Retiring Michigan senator to lead USC politics center

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who is retiring from the Senate at the end of this term, will join the University of Southern California (USC) as a professor and co-director of their politics program, according to an announcement from the university.

Peters will co-lead the Center for the Political Future (CPF) alongside Republican strategist Mike Murphy. He’ll split his time between Los Angeles, where USC is located, and Washington, D.C., where the university has a campus near Dupont Circle.

Peters was a college politics professor before entering Congress in 2009. In a press release from the university, Peters said he is looking forward to helping USC expand its footprint in D.C. and educate students about the importance of bipartisan work and civil discourse.

“CPF has done a terrific job bringing people with different perspectives together,” Peters said. “I look forward to working with Mike Murphy to ensure we continue to have a forum where people can discuss tough issues, find common ground and actually accomplish something.”

CPF is focused on restoring civil discourse and practical reasoning to politics while preparing students for political life through internships, study groups, professional development and events. Peters will also teach classes on politics and policymaking.

The university pointed to Peters’s record of bipartisan legislative success, including 19 stand-alone bills signed into law last Congress. Murphy, in the announcement, said Peters is a politician who knows how to get things done.

“I very much look forward to working with him as we grow the center’s mission to teach and inspire USC students to embrace the idea that civility and reasoned compromise are far from the enemy of politics; they’re essential to turning political disagreement into practical results,” Murphy said.