Debbie Stabenow Election: Incumbent Has Big Lead Over Pete Hoekstra In Michigan Senate Race

Democratic Incumbent Has Big Lead Over Republican In Michigan Senate Race

In the Michigan Senate race, two-term incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow is facing former Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra.

Hoekstra was last seen in 2010, competing in the state’s gubernatorial primary, which he lost to Rick Snyder, the eventual November victor. His Senate run has gone even less spectacularly. In fact, he may have cost himself a shot at unseating Stabenow on Super Bowl Sunday, when his campaign chose to run a controversial ad during the big game:

Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Republican candidate vying to take on Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow in Michigan, is out with an attack ad that uses heavy-handed Chinese stereotypes.

It features a woman riding a bicycle past rice paddies who stops to thank Stabenow for borrowing so much from the Chinese. The woman speaks ungrammatical English with an accent.

"Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good," she says.

A month later, the actress who had appeared in the ad had apologized for her participation, and Hoekstra’s polling numbers were in the tank. As of this writing, the HuffPost Pollster model has Stabenow well ahead by a 53.6 to 40.5 percent margin.

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