An important state senate race for Michigan’s 35th Senate District was decided Tuesday, and it could have huge implications for the November midterm elections. This week on WDET’s weekly series, MichMash, Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow and Alethia Kasben discuss what how the race was decided. They are joined by Alvin “AJ” Jones from WCMU Public Radio to break it all down.

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode

• What were the campaign strategies for Democrat Chedrick Greene and Republican Jason Tunney?
• Why did it take so long to call this special election?
• What could this race signal for the 2026 midterm elections?

Jones also pointed to the focus on the race being a reason why Greene won this special election. “The two candidates had very different strategies. Tunny’s campaign really hammered in local issues—talking about reading levels and tax cuts. Greene’s focused on national issues of affordability.” 

Both Greene and Tunney will face off again in the 2026 November midterm elections. 

More from WDET

• MichMash: The 2026-27 fiscal year budget process is outpacing last year
• The Metro: Trust in elections is declining. A Michigan Republican clerk blames politics
• 4 living ex-Michigan governors make case for civility in politics

There’s an unusual twist in this year’s race to become Michigan’s next governor.

Longtime Democrat and former Detroit mayor Mike Duggan is running for the state’s top job as an independent.

Duggan says taking the long view of what Detroit needs in the future helped turn his eyes to Lansing.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Mike Duggan: I was born in Detroit and the city I grew up in was spectacular. You could get a good-paying job in the auto plants, the neighborhoods were beautiful, the shopping was great. And in the course of my life, everything that we knew was taken away from us. The auto plants moved out, the stores moved out, the banks moved out, the movie theaters moved out. I ran for mayor because I felt like the federal government, the state government and other people had turned their back on Detroit for too many years. And I felt like if we pulled together, we could change the trajectory. And you saw what happened, with all of the factories that came back, the rebuilding of the riverfront, the violence going way down. When the population numbers came in last year and we grew by 7,000 people and led the state of Michigan in population growth, I felt like I’d done what I had set out to do. So really the next question was, do I go back to the private sector or do I try something else in the public sector?

Quinn, you know the biggest problem in Detroit is the public school system. And when we had 7,000 people move back, we weren’t having families with school-aged children. And I think (Superintendent) Dr. Vitti and the school board are doing a good job with the resources they’ve got. But the state has not supported public education. And 60% of all the children in Michigan, not just Detroit, do not read at third grade level. You’re stealing the futures of these children by the time they’re nine and 10 years old if they can’t read. That’s certainly critical.

There is nowhere you go in the state where people are not stressed by the cost of housing. Young people are being forced out of the state because they can’t afford their first home, whether it’s an apartment or a house. There’s no easy way to say this, but the jobs of the future are going to Ohio and Indiana. Our biggest export is no longer our cars, it’s our young people. People said you can’t solve the affordable housing problem. In Detroit, we built 6,000 units. And I understand how we did it. We didn’t do it with a lot of state help. But if you both reduce the cost and put in some subsidy, the problem is solvable, as we’ve proven.

Quinn Klinefelter: When you do go around the state, is what you’ve done in Detroit translating to people outside the metro area? Do they say, “What’s some Detroit guy doing, coming in here trying to tell us what to do?”

MD: It’s so interesting. I’m spending a lot of time on farms. I’ll have 25 farmers who’ll say, “What does the mayor of Detroit know about us? We’ve been ignored. We’ve been forgotten. Our costs for our fertilizer is going up. We don’t have access to markets. Nobody in Lansing cares about us. What does the mayor of Detroit know about us?” I said, “Gee, let me see. What does the mayor of Detroit know about representing people who feel like they’ve been ignored and forgotten? I’d like to take you back to Detroit and introduce you to a mom who is raising two kids on a block with four abandoned houses, no streetlights, parks completely overgrown with grass. The ambulances and police didn’t show up. I didn’t make excuses. We went to work and solved the problem. Let’s talk about your problem.”

And you should see their shoulders actually relax. They think, “Maybe we have a lot more in common with Detroit than we ever thought.” I’m talking to farmers who can’t get permits from EGLE to build a new irrigation system because they don’t have inspectors. And I tell them about the housing projects that got delayed because EGLE couldn’t get inspectors to it. Before long, it turns out there’s a lot more in common in this state than we think.

QK: I know it’s all politics, but you were really a standard bearer for the Democrats for a long time. Now you’re running as an independent. You’re technically the political enemy. They’re running billboards that you’re spreading contaminated dirt all over the city. What’s it been like for you facing that after being for so long a face of that party?

MD: You said it right. They treat me like I’m the enemy. And I think that’s why people are so angry at the two parties. You look at the polling nationally and Gallup says this year 27% of Americans consider themselves a Democrat, an all-time low. And 27% Republican, an all-time low. And 45% independent, an all-time high. It’s because the two parties don’t tell you what they’re going to do, they’re just so toxic tearing each other down. And the Democrats have done me enormous good. Because as soon as I announced I was an independent, they didn’t say he has a bad record on crime or housing or jobs. They say he’s corrupt, he’s MAGA, he’s poison dirt, he’s whatever. It’s all this same stuff. And I’m just saying to people if you think the two parties are working for you, you’re gonna have a Republican and Democratic candidate. But if you think this state is heading in the wrong direction, I’m gonna give you a third choice.

QK: The political pundits will always say that an independent doesn’t have any chance, you’re just gonna waste your vote if you go for them. What’s your response to those kinds of comments?

MD: Yeah, those were the same political pundits that said in 2013 a white guy can’t get elected mayor in an 83% black city. You know how many times I heard that? But it’s different when you sit down with people and talk to them about their situations and how we solve them. I’m doing seven, eight town halls a week all over the state, just the same way I campaigned for mayor. And the people who are showing up, we’re not doing stuff where you rail on Trump, you rail on Whitmer, you talk about the evil folks on the other side. These folks want to talk about what’s going on with the data centers and why aren’t we being protected so that we know if they’re coming here that our rates won’t go up and that our water won’t be damaged. We’re talking through solutions. And it’s Republicans and Democrats sitting in rooms together.

Quinn, this is the most fun thing. We’re in a primary time where the Republicans are going to the Republican clubs. They’re going to the Muskegon Republican club or the Grand Rapids Republican club. The Democrats are going to the Democratic clubs, they’re at the Westland Democratic club or the Alpena Democratic club. I don’t have any clubs. So I’m having open town halls in community centers and restaurants and churches across the state where Republicans and Democrats both come and listen. And they invariably take my petition forms, head out the door and say, “I want to have a third choice.”

