Why Jeremy Moss Won't Be Bringing a Pie Chart to a Knife Fight as He Runs for U.S. Congress

Michigan's first openly gay state senator on why boldness wins, why marriage equality isn't settled and what Democrats need to do in 2026

Published: January 21, 2026 | Last Updated: January 21, 2026

When I spoke with Jeremy Moss in November, he was weeks into recovering from a car accident that shattered his dominant arm. Another driver ran a red light, he hit her head-on, and the impact sent him to the hospital for surgery and several days of recovery. His car was totaled. Doctors told him it could take three months to get back to where he was.

"My arm was honking at the very last minute, and with the impact and the airbag and everything, I shattered the bone," Moss explains during our interview, his arm still in a splint he wore nearly 24 hours a day. At the time, he couldn't drive and was dependent on other people to shuttle him around town.

Did this mean Jeremy Moss was finally slowing down?

He laughs. "I guess so."

But only a little. The Bloomfield Democrat has since made significant progress in his recovery, and he never really stopped working anyway. He's running for Michigan's 11th Congressional District, the seat currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, who's running for Senate. He's leading the charge to remove Michigan's same-sex marriage ban from the state constitution. And he's making the case that Democrats need to fundamentally change their approach heading into 2026.

"The Democratic Party can no longer be the party that shows up to the knife fight with a pie chart," Moss says. "People are counting on us to be stronger, to be bolder, to fight back harder."

If you've followed Moss's career, this tracks. Whether he's confronting anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans from the front row of their own press conferences or making the economic case for civil rights protections to skeptical colleagues, Moss doesn't traffic in political theater. He just shows up and does the work — loudly, persistently and with a Southfield-born stubbornness that refuses to take no for an answer.

One of the senator's targets in 2026 focuses on marriage equality, which exists in Michigan for only one reason: the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision. The discriminatory language from Michigan's 2004 constitutional ban is still sitting right there in the state constitution, waiting.

When Moss introduced legislation in November to remove it, the urgency was clear. Months earlier, he'd made national headlines for confronting state Rep. Josh Schriver at a press conference where the Republican lawmaker called for the federal repeal of same-sex marriage equality. Moss planted himself in the front row, refused to look away, then commandeered the microphone after Schriver bolted without taking questions.

"It was very important to me that if people like Josh Schriver and others want to inflict harm upon our community, that they're going to have to see the faces of real people who are impacted," Moss says.

Now he's pushing a proactive solution, taking a page from Michigan's multi-pronged approach to protecting reproductive freedom after Roe was overturned. His role as a legislator involves trying for a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and House to put the marriage equality question on the ballot. He's also encouraging others to launch a citizen-led ballot initiative, though he won't lead that effort himself.

The stakes are real. "Marriage equality in Michigan only exists because of Obergefell and nothing else," Moss explains. "I think it's important for people to know that we are one of those states that still has this language in our constitution that Obergefell deemed unconstitutional and unenforceable, but that language still exists. And it's not just a ban on marriage, it's a ban on any form of union between a same-sex couple. We have a civil union ban in our constitution."

The 2022 Respect for Marriage Act protects existing same-sex marriages, but it wouldn't prevent Michigan's ban from taking effect for new marriages. "If this language were to snap back, if Obergefell fell and then we had this language in our constitution, no new marriage licenses would be able to be issued in Michigan," Moss says. "We would recognize marriages from other states where they're lawful, but Michigan would be a state that no same-sex marriages would be able to be conducted and performed."

In this post-Roe world, Moss argues, nothing is settled law. "Everything is up to the whims of a future court that is demonstrated they will roll back anybody's rights. So we have to push forward to take this language out of our constitution, so that we are not leaving same-sex couples vulnerable in Michigan."

And surprisingly, he's finding bipartisan support — just like he did with the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.

When Moss championed adding sexual orientation and gender identity protections to Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, Lansing insiders told him he'd never get Republican support. He disagreed.

"I had kind of the chattering class in Lansing saying, 'You'll never get Republican support, this just will never happen,'" Moss recalls. "And I said, 'I'm telling you, if this goes up on the board, there will be Republican support.'"

He was right. When Democrats gained control in 2022, Elliott-Larsen was among the first bills introduced. Democrats could have passed it alone, but Moss didn't want that.

"I didn't want there to be some sort of partisan lens on LGBTQ+ rights," he says. "It is important to strip LGBTQ+ equality from political gamesmanship and partisanship. All people in all communities stand to gain when we're all treated equally."

They secured bipartisan votes in both chambers — all Democrats and some Republicans in the Senate, all Democrats and some Republicans in the House. His strategy for building that support came from an unexpected place: listening to Republicans during the pandemic. He heard conservative colleagues emphasize how work provides fulfillment and contributes to economic productivity during shutdown debates, and he flipped that argument to advocate for LGBTQ+ workplace protections.

"For listening to kind of a chorus of Republicans talk about how people need to get back to work through 2020 and 2021, I think I was able to make the case that includes LGBTQ+ people and they need to be protected in our state's civil rights law — because some folks are just being fired or denied opportunities just because of how they identify and that also contributes to mental anguish for them personally, but also harms our economy as a whole," he says.

