2018 U.S. Senate race in September 2018 In September 2017, James entered the
Republican primary for the
2018 United States Senate election in Michigan in an attempt to unseat three-term incumbent
Democrat Debbie Stabenow, as well as become Michigan's first African-American senator. Despite musician and Michigan native
Kid Rock publicly toying with the idea of running for the seat for months, the primary came down to James and
Grosse Pointe businessman and former Wayne County commissioner Sandy Pensler. James was endorsed via
Twitter by
President Donald Trump on July 27, 2018, eleven days before the primary. James won the nomination with 55% of the vote. On November 6, 2018, Stabenow defeated James, 52.3% to 45.8%. He was ultimately bypassed for the position. Trump announced he would appoint
Heather Nauert, the
spokesperson for the United States Department of State and a former television reporter, to succeed Haley, but Nauert was never nominated and announced in February 2019 that she was withdrawing from consideration. After Nauert's withdrawal, Trump again considered James for the ambassadorship, but eventually nominated
United States ambassador to Canada Kelly Knight Craft for the post.
2020 U.S. Senate race Because the election margin in the 2018 Senate race was smaller than expected, James became a front-runner for the Republican nomination to take on Michigan's other incumbent Democratic senator,
Gary Peters, in the
2020 election. As well as being recruited to take on Peters, it was reported in June 2019 that the
National Republican Congressional Committee was recruiting James to challenge freshman Democratic U.S. representative
Haley Stevens of
Michigan's 11th congressional district. On June 6, 2019, James announced that he was seeking the Republican nomination in
2020 to take on Peters. Michigan was one of two states in which an incumbent Democratic senator was seeking reelection during 2020 in a state won by Trump in
2016, the other being
Alabama. Although the Associated Press called the race for Peters on November 4, 2020, James initially insisted that the election had not been administered fairly. He established a joint legal fund with the
Republican National Committee to challenge the results. James claimed there was "ample evidence" for an investigation, but offered none. He raised $2 million after the election as he sought to challenge the election results, and he unsuccessfully attempted to block certification of the results of the election, which he lost to Peters by 1.7% of the vote, which was much closer than originally projected. James conceded on November 24 over social media, congratulating Peters. During his campaign, James pledged to give 5% of his campaign contributions to charity. The James fundraising committee reported about $46.12 million in total contributions for the 2020 election and has given more than $2.36 million to charities following through on his pledge. == U.S House of Representatives ==