‘The Good Doctor’ Star Announces Run for US Senate

Hill Harper is trading in his scrubs and time at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital for a real-life run for political office. The actor, who plays Dr. Marcus Andrews on ABC’s The Good Doctor, announced Monday that he is running for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, challenging U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin for the Democratic nomination.

“Without energized, bold leadership in the U.S. Senate, our state will continue to be held back from achieving its full potential,” Harper said in a Monday statement to The Detroit News. “We deserve a better brand of politics than politics as usual, and that’s why I’m running for the U.S. Senate.”

Harper is the sixth Democratic candidate to enter the race after Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow announced in January that she would not be seeking a fifth term in 2024. State Board of Education member Pamela Pugh, former Detroit state Rep. Leslie Love, businessman Nasser Beydoun and attorney Zack Burns have also announced campaigns.

Born in Iowa, Harper owns a house in Detroit and bought a coffee shop, Roasting Plant Coffee, in the city in 2017. He attended Brown University and Harvard Law School before becoming an actor, and in 2012, he was appointed to President Barack Obama’s cancer panel. Harper noted to The Detroit News that as a member of the Screen Actors Guild, he would be the “only U.S. senator who is a current dues-paying, card-carrying union member,” adding that if elected, he would also be “one of very few small business owners in the U.S. Senate, and, I believe, the only Democrat. People want to see themselves reflected in their representation, and right now Michiganders don’t feel that way about their Washington, D.C., representation.”

Harper is best known for his role as Dr. Marcus Andrews on The Good Doctor. The actor is one of three remaining series regulars from Season 1, the other two being Freddie Highmore and Richard Schiff. The Season 6 finale saw Harper’s onscreen counterpart resign as hospital president, which could signal his possible exit from the series as he pursues a political career. However, it is unclear how his political run will affect his role on the series, which has already been renewed for a seventh season and films in British Columbia, Canada. Prior to The Good Doctor, Harper starred as Dr. Sheldon Hawkes on the long-running CBS procedural CSI: NY.