This is the thing I found out. No matter where you go in the state, people are fed up with the two parties. It was pretty interesting, last August 200 elected officials endorsed me at a big event at the Michigan Central train station, about 100 Democrats and 100 Republicans. And the Democratic Party chair, Curtis Hertel, was so angry he announced he was punishing the hundred Democrats who stood up with me, shutting off their access to voter lists. You have advantages and disadvantages, but I’m not spending time whining about it. I’m gonna go get far more than the number of signatures needed to get on the ballot. I have to put in 30,000 signatures by July 15th. We’re doing well, we’re gonna make the signature threshold. There’s no doubt about it, the parties have stacked the rules against an independent, which is why you don’t see them. But I’ve dealt with odds before.

In November, voters will choose a new governor.

On the Republican side, the race is shaping up around Congressman John James and businessman Perry Johnson, who’s spending heavily out of his own pocket. 

Last week, one of their competitors became the first to drop out: former House Speaker Tom Leonard. He was running what most observers considered the most substantive policy campaign in the field.

As Speaker of the House, he ended Michigan’s driver responsibility fees, he worked with former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on auto insurance reform, and he pushed to expand Michigan’s open records law to the governor’s office.

He says he left the governor’s race because it had gotten too negative — that he wasn’t willing to compromise who he was to win. It’s a striking claim. It’s also one worth examining. Leonard spoke about all that and more with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

Perceived failures by the Trump Administration regarding affordability and immigration enforcement—plus the ongoing war with Iran—has led to very low approval ratings for the president. Yet, approval ratings for the Democratic Party are somehow still worse.

The Michigan Democratic Party recently held its nominating convention in Detroit and it wasn’t without controversy.

WDET’s Russ McNamara recently caught up with Party Chair Curtis Hertel, who took over leadership following the disastrous 2024 campaign cycle. He says he’s excited by most of what he saw at the convention.  

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Curtis Hertel: I think some of the best moments were people cheering for their candidates, and the energy in the room was, was really great. You know, some of the booing that happened and other things you know, were not my favorite part, and certainly are things that violate our code of conduct and everything else. But I think if you look at it as a whole, we walk out of convention with the united slate of candidates that I think are poised to win in November.

You have Eli Savit, who has a record of being a prosecutor… and was an environmental lawyer taking on corporations. And when you think about what’s the most important thing for the attorney general’s office, it’s a People’s Lawyer.

The powerful, the rich, the corporations—they all have access to lawyers. What we need is people that can actually fight for the people of Michigan, the People’s Lawyer, like Frank Kelly and Dana Nessel—

Russ McNamara, WDET: I wanted to ask you about that booing real quick. Where does that come from?

CH: There’s always going to be people who disagree. You know, we’re a big tent, and it’s important that there’s a place in the party for people that have differing views. I think we can differ respectfully. I think that’s the way it should be.

I think that Republicans behave in a way where they eat their own. We shouldn’t be doing that but, but I don’t think it’s the the few hundred people that were at convention that were doing that we’re not the representative of the 7,250 people who were there who were cheering the people on. And I think we’re united. So, you know, I understand it’s interesting to focus on things where but, but I think it was a small part of it was the noise, not the frequency of what actually happened at convention.

Primaries vs. conventions

RM: There’s been talk by some at the convention about changing to primaries and away from convention endorsements. Is that something you can get behind?

CH: So I’ve always supported that. When I was in the Michigan legislature, I supported that. Primaries are good. Discussions are good. We want people to be able to be part of the choices. A primary would be a better system, but you have to change the Michigan Constitution to do that. I don’t think it’s happening tomorrow.

RM: Why do you think there’s the push right now to get it done? Because there weren’t whispers of this eight years ago…

CH: I can’t speak for those that are talking about it now. I mean, you you might want to have them on the show, but, but I will say that I I’ve always supported the exact same position that more people should be involved in the decision making process and any decisions. I think the more people that you allow in your decision making process, the better that is, because they feel connected to it.

Right now, (Republican candidates) are in a game of ‘who can stand with Donald Trump the most’. Trump is the most unpopular president in the history of this country, who has raised the health care cost on everybody and cut taxes for billionaires that has used a war of choice and tariffs of choice to actually increase the cost for every single American.

I paid $4.20 for gas this morning in East Lansing, before I drove here. They promised people that tax that their lives would be better, that there would be America First, so they’d be sick of winning, that the cost of groceries would go down, that the cost of gas would go down, that they wouldn’t be focused on foreign wars, all of that’s going to lie and whether it’s the Epstein files that they haven’t released, or the foreign wars of choice that they continue to go into, or the focus on billionaires and their bottom line instead of the American people’s, they have lied to the people of Michigan, and I think we got a good story to tell.

How can Democrats work for working people?

RM: Affordability is set to be the big story for the midterm elections, but if Democrats win, what happens after? What’s the plan?

CH: The Democratic Party has to remember that we are the party of working people. And when you look at when Democrats had the trifecta in Michigan, we did things to lower the cost for people. We passed the largest tax cut for working families, brought 30,000 kids out of poverty and gave free breakfast and lunch for every kid. The largest investment in affordable housing in our history, the largest investment in lowering the cost of childcare, we have the record to do that.

We didn’t run on it.

So Democrats have a responsibility to both provide solutions, but also to talk about them to the electorate.

There’s a line Maya Angelou has. “It’s not what you do for people, it’s how you make them feel.” (Ed. Note: This quote in many paraphrased forms is often attributed to Angelou, but there’s no evidence she ever wrote or said it.) We didn’t have the conversation about the things that we had accomplished for people.

This generation right now is the slowest generation in American history to buy a house, to buy a car, to start a family. That is a long systemic problem that we have not fully solved, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that, but they’re only making it worse.

On the other side, there’s a line in the movie “The American President” that if you don’t give people water, they’ll drink sand. Trump is to blame. He is trying to pit people against each other in order to maintain power, but we got to give people water. That’s the history and the soul of who the Democratic Party is, and that’s what we have to do as we’re heading into after the elections.

RM: But there’s always that sense that Democrats are going to get into power and they’re going to raise taxes.

CH: I just told you—

RM: Yeah, but what’s the plan you’re talking about making people ‘feel’ alright…

CH: It’s important to acknowledge the fact that in Michigan, we actually lowered the taxes for most working families and brought 30,000 kids out of poverty. We’re the ones that ended the retirement tax. (Former GOP Gov.) Rick Snyder is the one that put it on. So I do think that there are good examples of that. At the end of the day, I don’t want to raise the taxes on any Americans, except for those that are in the top 1% that I think can afford to pay them in order to provide what is guaranteed to all of us, which is the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

“We’ve got to stop giving up on places.” 

