ANN ARBOR, MI -- Two years after attorney Dana Nessel stood in Braun Court celebrating a victory for gay marriage after a bitter fight with the Michigan Attorney General's Office, she stood in the same spot and announced her candidacy to be the state's next Attorney General.

"If I am the Attorney General of this state you will be safe, you will be protected and hate will not win," she told a crowd of media members and about 30 supporters.

The seat is up in the 2018 election and is open. Current Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Republican, is subject to term limits and cannot run for the position again.

Nessel gained prominence in Michigan as she represented April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, a lesbian couple fighting for gay marriage, and ended up overturning Michigan's constitutional ban on gay marriage. The couple married in 2015.

One of Nessel's takeaways, after seeing Schuette's office spend a significant amount of money fighting against gay marriage, was that the office had strayed from its intended course.

"People, the office of the Michigan Attorney General has lost its way. They aren't fighting for the little guy," Nessel said.

She criticized Schuette for having bloated the office with bureaucrats, and without mentioning him by name said people had used the office as a political stepping stone to get to the governor's mansion.

"I will not use the resources of this office for any other purpose than to protect Michiganders from their ability to live peaceably and safely in the state that we all love," she said.

If elected Attorney General, she said, she would focus on consumer protection, closing down the Line 5 pipeline in the straits of Mackinac, protecting seniors from economic exploitation and ending prosecution over marijuana crimes.

There is currently a ballot proposal to legalize recreational marijuana in Michigan for those over 21. She said she expected that marijuana would be legal by the time she took office, and she would push to follow the will of the people in the Attorney General role.

But to get on the 2018 ballot, she would need the Michigan Democratic Party to nominate her at its convention.

Nessel has ha history of taking on big challenges, but also one of struggling for establishment support.

It was despite that that Sandi Smith, a supporter at the event, supported Nessel during the gay marriage trial.

"I asked about this DeBoer case and really there wasn't any support in the statewide organizations for it. They just, they weren't conviced. They didn't think it was the right time, they didn't think it was the right case," Smith said.

Nessel pressed forward, and won. But in an effort to enshrine more LGBT rights for Michiganders in the constitution, she also failed to get traditional support and the ballot proposal she led ended up folding for a lack of funding.

Asked about her ability to win over the establishment this time, when she's seeking a nomination, Nessel said she wouldn't run away from a challenge. She's already been making connections in the party, she said.

Nessel is the first Democrat to announce her intent to seek the office. She is the first ever lesbian candidate to seek the nomination.

Jen Eyer, a spokeswoman for former U.S. Attorney Pat Miles, said he was a potential candidate. He issued a statement in anticipation of Nessel's announcement.

"As the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District, I know how critical it is for the people of Michigan to have an attorney general who will fight for everyone. I encourage people to stay tuned for more news on this race in the weeks to come."