Moss believes marriage equality enjoys even broader support. "I think marriage enjoys even more support across the political spectrum," he says. "And I want this to not be seen as a partisan or political issue. This is just the right thing to do."

Moss's work on Elliott-Larsen has earned him recognition from LGBTQ+ advocates, including the Michigan Democratic Party LGBT&A Caucus. Jerron Totten, caucus chair, says Moss "has definitely been a force in the state Senate" and praised his leadership on updating the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and gun reform.

As Moss moves toward Congress, Totten says the caucus expects him to remain "just as proactive on the issues that impact minorities and intersectional folks" — and will be paying attention to ensure his priorities stay aligned with the community's values.

Moss announced his congressional campaign in May for Michigan's 11th Congressional District, where he's already represented about half the constituents as a state senator. The conversations he's having now center on pocketbook issues and the erosion of democratic norms.

"I hear from the constituents in the congressional district now primarily about their alarm and anguish both with our economy and this unpredictable chaotic tariff policy and other driven chaos that is leading to high costs of everything from groceries to just everyday things you'd buy at the mom and pop store," Moss says. "It's really challenging for folks to be able to deal with rising costs."

Healthcare remains both a health issue and a cost issue, he notes, particularly when Trump threatens food assistance programs and looms over Social Security and Medicare. "People are really worried about their financial futures. I hear it and I feel it too."

Democracy concerns weigh heavily too. "We have a president who breaks and abuts the rule of law," Moss says. "We have a Congress and a judiciary that rubber stamps some of his most authoritarian measures. And I really, truly in my core believe that this Congress needs disruption. And if we can take back the U.S. House, which is within reach, and many of those seats come right through here in Michigan, we can be the much-needed check on policies that both dismantle families' pocketbooks and dismantle our democracy as a whole."

Moss believes Oakland County's political transformation makes the area especially attractive for Democrats to grow their base. He recalls campaigning for reelection to the state Senate in traditionally Republican areas like Bloomfield and hearing from voters who said after Jan. 6, "I am never voting Republican again," or "Yeah, we'll take a Democratic lawn sign. This is the first year we're ever doing this."

That track record has earned Moss significant support in the race, including an early endorsement from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. "Jeremy Moss is a tough, tested leader who fights like hell every day to make Michiganders' lives better," said Gov. Whitmer in her endorsement for Moss last fall. "As a member of Congress, I know he will stand up for working families, lower costs for Michiganders and fight for our freedoms."

Moss has proven to be one of the most effective legislators in Lansing, with Whitmer signing 23 of his bills into law on issues ranging from housing affordability to economic relief. He's also secured endorsements from Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Attorney General Dana Nessel and U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet.

Still, he's realistic about what Democrats face, even while pointing out that Trump's 2024 victory was hardly the mandate some characterized it as.

"Donald Trump won a 49-48 victory," Moss says. "And I think we can even acknowledge that, in 2024, everything went wrong for Democrats, from Joe Biden's campaign to the 107 days that Kamala Harris [had to] cobble together a campaign — and everything went right for Donald Trump. And he still won a 49-48 victory."

The problem? "I think too many Democrats started the year in 2025 believing that we were losers. And when you have that loser energy, it kind of predicts your future."

What Democrats need, Moss argues, matches Republican energy with their own boldness — and talks about their accomplishments with confidence.

"Donald Trump and congressional Republicans talk about the things that they're doing with brazen confidence even though they know it is unpopular to kick people off of food assistance. It is unpopular to reduce folks' health care. It is stupid to rename the Gulf of Mexico," Moss says. "But we have to be a party that also talks about the things we're doing with brazen confidence because the things that we're doing are good."

He rattles off Michigan Democrats' accomplishments, including the first gun safety laws in a generation, returning a billion dollars to taxpayers by removing the pension tax and expanding a working families tax credit, codifying reproductive freedom and LGBTQ+ rights and investing in K-12 education.

"We should be crowing about these achievements. We should be standing up with brazen confidence to put forward the things that we've accomplished," Moss says. "We have to match their energy with our energy. And I'm somebody who's demonstrated that I've done that in the legislature and willing to do that as a member of Congress as well."

Democrats are only five seats away from a majority in the U.S. House, and Michigan will be crucial. Moss mentions several other key races to watch, including state Sen. Shawn McCann's effort to flip a seat in West Michigan and the need to defend U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet in the Flint-Bay City-Saginaw area.

"The road to majority absolutely comes right through Michigan," Moss says. "I'm ready to build and grow our majority here in Oakland County and then take that energy across the state to ensure that we flip seats here in our state to bring about a Democratic majority and a much-needed check on Donald Trump in Congress."

The approach is rooted in the same lesson Moss took from the 2004 election as an 18-year-old who watched Michigan voters ban same-sex unions in the state constitution and wondered if he even had a future at all.

"You can't wait for anyone else to stand up for you. You have to stand up for yourself," Moss says. "If enough of us are willing to stand up for ourselves, we can make a difference together."

And if his trajectory is any indication — from Southfield City Council to the state House to becoming Michigan's first openly gay state senator to now running for Congress — he's not waiting for anyone's permission.

"If I have a platform," Moss says, "I'm going to use it."