RM: So Democrats are reconnecting with the working class in Michigan. But you know, nationally, that seems like it’s a lesson from 2024. What else can you glean from that election?

CH: Here’s the thing, it’s not just a lesson from 2024 I want to be perfectly clear. We need to build a party that is not just survive on one election alone. Like, like, that’s part of the problem is that we didn’t learn the actual lessons in 2018 because we won. And to me, there’s, there are really important lessons that the Democratic Party has to learn.

Part of it is, we’ve got to stop giving up on places. I was in 32 counties last year working to do the work of a Democratic Party.

It’s hard to sell a Democrat from California in Kalkaska, but it is easy to sell people that are actually from that community. And so we’ve got to rebuild.

So it’s not just about redoing one election and trying to win one election, this is about the structural problem that we have got to refocus back and try to win everywhere. It’s why we have an office in Detroit, because a lot of times, people in Detroit felt like we had abandoned them, that we were showing up in September and asking for their vote. We’re in as part of the community now, because it’s important to do that work.

Trying to bring people together after losing trust

RM: There was a major rift within the Democratic Party about Israel’s war in Gaza. A lot of that affected Dearborn, Hamtramck—metro Detroit’s Muslim and Arab communities. How do you rebuild that trust? Because a lot of them either stayed home or ended up voting for Donald Trump because he was the “peace candidate.”

CH: So I was endorsed for chair by both the Jewish Caucus and the Arab caucus, because there is a real want and need to build spaces where people communicate together.

There’s not going to be a Democratic party where everyone agrees on every single issue that that that that is out there, but there has got to be room for people to have conversation and be able to find places they agree with.

So for example, on ICE and the changing of what ‘America’ means when we have immigrants actually carrying their own papers because they’re afraid… I met with an American citizen who carries his passport every single day because he’s terrified of being stopped in the street.

That’s something the Jewish Caucus and the Arab caucus agree on, and they work together on. I think that’s what’s really powerful, is actually finding the spaces of agreement between people. My job is not to decide where the Democratic party goes. That’s the people’s job. Like the idea that the chair of the Democratic Party is supposed to set the position for all these people is just nonsense.

RM: I’m talking about outreach, really. There was a lot of trust broken. I talked with a ton of people, and we had 100,000 people vote uncommitted in a primary that took place in Michigan.

CH: We actively avoided conversations. And that does not work. I’m spending a lot of time in the Arab community and the Jewish community right now, actually, because I think it’s really important that we actually provide a space.

And I think that really the biggest thing that I am trying to solve is that people have felt forgotten by the Democratic Party. And I can tell you that that’s why I was in 32 counties last year. It’s why I was at more iftars than I’ve ever been in my entire life last year. It’s why finding that space between people is so important, and showing up and being part of the conversation and listening, which I think is probably the most important part politicians and party people have a tendency to talk a lot, but not to listen a lot. So that’s what I’m I’m doing as chair of this party, trying to bring people together.

Democrats need to fight back

RM: You talked about Eli Savit and Garlin Gilchrist being fighters for Michigan.

CH: Yes.

RM: Is that in response to the perception nationally of Democrats not being fighters for what they want? Because there’s a reason why the Democratic Party has a very, very low favorability rating right now. From the people I’ve talked to, especially at protests, they don’t feel like the Democratic Party or Democratic candidates are doing enough to fight for what they want.

CH: I will say that my best days are when Democrats are fighting back. I think we had the most progressive six months in the history of Michigan, when Democrats had the trifecta. But I get it like people are frustrated and they’re angry, and I would say two things about that.

One, we should always push our leaders to do more, and I’m all for that, and that’s important. But I will also say that for each of us, we’re waiting for the calvary to come, and we have to realize that we are the cavalry.

We have got to do the work to change and take the Republicans out of power.

We do these things called “People’s Town Halls.” It’s my favorite thing that I do as chair. We go into Republican districts and we actually bring people in because they refuse to meet with their own constituents, and we listen to people and what they’re feeling and the anger and the frustration.

And I get that people want that to change, but I will say this: right now, unfortunately, Democrats are in minority in the house by three seats, and in the Senate. We can change at this election. Democrats do have to prove they’re willing to fight back, absolutely, but we got to get to the place where in the power to actually change that first. And I have full faith that, when I’m going around the state, that we have Democrats that are ready to go out and do that work.

Michigan elects a new governor this year and WDET is talking to the candidates vying to replace term-limited Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.

One of those in the crowded Republican field for governor is former Michigan Speaker of the House Tom Leonard. He wants to lower taxes and reduce government spending.

But Leonard says he’s also running to protect the future for Michigan’s children, including his own kids.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Tom Leonard: There’s three very simple reasons why I’m doing this. And those are Hannah, Thomas, and Danny. That’s our nine-year-old, our six-year-old, and our now 20-month-old.

When you look at the state of our state right now, the unemployment, the lack of income growth, a quarter of our population right now suffers from some type of mental health issue. Half of them are not getting treatment. The list goes on.

We are doing this because the last thing that we want is for one of our kids to come to us in the next 15-20 years and say, “Dad, we’d love to stay in the greatest state in the country. But unfortunately we have to leave because there’s no opportunity for us here in Michigan.” That’s why we’re doing this.

Education serves as a foundation

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: If you were elected governor, how would you try to address some of that?

TL: There are so many things that we have got to get done to turn this state around. One of the biggest issues that I’m focused on right now is education. Fourth graders right now in this state cannot read at a proficient level. Quinn, that is our foundation, that is our base. And I can tell you as a former prosecutor, if somebody has to drop out of school because they’re illiterate, you have created a pipeline to a welfare check or a prison cell.

I believe we need to make Michigan a right-to-work state again. Growth states in this country are right-to-work states. I believe we need to phase out the income tax.

I hear many of these candidates out there gaslighting people across the state, saying that they’re going to eliminate the state income tax on day one. That’s despite the fact that the legislature isn’t even sworn in until nearly two weeks after the governor comes into office.

I would say look at my past track record and my history. That’s what we did when I was speaker. And when I’m the state’s next governor that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We’re going to get these big-ticket items across the finish line.

Mental health crisis

QK: You mentioned education. What other issues do you think are vitally important at the moment to Michigan?

TL: I seem to be the one candidate out there right now that’s talking about this mental health crisis. As I said, a quarter of our population suffers from some type of mental health issue. Half of them are not getting treatment.

I believe it starts with ending the stigma that comes attached when somebody is diagnosed with a mental health issue. Think about this for a moment. If you or somebody is diagnosed with something physically, what do they typically do? They go to their friends, they go to their family, they go to their place of worship, they ask for prayer, they start treatment.

