DETROIT — A Democratic state senator from Southfield is the first to jump into the race for U.S. House to succeed Rep. Haley Stevens, who is leaving behind her Oakland County seat to run for U.S. Senate.

Sen. Jeremy Moss, 38, launched his campaign for Congress on Thursday, pitching himself as a disruptor of the status quo from the Southfield City Council to the state House and now the state Senate, where he was the first openly gay candidate elected to the chamber in 2018.

"In this era at this critical moment, Congress needs a little bit of disruption. What's going on there is not working for folks back home. I've represented hundreds of thousands of residents in this district specifically, who tell me all the time that they feel alarmed and anguish about both our democracy and our economy here in Oakland County," Moss said in an interview.

"This is a critical moment that called on a new generation of bold leaders to step up and take action and fight back, and that's what I'm prepared to do."

Moss is seeking the Democratic nomination in the 11th District, which became more favorable to Democrats after the redistricting process. It covers Oakland County communities such as Pontiac, Royal Oak, Birmingham, Farmington Hills and West Bloomfield Township.

Moss resides just outside the district in Southfield. He stressed that he's represented a large footprint of the 11th in Lansing, including 15 communities between the current and former boundaries of his Senate district.

"I represent this district every day in the state Legislature. Hundreds of thousands of voters in this district have supported me to be their voice in Lansing, where I've earned a very strong record in the Legislature as a leading voice on safeguarding voting rights and civil rights and and making government more accountable to the people that we serve," he said. "I have great relationships in this district."

Other Democrats eyeing the seat include Oakland County Commission Chair Dave Woodward and former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin of Bloomfield Township, who has said activists and others are urging him to run.

Other names floated as potential contenders for the heavily Democratic district (Stevens won reelection last fall by nearly 19 percentage points) include Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter, state Sen. Rosemary Bayer of West Bloomfield and Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel, a former state representative who is currently running for Congress next door in the 10th District.

Moss intends to focus his campaign on combatting rising every-day costs and protecting fundamental freedoms. He said Democrats can't afford to be the party that shows up to the "tough fight ahead with another pie chart."

"We can't be a party anymore that lectures academically," Moss said. "People are looking for action."

That was reinforced for him, he said, after he showed up at the Lansing news conference that a GOP colleague held this year to pitch a measure asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage. Moss sat in the front row of GOP Rep. Josh Schriver's press conference and took questions at the podium after Schriver left the room.

"I wanted to make sure that, as he was inflicting harm upon people, he was going to have to look at me while he did that, and then when he left the podium and said, I'm not going to take any questions, well, I saw an opportunity to take the to the podium and answer the questions myself," Moss said.

"As a result of that, we got such a positive response to my office from Oakland County, from the state of Michigan, and really from across the country, of people saying, 'We feel seen.'"

Moss grew up in Southfield and graduated from Wylie E. Groves High School in the Birmingham Public School District before studying journalism and political science at Michigan State University. His mentor is former U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence of Southfield, whom he worked for prior to running for office.

Lawrence, now chair of the Oakland County Democratic Party, has encouraged Moss to run for Congress, she said. "He’s someone that I’ve nurtured," she said last month. "Jeremy has done the work."

In the Legislature, Moss has led efforts to strengthen Michigan's price-gouging laws, reduce barriers to voting access and to extend the Freedom of Information Act to the Governor's Office and Legislature, he said. Michigan is one of two states where the law requiring the disclosure of public records does not apply to the 148 members of the Legislature or the governor.

Moss' bill in 2023 amended the Elliott Larson Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the list of protected classes covered under state law. He also voted in support of repealing the state law outlawing abortion and repealing the state pension tax.

He criticized President Donald Trump's approach to the economy and tariffs, saying the "chaotic" moves are causing economic harm and anxiety.

"We can't have major government decisions that affect international commerce — and maybe even more so affect Michigan manufacturing — that changes based on what the president tweets every morning," he said.

On immigration, Moss stressed the importance of ensuring due process to people in the country without legal papers. He supports a path to citizenship for the so-called Dreamers, immigrants in the U.S. illegally who grew up in the U.S. "There is absolutely a way to address our border, but do it in the most humane way possible," Moss said.

Moss said he wouldn't support conditions on security aid for Israel amid its war against the militant group Hamas in Gaza, which faces a dire humanitarian crisis.

"We can't root for Israel's demise as the only democracy in the Middle East," Moss said. "The United States has a moral interest in supporting our allies in combating terrorism. The United States has a strategic interest in ensuring that Iranian influence doesn't destabilize the region."

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—Staff Writer Craig Mauger contributed.

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