Several prominent Black elected Democrats from Wayne County threw their support behind state Rep. Donavan McKinney Tuesday in his bid to unseat a fellow Democrat in Congress, two-term U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar.
The group includes Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, Wayne County Commission Chair Alisha Bell and former U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence of Southfield, who indicated they are uniting behind McKinney in hopes of restoring Black representation from Detroit in Congress.
“I’ve been advocating for at least four years for a change ― a change in an African American to lead the 13th Congressional District,” Evans said during a news conference at the coffee shop Sip Detroit.
“With Donavan, it’s about working people. It’s about understanding that you have to connect with the communities that you serve. The big problem we have now is that connection is not there. I mean, it’s nowhere near there,” Evans added.
“Donavan, as a state rep, understands you call and talk to the people who manage the governments within your area. … It is critically important that we get a congressman who understands his district …”
Lawrence, who retired from Congress in 2023, said she’s typically “stingy” with her endorsements but that “it breaks my heart that we, the people, have not seen our voices in the House … because we have not had someone who understands.”
“We have an opportunity to stand up and put a person in Congress,” said Lawrence, whose former congressional district included a portion of Detroit. “I’m rolling up my sleeves, and I’m getting ready because this won’t happen unless we fight to get it. Our democracy is at stake.”
Thanedar, a former state lawmaker and millionaire businessman, in a Tuesday statement expressed confidence that he’ll be re-elected next year to a third term in the U.S. House, noting he won last year’s primary with 55% of the vote and pointing to $30 million in federal funding that he secured for local projects.
“As I travel across the district, and in various townhalls and events, constituents are overwhelmingly supportive of my work,” Thanedar said. “Constituents know I’m fighting for our healthcare, to stop ICE raids, protect our democracy, and stand up against hate and discrimination pervasive in the Trump administration and MAGA.”
Black Democratic leaders in the community for years have hoped to restore majority-Black Detroit’s African-American representation in Congress. That representation was lost for the first time in nearly 70 years when Thanedar, an Indian American, won a nine-way Democratic primary in 2022 and clinched the seat, benefiting from the splitting of the Black vote.
Michigan’s 13th District covers a swath of Detroit, Downriver communities and the Grosse Pointes.
McKinney has picked up some other major endorsements this year from progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit the group Justice Democrats, but he posted a modest fundraising haul of just $272,000 last quarter. He faces a major hurdle with the congressman sitting on an $8 million war chest that’s funded in part by the Thanedar campaign’s investments in cryptocurrency.
“It’s going to take us writing those checks, knocking on those doors, calling a neighbor making sure that we are getting the word out,” Bell said.
“We can no longer have people representing us that don’t have our best interest at heart. It is time that we step forward, we step up, and we do the right thing for Wayne County.”
Gilchrist, who is running for governor, said the moment demands the “progressive vision for Congress that is always emanating from the city of Detroit,” noting that it was the city’s longtime U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. who helped to found the Congressional Black Caucus.
“There is something missing in Congress, not having Black leadership from Detroit. The thing about a hole is we can fill it,” Gilchrist said.
“We can have someone who is of Detroit representing us in Washington. That means we’re going to get better outcomes. And that can happen, because I’ve seen this man work,” Gilchrist said of McKinney.
McKinney has a clearer shot at targeting Thanedar since former state Sen. Adam Hollier of Detroit dropped out of the race two weeks ago to pursue the Democratic nomination for secretary of state.
But the field isn’t guaranteed to be clear. In addition to McKinney, Democrats Shelby Campbell and Nazmul Hassan, Republican Andrew Lorenz and Green Party candidate D.Etta Wilcoxon have filed paperwork to run in the 13th District.
Other well-known candidates might still jump into the Democratic primary contest, including Detroit City Council member Mary Waters, who lost to Thanedar in last year’s three-way primary amid a deluge of attack ads run by an outside group. Thanedar won the primary with 55% of the vote and went on to easily win a second term last fall in the Democrat-heavy district.
Waters told The Detroit News this month that she’s focused on her reelection to City Council’s at-large seat.
Minutes before the McKinney event began Tuesday, Thanedar issued a statement endorsing U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
Speakers at the event, including McKinney, referenced the need to “put egos aside” ― a polite attempt at dissuading other Black Democrats from jumping into the contest.
McKinney said Tuesday that he’s dubbed his platform the “New Deal for Detroit, Downriver, western Wayne County and the Grosse Pointes” that lowers car insurance and utility rates and the cost of childcare.
“What this means is affordability and accessibility for every single family and household in our communities,” he said. “All of us together can achieve amazing things, tremendous things, if we can put our egos aside.”
As the group posed for a photo after the news conference, a shout went up from the crowd: “Taking our seat back!”
mburke@detroitnews.com
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