Sadly, when people are diagnosed with a mental health issue, they are scared. They don’t know what to do. We’ve got to end the stigma that comes attached.

Energy policy reform

TL: Energy costs. This is a big one right now as I travel the state. I’m hearing more and more of people that can no longer afford their electricity bills. Frankly, we’ve got a broken system. We’ve got a Michigan Public Service Commission that no longer works for the people of this state. They work for two monopoly utilities. They sign off on every single rate increase that they ask for.

Enough is enough. We are the one campaign that has put forth a plan to not only bring choice and competition to the state and the utility monopolies, but also shake up the Michigan Public Service Commission.

Right now those regulators, who dictate our rates, are three unelected bureaucrats appointed by the governor. That is way too much power given to the governor. The governor should never control those appointments. Our plan calls for increasing the Michigan Public Service Commission from three to five members, only giving the governor two appointments.

The other appointments would be made by the attorney general, the speaker of the Michigan house and the senate majority leader. These are the types of bold solutions we are putting on the table to address the problems that the people of this state are facing.

Data centers feed into energy problems

QK: There’s been concerns raised by some people about the possibility of rate increases and energy or water problems from the advent of data centers across the state. From some of your past statements, it sounds like you’re not exactly a fan of data centers.

TL: The one being proposed right now that’s being built in Saline Township is 1.4 gigawatts. That is equivalent to the energy used by a million homes. There’s now one being proposed in Van Buren that’s nearly double that, with energy use equal to 2 million homes. Quinn, there are only 4.5 million homes in this entire state. Two industrial-sized data centers alone that they’re proposing would equal the energy for 3 million homes.

I don’t want these things driving-up our energy rates. We need to end the tax subsidies that come attached with these things.

The legislature a couple years ago passed legislation to give tens of millions of dollars to these big tech data centers. They should not be taking money out of our pockets and putting it in the hands of big tech to go out and buy up our farmland. So, end the subsidies.

We need to ban the use of non-disclosure agreements. You’ve got these local governments that are signing these NDA’s. The local citizens have no idea who’s going to be built in their area. They have no idea who’s going to be running these data centers.

These data centers do not create long-term jobs. Yet there is the risk that they are going to drive up our energy rates. And every time I push back on this energy issue, people say, “Well, they’re going to be regulated.” And then I ask the question, “Who’s going to regulate them?” “The Michigan Public Service Commission.” And I say, “So the same three regulators that have given us some of the highest electricity rates in the country, the same three regulators that refuse to tell DTE Energy and Consumers Energy ‘No,’ we are now going to allow to regulate these data centers?” I don’t think so.

I fear that they’re going to drive up our rates. We’ve already got the highest rates in the Midwest and some of the highest in the country. We cannot afford to pay more on our electricity bills.

What to do about political division

QK: It’s no secret how politically divided not only lawmakers but the country and the state as a whole are nowadays. Do you think it’s possible that anyone who would be governor will be able to bring people together at this point in time? Or is it just simply a matter of, “We’ve got to go forward with our policies and hope the other side comes along at some point?”

TL: I believe Democrats gave Republicans a playbook two years ago for what happens when you wake up every day and you have no vision and your only focus is hatred of one person. You lose. And I believe, as a Republican, if Republicans wake up every day and their only focus is hatred of Democrats, they will lose.

They’ve got to put forth a vision. That’s why every single day I’m focused on tackling problems, not people. I’m going to stay bold in my convictions, I’m a strong conservative. I don’t shy away from that. But there is nothing wrong with working across the aisle when it comes to accomplishing things for our state. We’ve actually labeled it the “Dan Campbell” approach.

You may recall when Coach Campbell became the coach of the Lions and he stood on that stage at the first press conference. He didn’t focus on six decades of failure. He didn’t cast blame. He didn’t point the finger. He just simply said, “We’ve got a problem here. And with a lot of grit, a lot of determination, working together with a positive vision every single day, we’re going to turn this program around.”

If Coach Campbell was able to turn the absolute worst sports franchise in the history of all mankind around with that type of vision, we can do the same thing for this state.

The Michigan Democratic Senate Primary is heating up a bit. Polls largely show the trio of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, and State Senator Mallory McMorrow all within the margin of error of each other.

Stevens and McMorrow have been trading off the lead.

The race has simmered with the candidates not really taking shots at each other. That’s now changed.

Yesterday, El-Sayed rallied at the University of Michigan and Michigan State with left-wing influencer Hasan Piker.

Piker’s livestreams – and political commentary – have drawn over three million followers on Twitch.

In 2024, Piker was invited to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but was kicked out over his criticism of Democrats and candidate Kamala Harris – for their failure to stop or criticize Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The 34-year-old Piker has made some controversial statements and his inclusion by the progressive El-Sayed has drawn sharp criticism by centrist Democrats.

When the campaign stops were announced, McMorrow was quick to compare Piker to Nick Fuentes—a far-right white supremacist holocaust denier. Stevens and current Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin also criticized the move.

Detroit-based reporter Tom Perkins looked at the controversy for The Guardian.

He tells WDET’s Russ McNamara that this fight is indicative of an internal struggle within the Democratic Party.

A party divided

Tom Perkins: I think this is really part of the ongoing civil war between the sort of Hillary Clinton wing of the party and the more progressive Bernie Sanders / AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) / Zohran Mamdani wing of the party.

You have El-Sayed and Piker, who are very progressive, and Piker has campaigned or interviewed AOC, Sanders, Zohran Mamdani, etc. And while McMorrow is a little bit younger and more progressive than somebody like Hillary Clinton, a lot of her surrogates, her aides, etc., come from that camp. And so that’s sort of the broader dynamic here and worth keeping in mind.

Accusations of anti-semitism

TP: Piker has been highly critical of Israel. He’s criticized it over its genocide, its rampaging through the Middle East, its war crimes, its atrocities, and he speaks about it in very strong terms. So that’s that alone has drawn some criticism, but he’s also said some pretty controversial things.

[Piker] said Hamas is lesser of the two evils with the Israeli government. Hamas is 1000 times better than the Israeli government. And he said this in the context of looking at who causes more death in the Middle East. And while it’s a controversial statement, people have said, “Oh, well, that’s antisemitic.” But he’s defended himself and said, “No, that’s a criticism of the Israeli government. That’s not a criticism of all Jewish people.”

[Piker] called a sect of Orthodox Jews in Israel who are ethno-supremacists, “inbred.” And that ignited a huge controversy, and that’s been used against him. People have said, “Oh, well, he called all Jews inbred.” He’s, defended that, and said, “No, I use that term to describe Nazis. I use that term to describe ethno-supremacists and racial supremacists of all kinds.”

