U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) will join the University of Southern California (USC) as a professor and director of the Center for the Political Future after his term ends in January. The university announced the appointment on Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. Peters, who is retiring from the Senate, will also be appointed as the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Endowed Chair in Practical Politics.
The Center for the Political Future (CPF), established in 2018, is part of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. The center aims to foster civil dialogue and bipartisan reasoning through internships, study groups, and professional development programs. Peters will lead the center alongside Republican strategist Mike Murphy, who serves as co-director. He succeeds retiring founding director Robert Shrum.
Peters is currently in his second Senate term and previously served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before entering Congress in 2009, he taught strategic management and finance at Oakland University and Wayne State University. He also held the Robert and Marjorie Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government at Central Michigan University.
The university noted that Peters authored 19 bipartisan stand-alone bills that were signed into law during the 117th Congress. The nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked him the most effective U.S. senator in each of the last three Congresses. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who served with Peters on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, described him as a bipartisan partner who was willing to work across the aisle to deliver results.
The appointment of Sen. Gary Peters marks a transition for the two-term Michigan senator from federal lawmaking to higher education and academic leadership. At USC, Peters will teach classes on politics and policymaking.
Peters intends to use USC’s Capital Campus in Washington, D.C., located near Dupont Circle, to expand the university’s programs and bring faculty research closer to federal policymakers. Peters will divide his time between the Los Angeles and Washington campuses, where he will lead efforts to promote civil discourse and reasoned compromise.
The joint leadership of the CPF by a Democrat and a Republican strategist is a model for university-based political centers. This partnership is designed to demonstrate that individuals with differing political convictions can work together to achieve practical outcomes. Peters' term in the Senate officially concludes in January 2027, at which point he will formally begin his duties at USC. Additional details regarding his specific course schedule or initial university initiatives were not reported.