Former U.S. Attorney Mark Totten launches bid for attorney general as Nessel faces term limits

Mark Totten, a former U.S. attorney, has declared his candidacy to be Michigan’s next attorney general, becoming the first Democrat to declare for the position. 

Totten was nominated by former President Joe Biden to be the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, a post he served in from May 2022 through January 2025. Totten previously served as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s chief legal counsel from 2019 to 2022. He taught criminal law at Michigan State University from 2009 to 2018. 

With sitting Attorney General Dana Nessel unable to run again in 2026 due to term limits, the race for Michigan’s top legal office will likely be hotly contested.

Totten led Whitmer’s legal fight to protect reproductive freedom after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. In his role as U.S. Attorney, Totten prosecuted two men from Nigeria in an international sextortion scheme that led to the suicide of 17-year-old Jordan DeMay, as well as Rashad Trice, who was convicted in August for the murdering  2-year-old Wynter Cole-Smith and sexually assaulting her mother. 

“On January 20th, my term of service as U.S. attorney came to an end. And  since then I have watched in horror as a president has stoked division, trampled civil rights and undermined the very rule of law. I refuse to stand by and watch and that’s why I’m running for attorney general: to fight for you and to fight for everything we hold dear,” Totten said in a video announcing his candidacy.