Sandy Pensler
Sandy Pensler (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Michigan. He lost in the Republican primary on August 6, 2024.
Biography
Pensler worked as a private investor and financial advisor for large corporations like Chrysler, Sprint, and Scholastic. He founded Pensler Capital and several businesses, including four manufacturing plants that employ 100 Michigan workers. Pensler received his B.A. in chemical engineering from Yale University and J.D. from Harvard Law School.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: United States Senate election in Michigan, 2024
General election
General election for U.S. Senate Michigan
The following candidates ran in the general election for U.S. Senate Michigan on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Elissa Slotkin (D) | 48.6 | 2,712,686 |
 | Mike Rogers (R) | 48.3 | 2,693,680 | |
 | Joseph Solis-Mullen (L)  | 1.0 | 56,697 | |
 | Douglas P. Marsh (G) | 1.0 | 53,978 | |
 | Dave Stein (U.S. Taxpayers Party) | 0.7 | 41,363 | |
 | Doug Dern (Natural Law Party) | 0.3 | 18,779 | |
 | Valerie Willis (U.S. Taxpayers Party) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 2 | |
| James Chapman (R) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 1 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.0 | 4 | ||
| Total votes: 5,577,190 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- James Frizzell (Independent)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Michigan
Elissa Slotkin defeated Hill Harper in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Michigan on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Elissa Slotkin | 76.3 | 712,791 |
 | Hill Harper | 23.7 | 221,053 | |
| Total votes: 933,844 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Pamela Pugh (D)
- Nasser Beydoun (D)
- Leslie Love (D)
- Zack Burns (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. Senate Michigan
Mike Rogers defeated Justin Amash, Sherry O'Donnell, and Sandy Pensler in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate Michigan on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mike Rogers | 63.2 | 555,766 |
 | Justin Amash | 15.6 | 137,565 | |
 | Sherry O'Donnell | 12.1 | 106,466 | |
 | Sandy Pensler | 9.1 | 79,772 | |
| Total votes: 879,569 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- J.D. Wilson (R)
- Sharon Savage (R)
- Michael Hoover (R)
- Bensson Samuel (R)
- Alexandria Taylor (R)
- Peter Meijer (R)
- James Craig (R)
- Nikki Snyder (R)
- Rebekah Curran (R)
- Glenn Wilson (R)
Green convention
Green convention for U.S. Senate Michigan
Douglas P. Marsh advanced from the Green convention for U.S. Senate Michigan on June 15, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Douglas P. Marsh (G) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for U.S. Senate Michigan
Joseph Solis-Mullen advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. Senate Michigan on July 20, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Joseph Solis-Mullen (L) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Natural Law Party convention
Natural Law Party convention for U.S. Senate Michigan
Doug Dern advanced from the Natural Law Party convention for U.S. Senate Michigan on April 17, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Doug Dern (Natural Law Party) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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U.S. Taxpayers Party convention
U.S. Taxpayers Party convention for U.S. Senate Michigan
Dave Stein advanced from the U.S. Taxpayers Party convention for U.S. Senate Michigan on July 27, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Dave Stein (U.S. Taxpayers Party) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Pensler in this election.
2018
General election
Incumbent Debbie Stabenow defeated John James, Marcia Squier, George Huffman III, and John Howard Wilhelm in the general election for U.S. Senate Michigan on November 6, 2018.
General election
General election for U.S. Senate Michigan
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Debbie Stabenow (D) | 52.3 | 2,214,478 |
 | John James (R) | 45.8 | 1,938,818 | |
 | Marcia Squier (G) | 0.9 | 40,204 | |
| George Huffman III (U.S. Taxpayers Party) | 0.6 | 27,251 | ||
 | John Howard Wilhelm (Natural Law Party) | 0.4 | 16,502 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.0 | 18 | ||
| Total votes: 4,237,271 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Incumbent Debbie Stabenow advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Michigan on August 7, 2018.
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Michigan
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Debbie Stabenow | 100.0 | 1,045,450 |
| Total votes: 1,045,450 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
John James defeated Sandy Pensler in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate Michigan on August 7, 2018.