When I talked with him about it, he said, “Look, there’s a super cut out there of an hour long of me calling different groups inbred, and it has nothing to do with with Jewish people or Jews. It’s just a term that I use to describe supremacists.”

Arab American views

Russ McNamara: What do Arab American leaders say here in Michigan?

TP: For my story, I spoke with seven local and national Arab American and Lebanese American leaders. They all said some variation of the same thing, which is that these attacks on El-Sayed and Piker show that the establishment Democrats are making the same moral and strategic blunders that they made in 2024 that led to Dems electoral demise in Michigan and nationally.

They say this is an attempt to censor criticism of Israel, and they say that it shows the anti-Arab bias that imbues the political establishment. McMorrow in her criticism of El-Sayed and Piker said, “Well, you know, Piker shouldn’t be here, because this happened in the wake of the Temple Israel Synagogue attacks,” which she said that Jewish people are suffering from that. Which is true that Jewish people are suffering from that, and that should be acknowledged, but she doesn’t acknowledge the suffering of the 120,000 Lebanese American people in Michigan.

Their families are from southern Lebanon. Israel has invaded Lebanon, virtually every one of these 120,000 people, either have a family member, a loved one, a friend who has been killed by Israel, or displaced by Israel. A million people are displaced right now in southern Lebanon. Many, many people from Michigan have family members who are suffering. That suffering is reverberating across Southeast Michigan, and that is not being acknowledged by McMorrow or centrist Democrats or establishment Democrats.

RM: How much impact will this actually have on the Democratic Primary?

TP: One of the one of the folks I spoke with for the story was Abed Ayoub, who’s the spokesperson for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), an Arab American civil rights group in Dearborn.

He said to me: “Look, Republicans are making inroads here. If there’s somebody like McMorrow, if there’s a Democratic candidate who’s not considering us, who’s not thinking about our suffering, who’s telling us to be quiet about Israel, then the same things that happened in 2024 are going to happen again. People are going to vote for a Republican. They’re going to stay home, they’re going to vote third party. So yes, if you want to win in Michigan, you might want to acknowledge this suffering. You might want to acknowledge that this is happening.”

I should stress that everybody I spoke with said some variation the same thing, which is the suffering of both people can be acknowledged at the same time. We don’t have to exclude one or the other.

Michigan elects a new governor this year.

The crowded field of candidates for the governor’s office includes former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox.

The Republican contender says his background has shaped his run for the top job in Lansing.

Interview edited for length and clarity

Mike Cox: Just a generation ago, my parents came to Michigan because it was the greatest state in the greatest nation. They were immigrants, legal immigrants, and literally my dad used to tell us when we were growing up as kids that the streets were paved with gold when he got here. That’s how so many generations of Americans have viewed Michigan.

And right now, as football coaches tell us, the numbers tell the story. You are what your record says you are. And every single month we’re dwelling at the bottom in unemployment.

Just 12 years ago, we were middle of the pack in fourth grade reading, middling, and we’ve shrunk all the way back to the bottom.

The flip side of that is my granddaughters, kind of fortuitously, are growing up in Mississippi. In the past 12 years, they went from 49th to 9th. That’s why they call it the Mississippi Miracle. It’s been a miracle for my grandkids.

So why am I running for governor? We’ve been in decline too long. And I know I can build a team that’ll lead us back to victory, to make Michigan the state my parents remembered.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: You mentioned several issues there.  Which do you see as the most important to voters in Michigan?

MC: The most important are the three “E’s.” That’s education, employment/economy and emigration with an “e.” That means outbound migration, folks leaving us. And that’s really a function of education and the economy.

Over the past seven years we’ve had a state government that’s grown by 54%. $31 billion in new spending. And Quinn, that is killing affordability here in Michigan. You overlay that with Gov. Whitmer’s clean energy plan, which many, including me, call a scam. We now have the highest energy rates in the Midwest.

It makes it much less competitive to do business here in Michigan. So people are heading south. I’m not just talking about Florida, Tennessee, Texas. I’m talking about Indiana and Ohio. They’re the ones who are picking our pockets. And as governor, we can change that.

Spending less, improving education

QK: If you were elected governor, how would you address those issues specifically? Especially if you would still have to deal with a politically-divided legislature.

MC: Look, I was a prosecutor here in Detroit for 13 years before I was elected attorney general. Across the region, people want their kids to be able to read by the third grade, right? So, in terms of fixing education, states like Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi are now leading the country and doing it with much less money than we in Michigan spend. What do they do?

Number one, they require every kid to be able to read by third grade. Pretty simple. Number two, make sure every kid gets taught phonics the same way. Pretty simple. If a kid’s struggling, such as my granddaughter who is autistic, they get a tutor. Number four, provide coaching for teachers. And then number five, grade every public school, including charters. That allows parents, grandparents, and property taxpayers to see how their local school is doing.

Those five things have turned Mississippi around. And they’re doing it with 40% less spending per child, through every single demographic. We can do that. It’s doable right now.

Eliminating income tax

MC: In terms of eliminating income tax, it’s just simple. What are the most dynamic states in the nation right now? There’s Florida, Tennessee and Texas, like I mentioned, but also Wyoming, New Hampshire, cold weather states, South Dakota, Nevada. What do they all have in common? They all have different economies but they all have no income tax.

That helps small business owners, folks doing what I’ve been doing for the past 15 years since I disappeared from politics and built a business. It would cut the state corporate tax on 900,000 small businesses here in Michigan. And what then happens? The owner there can buy another stove or hire another server or consider opening another facility, right? It means the owner of a tool and die shop might send her employees for new training or buy a new machine.

Governors cannot pick winners and losers. Wall Street can’t even do that. But you can lower the burden on every small businessman and woman, make decisions quicker in terms of permitting and licensing. Doesn’t make anything less safe, but makes the process quicker.

You accelerate, you join the cadence, the velocity of what business needs to succeed. And this state will grow more prosperous.

What replaces income tax funds?

QK: If you eliminate the state income tax, that would erase a fair amount of revenue that comes into the state. How would you replace it?

MC: When I was elected attorney general in a close statewide race—I was the only Republican to ever beat Democrat Gary Peters—I didn’t know we were about to walk into the “lost decade.” For seven or eight years we were in a one state recession. And the rest of the country joined us during the Great Recession.

As you can imagine, our caseload jumped about 10%. At the same time, each and every year I was getting less money from the legislature. I had to reduce the size of my staff by 21%. No one ever does that in government. But I did it because it was required.

