pensler becomes the 11th candidate in the GOP race to succeed U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, who has decided not to run for a fifth six-year term. Other top candidates in the GOP field include former U.S. Reps. Mike Rogers and Peter Meijer, former Detroit Police Chief James Craig and state Board of Education member Nikki Snyder.

Five Democrats are currently running, with the field led by U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Lansing, and Detroit actor Hill Harper. No Republican has won a U.S. Senate seat race in Michigan since 1994, when former U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham did.

In announcing his campaign, Pensler on Friday posted a cheeky video on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, bemoaning "your standard BS political ad" before saying he was going to employ "a risky strategy most politicians never use. I'm going to be honest."

"I believe America is burning," he says in the video. "We’ve lost our moral compass. Career politicians are afraid of making tough decisions. They always take the easy way out. They're afraid of losing their jobs." He then goes on to discuss undocumented immigrants crossing the Southern border in huge numbers, crime and the economy.

Pensler, 67, founded Pensler Capital, a private investment firm, and owns the Korex Corp. plant in Wixom, which manufactures cleaning products. In 2018, he ran unsuccessfully for the Senate nomination to take on Stabenow, losing 55%-45% to current U.S. Rep. John James, R-Shelby Township.

Other candidates in the Republican field include mid-Michigan businessman Michael Hoover; Wayne County lawyer Alexandria Taylor; Oscoda Area School Board Trustee Sharon Savage; St. Joseph physician Sherry O'Donnell; J.D. Wilson, a Houghton Lake businessman, and Bensson Samuel, a doctor in Sault Ste. Marie.

Other Democrats running include former state Rep. Leslie Love, of Detroit; Dearborn businessman Nasser Beydoun and Ann Arbor lawyer Zack Burns. State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh dropped out of the race recently to run for a U.S. House seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township.

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Businessman Sandy Pensler joins crowded US Senate field