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. Senate Michigan
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | John James | 54.7 | 518,564 |
| Sandy Pensler | 45.3 | 429,885 | |
| Total votes: 948,449 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Bob Carr (R)
- William White (R)
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Sandy Pensler did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2018
Ballotpedia survey responses
- See also: Ballotpedia's candidate surveys
Sandy Pensler participated in Ballotpedia's candidate survey on July 19, 2018. The survey questions appear in bold, and Sandy Pensler's responses follow below.[2]
What would be your top three priorities, if elected?
| “ | Creating Great jobs in Michigan: Making Michigan first in Job creation and wages by continuing to lower taxes, decreasing unnecessary regulations and renegotiating bad trade deals so that companies are incentivized to create and maintain good jobs in Michigan rather than sending jobs to China, India and Mexico. Reduce the deficit: Make sure business investment is not crowded out and our children are not overburdened with debt. Immigration: We need to stop illegal immigration and defund sanctuary cities. Each Illegal unskilled immigrant costs taxpayers on average $250,000. Illegal immigration lowers wages for unskilled workers. It must be stopped. We should fund the wall. The visa lottery program should be eliminated. Immigration should be based on merit. Legal skilled h1(b), EB-5 entrepreneurial and guest worker visas should be expanded. Reduce the Deficit: We must make hard choices to reduce the deficit. Every program must be reviewed on the basis, is it worth borrowing from our kids and grandkids to fund it. If the answer is no, it must be stopped![3][4] | ” |
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about? Why?
| “ | Education: I have taught adults to read and write when I was on the board of Literacy volunteers with Barbara Bush and I have taught students at Yale and Harvard economics. There is nothing more important to our future than education and Michigan has fallen behind. We need to emphasize and support the benefits of choice and competition in our schools as well as embracing technology. We must reward teachers with incentives based on performance rather than seniority. Reforming entitlements: Jobs provide purpose and meaning in life. We must reform our entitlement programs. Social security and Medicare must be protected to insure their future. Welfare programs should be reformed to put people to work rather than creating dependency. Currently there are over a hundred programs. These programs should be merged and streamlined for efficiencies. Payments should be re-crafted to encourage work and two parent households rather than discourage work and incentivize single parent households.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many[4]
|
” |
Ballotpedia also asked the candidate a series of optional questions. Sandy Pensler answered the following:
Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow and why?
| “ | My father. My father and uncles all served in World War II. They defeated the Nazis and the Japanese. They helped liberate concentration camps. We had family that worked for three days without food or water then machine gunned down for their religion. I am privileged to be living in the United States where there is freedom of speech and religion, democracy, vast knowledge and economic opportunity. American exceptionalism was never questioned in our household. My father bestowed in me this great pride for America, for its opportunity, for its people. Being a doctor, my father always put the needs of his patients first. Being a husband he always put my mother on a pedestal and loved her with every ounce of his body. Being a father, he gave courage, support, the ability to listen and most importantly unbounded love and guidance.[4] | ” |
| “ | The most valuable characteristics and principles an elected official can have are honesty, integrity, combined with the competence and experience to determine and implement solutions to the myriad of problems our state and country face.[4] | ” |
| “ | Michigan used to be number one in manufacturing, automotives, even cereals. I grew up seeing the deterioration of Michigan’s economy, jobs and education. I want to bring jobs and economic growth back to Michigan. If elected to be Michigan’s next United States Senator I want to make Michigan number one in job creation, wage growth and lifestyle. I will fight to bring federal and private projects to Michigan whether it be getting the F-35 base at the Selfridge Air Force base, the missile defense silo program at Fort Custer in Battle Creek, completing the new Soo Lock, or bringing back passenger car production to Detroit. I will work with State and Federal authorities to bring choice into schools and provide incentive pay for teachers, based on performance rather than seniority. I want to be the voice of people in Washington that rises above partisan politics and puts Michigan First.[4] | ” |
| “ | The filibuster rules need to be changed. The constitution does not countenance tyranny of the minority. Filibuster rules meant for deliberation are now used simply for obstruction and need to be eliminated.[4] | ” |
| “ | The Deficit: We have a huge deficit that continues to build. We must reduce the deficit. We have a moral obligation to our children. If elected to Senate the deficit will be a priority. I will look at every bill on the basis of: is the program worth borrowing from our children and grandchildren. Most programs will not pass this test.[4] | ” |
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Sandy Pensler Michigan Senate. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Pensler for Senate, "About," accessed July 9, 2018
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
- ↑ Ballotpedia's candidate survey, "Sandy Pensler's responses," July 19, 2018
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