So what do you do at the state level? You do what Ford, GM, and Chrysler do. You turn to your vendors and you squeeze them for money. We upgrade technology. Without the goal, we’re never going to get there. And we will start to attract people again. Our revenues will actually grow as each and every year you see Tennessee growing, Texas growing. People are moving there. They’re staying there.

What does it mean? For a young couple trying to save up for that first home, a couple years without the income tax means they get the nest egg to plant roots right here in Michigan. For 900,000 small businesses, which are more than 99% of all the businesses in Michigan, it would be a tax cut. They would be able to hire more people, employ more people. The income tax is $13 billion every year. Michigan’s government, under the governor’s current proposal, will have grown $31 billion over seven years. That’s over twice what it would take to eliminate the income tax.

And I’ve taken on big fights and won. That includes utilities, when I saved ratepayers over $3 billion when I intervened. Whether it’s Blue Cross, when I helped stick up for individual payers and seniors, or whether it’s government in terms of affirmative action, I’m a guy who sticks up for the little guy and little woman.

Michigan’s 13th Congressional District covers most of the City of Detroit. Since 2021, Shri Thanedar has represented the area. There has been criticism that the largest majority-Black city in the U.S. is not represented by an African American in Congress.

For his part, Thanedar has shrugged off the criticism and brought millions of federal dollars back to the district.

It has not stopped attempts to primary him.

State Representative Donavan McKinney lives in the 13th. He’s a progressive Democrat who—despite some similarities in their stance on issues—says he is to the left of Thanedar.

McKinney recently sat down with WDET’s Russ McNamara and discussed topics that are coming into play for the primary.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Healthcare

Russ McNamara: What’s your plan to fix healthcare?

State Rep. Donavan McKinney: We need Medicare for All. At the end of the day, people can’t afford life’s necessities, including healthcare.

I’m gonna be honest, it’s a damn shame that Republicans are attacking the ACA (Affordable Care Act) and and the wins on that to cover pre-existing conditions.

I have a story I love to talk about my mom in particular. She has a pre-existing condition, brain tumors, fortunately benign, not cancerous. However, she had to undergo emergency brain surgeries, and it wasn’t for the ACA, she would not be covered.

Wealth gap

RM: How do you plan to address the wealth gap? Because healthcare is tied up all in that too.

DM: The wealth gap is huge, and it’s climbing. Right now, I represent currently the poorest House District in Michigan. $14,000 is the median income. And you know, with folks that’s top of mind is the quality of life issues, right?

It’s unaffordable to live a life right now and I’m running to represent, I believe, the top five poorest [congressional] districts in the country. My constituents, the residents that I currently represent and looking forward to represent in the halls of D.C., they’re struggling with everyday bills. Whether it’s health care, auto insurance, whether it’s child care, housing, you know, you name it, gas, groceries, everything. 

And so for me, it’s all about getting the corporate influence out of our politics, and that’s why we’re running on a campaign that’s not taking any corporate PAC money. Sad to say, my opponent is.

Campaign finance

RM: Why make the choice to not take corporate PAC money? You could easily take the corporate PAC money and use that to campaign, but still vote a different way.

DM: I agree with that premise to some degree, but they also have a lot of influence, right? And so for me, the biggest influence that I want as an elected official should be the people that I represent, and so that’s why we’re taking a hard stance.

I introduced legislation in the state legislature last term and earlier this term that takes all corporate monopoly money out of our politics. It’s called Taking Back Our Power.

We’re targeting insurance companies and the big utility companies, because they have a lot of influence in Lansing, but once I get to DC, what we’re looking to do is overturn Citizens United, and we can do that through congressional action and ensuring that the people’s voices are heard.

Billionaires influencing politics

RM: The amount of money that billionaires are funneling into politics right now has gone up exponentially since Citizens United. Fundamentally and ethically, should billionaires exist?

DM: No. Bottom line? Hell no. I’ll talk about my grandfather in particular, who him and his parents, my great grandparents moved fled from the Jim Crow South to Detroit, Michigan. And one of the most interesting things about my grandfather was he worked at Ford Motor Company for 42 years. And guess what? He never missed a day of work. And I was at his retirement party a few years back, and you know, I asked him, I said, ‘granddad, like, how you never missed a day?’ Like, how was that? Because, you know, my generation, other folks, they’ll miss a day at work within 42 years. He said, “I took pride in what I was doing, and I knew that Ford had my back. I knew that the union had my back, but I knew that Ford Motor Company had my best interest at heart.”

If you fast forward to the year 2026, these companies don’t have the best interest of the workers at heart. What’s happening is they care about the bottom line more so than investing in the human capital, and so they’re figuring out ways to either automate folks out of a job. I mean, what’s happening recently with Stellantis, which, to me, will always be known as Chrysler. And to be honest, I’m a Detroiter, and [I see] how they’re funneling opportunities and increasing bonuses for salaried workers, but for not the workers on the line.

That corporate influence has to end. It has to stop. We have to do what’s right on behalf of the working class people. And right now, they don’t feel like their elected officials are doing the best they can for them.

Data centers and AI

RM: How do you feel about data centers?

DM: This is about understanding what’s possible and then also protecting the environmental harms that are happening from data centers across the country. In Michigan, the Democrats under the democratic trifecta, we led something called the Clean Energy and Jobs Act, and so we were able to ensure that protections for rate payers on water as well as for electricity and energy use are protected.

But in other states, and I’m seeing horror stories coming out of Memphis and Georgia. They have weak laws on the state level, but on a federal level, what’s happening is the AI groups, the folks, the mega sites that are trying to come to our communities, they’re influencing our legislators right now in Congress trying to pull back as many environmental protections from the people. And so for me, I cannot in good conscience support data centers if they’re going to continue to do environmental harm on our communities.

Now, if we can get that together alongside community solar and things of that nature, like we already have in place here in our state, then I can get on board. But in reality, this is all about the oligarchs, the corporate class, taking advantage of the people who live in our communities.

RM: So what’s your reaction when you hear that there’s room for a data center out near City Airport on Detroit’s east side?

DM: Just to paint the picture, in Michigan and other places of the country, we’ve already have data centers running. The question is mega sites. These are new to the equation, and so with the mega sites coming in I don’t necessarily support it until they don’t have an environmental justice plan that they follow. Until that all of those needs are met, and the community says no, then I got to rock with my community, with my constituents.

U.S. funding of Israel

RM: In 2024, the Biden Administration and the Kamala Harris campaign refused to change their stance toward funding Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. I just want your thoughts on that conflict, because it’s still relevant here now two years on.

