A competitive race for an open House seat is taking shape in a Michigan battleground district

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former Democratic state Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. on Monday will announce a campaign for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, one of the nation’s most competitive House districts.

Hertel and Republican Tom Barrett, who launched his second run for the seat Sunday night, are the first to announce bids for U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin's seat. Slotkin, a Democrat, announced earlier this year that she would seek Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat.

Michigan’s 7th District was home to one of the nation’s most expensive contests last year, with Slotkin beating Barrett, and both national parties have already vowed to again go all out to win the battleground district in 2024.

Hertel was recruited by Slotkin to run for the seat and will announce his candidacy in Lansing. He represented Lansing and East Lansing in the state Legislature from 2015 to 2022 before being term-limited. He briefly served as Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s director of legislative affairs before stepping down from that role on June 30.

The 45-year-old Hertel comes from a family of officeholders. His father, a brother and two uncles served in the Legislature, and a third uncle was in the U.S. House. He defined his family's legacy as “a strong belief in Democratic ideals but also a willingness to work across the aisle to make things better.”

“We need to be able to debate and listen because, at the end of the day, we have to find the best middle ground to actually solve problems for people,” Hertel told The Associated Press in an interview before his announcement.

Barrett launched his second bid for the seat after losing the district to Slotkin by more than 5 percentage points last year. The 42-year-old Barrett served in the Army for more than two decades before entering politics and...