Bio
Gary Charles Peters is an American politician and lawyer. He is currently serving as a Junior United States Senator from Michigan. He is a member of the Democratic party.
Senator Gary Peters was born in Pontiac, Michigan on December 1st, 1958. He was raised in the city. He went to Rochester High School and graduated in 1976. From there, he chose to attend Alma College. He graduated magna cum laude in 1980 with a B.A. degree in Political Science.
He completed his master’s in Business Administration from the University of Detroit in 1984
Senator Gary Peters Military, Business, and Academic Career
Sen. Peters Joined the United States Navy Reserve at the age of 34 in 1993. He served in the Selfridge Air National Guard Base for more than ten years. He was designated as the Seabee Combat Warfare Specialist and he worked on assignments as an Assistant Supply Officer.
Gary served in the Navy Reserve for 15 years and left in 2008 after attaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
He also worked as a financial advisor for 22 years. He taught finance at Wayne State, also strategic management and business policy courses at Oakland University
Senator Gary Peters Career
Peters was re-elected into the Michigan Senate in 1998, where he served till 2002. He was succeeded by Gilda Jacobs due to the Senate’s term limit. He was a candidate for Governor and Attorney General in his final year at the Michigan Senate. He lost the Attorney General Elections as a Democratic candidate to Republican Mike Cox.
Peters formally announced in 2008 that he would run against eighth-term Republican Congressman Joe Knollenberg. He resigned his position as State Lottery Commissioner to devote himself fully to the campaign. He ended up winning the election against the Republicans and became the fourth person and the first Democrat ever to represent the district since it was created in 1933.
Peters defeated Republicans Andrew Raczkowski, Libertarian Adam Goodman, Independent Bob Gray, Independent Matthew Kuofie, and Green Douglas Campbell in the 2010 U.S. House of Representative elections.
Peters ran for Senate in 2014 after the retirement of Carl Levin. He was endorsed by Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Levin. Peters’s ad campaigns heavily criticized his opponents and the Republican party lost due to some missteps by Terri Lynn Land. Peters won the 2014 elections.
Peters was re-elected to a second term in 2020 by a close margin
Senator Gary Peters Accomplishments
According to the Michigan Business Network’s article, Gary is rated as the number one most effective Senator in the U.S. He had more bills signed into the law than any other Senator in the past two years despite serving in the Minority Party.
Sen. Peters did great work in helping veterans, he had the Support for Veterans in Effective Apprenticeships Act of 2019 signed. This bill helped Veterans in accessing the VA financial assistance.
Senator Gary Peters Criticisms
Peters co-sponsored the Israel-Anti Boycott Act in 2017 which stated that it would be a federal crime for any American to participate or encourage any boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements. He had to face some criticism by Americans because this was taking away their freedom of speech.
