Republican Senate Hopeful Takes Fight To Make Ballot To Appeals Court

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 04/30/2026) A Royal Oak woman is taking her fight to get her name on the Aug. 4 Republican primary ballot for U.S. Senate to the federal appeals court.

Genevieve Peters Scott filed a notice on Wednesday with the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that she will appeal U.S. District Judge Linda V. Parker’s Monday order denying her request to reduce the number of signatures required for a major party candidate to qualify for the primary ballot.

Parker also declined to order the Secretary of State to put Peters Scott’s name on the ballot, concluding that Peters Scott “is not entitled to injunctive relief.”

Parker wrote: “Peters Scott is unlikely to show that Michigan’s ‘ballot access scheme’ for U.S. Senate major political party candidates violates her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.”

Peters Scott’s complaint claimed she relied primarily on personal resources and 230 volunteers in her efforts to gather signatures, but she was unable to do so by the statutory deadline.

Under Michigan law, Peters Scott needed 15,000 to 30,000 signatures for a partisan petition, and she said she collected more than 7,200.

As a result, Peters Scott wanted a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction stopping the Secretary of State’s office from enforcing the signature threshold or to allow her an “adequate alternative method” to make the Aug. 4 primary ballot.

Peters Scott argued a 180-day collection period and the minimum signature requirement infringes on her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

However, Parker said the scheme doesn’t impose a 180-day collection period on major party candidates like Peters Scott, and the would-be candidate could not show why the April 21 filing deadline for major party candidates was a burden.

Peters Scott hopes to replace retiring U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-Oakland County).