DM: Because I’m at the state level, you don’t really deal with foreign policy, but now that I’m running for a Congressional seat, I’m learning more and more about it. Some people might disagree with me when I say this, right now, from the experts, groups that are on the ground every single day, to the United Nations. What’s happening over there is a genocide.

Now, does that excuse what happened on October 7? No, I condemn any type of violence, any type of war, no matter who it is, because a human life is a human life. But I can’t in good conscience at the federal level support sending billions—and sometimes trillions over decades—for bombs and weapons to kill families and children. When literally in my own neighborhood I have to witness and see my neighbors struggling day to day, and we can’t find any type of money for them to have health care, for them to have good parks of recreation, for them to have real mass transit in our communities, access to clean and affordable water.

Every time we talk about progressivism and the things that the community honestly want and American people need, we say we can’t fund it. We say we don’t have the money, but right now, in Iran and different parts of the world, we’re spending over billions of dollars a day, and people are fed up with their entire politics. That’s why they don’t engage. That’s why they’re not involved. So for me, this is deeper than politics. This is deeper than “Oh, you’re pro Jew, you’re pro Palestinian.” I’m pro human life. I’m pro bringing resources back home to my district.

Where should the Democratic Party go next?

RM: Do you think there’s a leadership problem within the Democratic Party?

DM: I think there’s a leadership problem top down. I think if you look at the polling for our current administration, our current president, the numbers are like terrible, but the numbers on the Democratic Party is even lower than Trump’s.

Right now, [the people] don’t see the Democratic Party as the party of the people. I view the party as the party of the people. But right now, what’s happening is Democrats and Republicans are viewed the same when it comes to certain things, and that is literally pleading and doing everything they can for the corporate oligarchs in the corporate class. And right now for working people that are in my district struggling, they’re working two three jobs just to try to scrape by to make ends meet, let alone figuring out ways to thrive and have an disposable income, having health care and a retirement to look forward to. They have nothing, and so right now, they need a party that’s going to step up for them.

That’s why I’m a big believer that the party is going to have to make a choice. You either going to continue to serve the corporate class or you’re going to serve the working people. And that’s why we’re not taking corporate money, and that’s why my opponent is in trouble, because he continues to take corporate PAC money, AIPAC and everything under the sun.

RM: The right for transgender people to exist is under attack from the Trump Administration. What do you plan to do to protect some of the most marginalized people in this country?

DM: At the end of the day, human life is human life. I don’t I don’t care how you see yourself, define yourself at the end of the day, if you are a human being in this country, I will fight for you. So for me, making sure that at the end of the day, trans, Black folks, poor people, formerly incarcerated, our veterans, all of these groups are the most vulnerable populations of our communities, our seniors, our elders and our children— they need somebody that’s going to fight for them.

And so I have nothing better to do but to fight for human rights, no matter how you slice it, no matter where you live, no matter who you love, no no matter your race, your creed, your color, it doesn’t matter. And so yeah, to answer your question: I’m going to fight for every single person, not only in my district, but across the country.

RM: That sounds like some All Lives Matter kind of talk though…

DM: You could call it, All Lives Matter. But in reality, this is just common sense. Like, I’mma be honest Russ—the politics of the day, I have to partake in it, because I’m an elected official. But I like to see myself as a public servant first, and that’s what not only the Democratic party, the Republican Party, everybody in this system has forgotten.

It’s the service to the humans. We’re all humans. We might be different. We might like come from different backgrounds. But the reason why I’m sitting in office right now as a state rep in the district where nobody told me a Black kid can win in Macomb County, the reason why I won every single precinct is because we talked about the real issues, and they understood. They looked at me eye to eye at those doors, and they say, “You know what, I believe in this guy, I know he’s going to fight for me.”

It doesn’t matter what your politics is, I believe in you, and I’m going to fight for you no matter what, and that and that’s all I can do. I will fight for folks all across the congressional district of the mighty 13th.

Calls to abolish ICE

RM: There’s been an increase in the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is attempting to turn a warehouse into a detention center. There’s been a growing movement from the left wing of the Democratic Party to ‘abolish ICE’. Where do you stand on that?

DM: We must abolish ICE as it is right now, because at the end of the day, what’s happening in Romulus is not only in our congressional district, and it impacts people—it impacts folks all across our state.

One of the biggest issues with ICE in particular is that they’re not only targeting what Trump is calling the worst of the worst. No, they’re actually targeting American citizens, and they are known in recent history to not only kill American citizens, but deport American citizens. And I’m born and raised in this country. If you deport me, where the hell are you going to send me? That is my biggest question, and so I can’t in good conscience support this department.

My opponent, sad to say, was one of the one of the few Democrats last summer to thank the department, voted with the Republicans to do so. [He also] voted at least a couple times to increase the department’s budget. [NOTE: The vote thanking ICE also was tied to a measure condemning antisemitism] Because the community has risen up, and I’ve been hitting him hard on it, he decides, because it’s politically favorable to switch his tune and tries to introduce legislation to abolish ICE with no community input.

I introduced legislation last fall, long before we knew ICE was going to be here in Michigan, making sure that everybody has access to due process no matter your immigration status, making sure that ICE agents are unmasked when they conduct business here in our communities, and ensuring that at the end of the day, everybody has access to resources, no matter who you are.

We are a border city. We’re an international crossing. ICE has been terrorizing our communities, especially in southwest Detroit and the surrounding areas, for years now, over a decade.

And so where was he at? Where was my opponent at? We were there every step of the way, fighting back with our community, and we’re going to continue to fight back.

And so I’m proud of—I got to give a shout out to our Attorney General, Dana Nessel. I got to give a shout out to the Mayor Bob McCray and the whole entire Romulus city council, because they came together collectively as one, and they’re fighting against right now. They got a lawsuit right now to slow down a process of ice opening up that detention facility in Romulus.

WDET is talking to candidates vying to become Michigan’s next governor as the state heads towards party primaries and November’s general election.

That includes Michigan Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, who is part of a crowded field of Republican contenders for the top job in Lansing.

Nesbitt says Michigan’s next governor must focus on the state’s economy.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Sen. Aric Nesbitt: As a farm boy that grew up in southwest Michigan, I know how hard it is to make a living. I grew up baling hay and having to sleep on the main floor because it was 10 degrees cooler there. I worked my way through college, went to Hillsdale College and earned my economics degree. I had to take five different jobs there.

And the people of Michigan are hurting right now. It’s tough for families, for job creators and for kids to make it here in Michigan. We’re paying the highest insurance rates, the highest energy costs in the Midwest.

