62 Facts About Gary Peters

Gary Charles Peters was born on December 1,1958 and is an American lawyer, politician, and former military officer serving as the senior United States senator from Michigan, a seat he has held since 2015.

Gary Peters was elected to the Rochester Hills City Council in 1991 and represented the 14th district in the Michigan Senate from 1995 to 2002.

Gary Peters was the Democratic nominee for Michigan Attorney General in 2002, narrowly losing to Republican Mike Cox.

Gary Peters was then appointed commissioner of the Michigan Lottery by Governor Jennifer Granholm, serving from 2003 to 2008, when he resigned to successfully run for Congress.

In 2014, Gary Peters was elected to the United States Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democratic incumbent Carl Levin.

Gary Peters was unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican Terri Lynn Land in the general election.

Gary Peters was the only non-incumbent Democrat to win a Senate election in 2014.

On January 28,2021, Gary Peters was selected as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the 2022 election cycle.

Gary Peters was later selected again for the 2024 cycle.

Gary Peters is the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in the 119th Congress.

Gary Charles Peters was born on December 1,1958, in Pontiac, Michigan.

Gary Peters's father, Herbert Garrett Peters, was a public school teacher who served in the US Army during World War II.

Gary Peters's mother, Madeleine Vignier, who met his father in France during the war, was a nurse's aide and helped unionize her workplace.

Gary Peters grew up in Oakland County and graduated from Rochester High School.

Gary Peters later earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Detroit in 1984.

Gary Peters holds a Juris Doctor and a Master of Arts in political science from Wayne State University and a Master of Arts in philosophy from Michigan State University.

Gary Peters joined the United States Navy Reserve in 1993 at age 34.

Gary Peters served more than ten years in units at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, including Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 26.

Gary Peters attained the rank of lieutenant commander before leaving the Reserve in 2008; his awards include the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal.

Gary Peters worked for 22 years as a financial advisor, serving as an assistant vice president at Merrill Lynch from 1980 until 1989, when he joined Paine Webber as a vice president.

From 2007 to 2008, Gary Peters served as the third Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government at Central Michigan University.

Gary Peters announced his candidacy to run for Congress two months after being hired.

Some student and faculty members protested Gary Peters's hiring, saying he could not be objective in the classroom while running for office and that the university job was subsidizing his campaign.

Gary Peters has taught finance at Wayne State and strategic management and business policy courses at Oakland University.

Gary Peters was a senior policy and financial analyst for the Michigan Department of Treasury and served on arbitration panels for the New York Stock Exchange and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Gary Peters was reelected in 1998 and served until 2002, stepping down then due to the state's term limits.

Gary Peters was chosen by his Democratic colleagues to chair his party's caucus.

Gary Peters was a member of the Michigan Law Revision Commission and served on the Michigan Sentencing Commission.

Gary Peters served as the vice chairman of the Senate Finance, Education, Judiciary and Economic Development Committees.

Gary Peters was a member of the Natural Resources and the Mental Health and Human Services Committee.

In 2002, Gary Peters was a candidate for governor and later for Attorney General.

Gary Peters decided not to contest the result despite reported irregularities.

Gary Peters resigned as state lottery commissioner to devote his full energy to the campaign.

Gary Peters was the fourth person and first Democrat to represent the district since its creation in 1933.

In November 2010, Gary Peters defeated challenges by Republican Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski, Libertarian Adam Goodman, Independent Bob Gray, Independent Matthew Kuofie, and Green Douglas Campbell.

In September 2011, Gary Peters opted to run in the newly redrawn 14th district.

Indeed, Gary Peters had represented most of the Oakland County portion of the district at one time or another.

Gary Peters was the first white congressman to represent a significant portion of Detroit since 1993.

Gary Peters was sworn into his first term in January 2009.

Gary Peters worked with the Obama administration to obtain debt forgiveness for Chrysler.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said Gary Peters was the "single most effective person" in fighting the forces that wanted to let Detroit go bankrupt.

In Congress, Gary Peters opposed a plan to provide disaster relief aid, the funds for which would have come from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program.

Gary Peters allied himself with the Occupy Wall Street movement, making an appearance at Occupy Detroit in November 2011.

Gary Peters was one of 118 House Democrats who signed a letter to President Obama in 2011 urging him to support the United Nations Population Fund, a multinational organization that provides health services to women, children, and families in more than 150 countries.

Gary Peters was named senior whip for the Democratic caucus in 2013.

In 2014, Gary Peters ran for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Carl Levin.

Less than a month before the election, Gary Peters became the first sitting US senator ever to publicly reveal a personal family experience with abortion.

Gary Peters was reelected by a smaller margin than expected.

Gary Peters was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count on January 6,2021, when Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol.

Gary Peters called for investigations into the security and intelligence failure that resulted in the breaching of the Capitol and the five deaths.

Gary Peters led the investigation as chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

In 2017, in response to China's efforts to purchase tech companies based in the US, Gary Peters was one of nine senators to cosponsor a bill that would broaden the federal government's ability to prevent foreign purchases of US firms by strengthening the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

In 2017, Gary Peters cosponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which would make it a federal crime to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if protesting actions by the Israeli government.

Gary Peters has opposed attempts to repeal the law, and supported a Medicare public option to expand health care access.

Gary Peters voted against providing COVID-19 pandemic financial support to undocumented immigrants in 2021.

In 2025, Gary Peters was one of 12 Senate Democrats who joined all Republicans to vote for the Laken Riley Act.

On March 5,2025, Peters introduced S 874, the Expanding Whistleblower Protections for Contractors Act of 2025, which aims to strengthen protections for federal contractors who report waste, fraud, or abuse by ensuring they are shielded from retaliation by government officials.

Gary Peters is married to Colleen Ochoa, who is from Waterford Township, Michigan.

Gary Peters is an Episcopalian and has said his religion is important to him and "gives me comfort in rough times".

Gary Peters is an avid motorcyclist and has made a tradition of annual motorcycle tours of Michigan.

Gary Peters is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Gary Peters had a net worth between $1.7million and $6.3million at the end of 2014, which ranked him 37th in the Senate in terms of wealth.