Our job creators are being crushed by regulations out of Lansing that are preventing them from expanding and growing and creating more wealth here in the state.

And then our kids, three out of five fourth graders can’t read at grade level. And we know if you can’t read at grade level, you have a nearly 70% chance of being on social welfare or in jail at some point. That paints a very tough and dark picture for the future of Michigan.

I want to paint a very bright picture for Michigan, one where every kid can read, every family can actually make it here in the state, and job creators can invest and grow so we can become a wealthy state again.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: If you were elected to the governor’s office, how would you try to address some of those issues?

AN: The first thing is to help families. I was in north Michigan a little bit ago talking to a guy that moved here from Tennessee. You don’t meet too many of those folks because Tennessee is a right-to-work state with no income tax. He said he’d added up his cost for utilities, energy and his local property taxes. He says he’s paying about $5,000 more per year to live in Michigan than he did in Tennessee. And as a farm boy, $5,000 is a lot of money.

So you start off by looking at energy. Right now the Democrats in Lansing and Gov. Whitmer mandated this 100% renewable energy, banned natural gas, banned nuclear. It’s industrializing hundreds of thousands of acres of farm and forest land. Makes me sad seeing all these good corn fields going into industrial solar panels. If we’re going to grow and invest here in the state, we got to repeal the Green New Scam and allow them all of the above energy proposals. Actually allow nuclear and natural gas facilities to be built. Lower the costs for manufacturing and for families. Families are already paying the highest rates in the nation. Got to bring it back.

You look at our insurance laws, at the costs of auto insurance and homeowner’s insurance. We’re paying the highest prices in the Midwest. Ohio has a more competitive market. So does Illinois. If you take their laws and bring them to Michigan, you can cut our insurance rates. And that’s the same thing with why I’m running on eliminating the state property tax. That’s the start of finding how you can make sure that you put more money in hard-working families’ pockets and less money being sent up to Lansing.

QK: If one cuts or eliminates some of those taxes though, then that eliminates some revenue coming into the state. Is there a way that you would envision trying to make up that revenue? Or do you think we can just tighten the belt and go forward?

AN: Over the last seven years under Gov. Whitmer and the Democrats in Lansing, the state government has grown by 50%. I don’t know anybody who’s gotten a 50% pay increase around the state of Michigan. Hasn’t happened in our family and hasn’t happened in our neighbors’ families. If you would have only used funds from half the growth of government at the state level, you could have eliminated the state income tax.

This is the point. We haven’t been seeing that 50% increase in terms of services. We are a top 20 state in terms of spending on education. Yet we’re a bottom 10 state in reading scores, science and education. The state demographer says over the next 30 years, we’re going to lose upwards of another 700,000 people in the state of Michigan.

We’re on target to go down to 49th in terms of per capita income. We could become a poorer state closer to Mississippi. If we’re going to grow as a state and make sure our kids are able to learn, we got to shake up the status quo in Lansing and stop just tweaking around the edges, which is what we’ve seen.

So, as the next governor Michigan, I’m going to lower the cost of living, increase wages, create better job opportunities and make sure our kids have a choice to either go on to college or enter a trade school. I think we’ve lost that here in Michigan, having a good solid trades education. Those people are actually career ready.

QK: Earlier this year you had mentioned you thought it might be necessary to have a federal monitor oversee Michigan’s elections to ensure they were fair and legal. Do you still feel that way? Do you think that’s still something that needs to be watched for?

AN: This is the challenge Michigan has. We have the worst secretary of state.

QK: Who would possibly be your opponent if you were the GOP nominee for governor.

AN: Yes, Jocelyn Benson. We’ve seen time after time that she continues to ignore subpoenas from the Michigan House of Representatives and subpoenas from the federal Department of Justice I think that she needs to allow for federal oversight of these elections because she has a very poor history of administrating them. That needs to be corrected.

This is why it’s so important this fall that voters approve a constitutional amendment that’ll be on the ballot that makes sure every person in Michigan shows a photo ID to vote. It cleans up the voter rolls and ensures that you’re a legal citizen here in the state of Michigan.

QK: What would you say to those that argue those requirements will hurt voter turnout, because some people may not have some of that identification with them?

AN: These reforms happened in Georgia. They were saying the same thing there, yet they had a higher voter turnout the other year than the years before. These are just straw man arguments.

QK: If you are elected, you’d be taking over the governor’s chair from Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. Obviously she’s in the opposite political party. But she has gained a bit of a national profile. She’s had discussions with President Trump that seemed to at least affect some of the issues going on in Michigan. What are your thoughts overall about coming into that office if you were elected following Whitmer’s time?

AN: I joined with Gov. Whitmer a year ago when President Trump announced the new fighter mission at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. We worked together to be able to get that done. And to block the Asian carp in Chicago from entering the Great Lakes. And I worked with President Trump to find help for victims of the ice storms a year ago in northern Michigan.

I’m going to continue to partner with the Trump administration to make sure that Michigan issues are on the list of things they need to address.

And this is why the status quo in Lansing needs to be shaken up. It’s not about establishing a national profile. It’s about solving problems for hardworking Michigan families. And it matters. Detroit and Saginaw are two of the 10 cities with the highest crime rates in the nation. We got some tough challenges as a state.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Nesbitt says Gov. Whitmer banned nuclear power. But she has supported restarting the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in southwest Michigan. The plant is in Michigan’s 20^th state senate district, which Nesbitt represents.

Democratic Congressman Shri Thanedar is running for re-election. He represents the 13^th Congressional District which encompasses much of Detroit as well as Wyandotte, Allen Park, Taylor and Romulus.

Thanedar has long been the target of criticism for being a newcomer to the city of Detroit, and for being mostly self-financed. He’s independently wealthy, and the 71-year-old has been able to easily out-spend his competitors.

This year, Thanedar is facing a difficult primary opponent, State Representative Donavan McKinney. The progressive Democrat has already been endorsed by Black leaders in Detroit and other lefties like Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.

The seat is safely controlled by Democrats, so whoever wins the primary will be the next Representative.

Recently, Thanedar sat down with WDET’s Russ McNamara and discussed many topics that could separate he and McKinney in the primary.

The following interview has been edited for clarity.

Russ McNamara, WDET: You’ve been running ads critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar: What happened in Minnesota in killing of two American citizens Renee Good, a mother of three, was murdered on the streets of America. Alex Pretti an ICU nurse at [the] VA was murdered. This agency is out of control. They are going to Home Depots, daycare centers, schools to round up people that look different.

This is not a way to run our immigration enforcement, so I, last year, introduced a bill in Congress to end immunity for ICE agents, because ICE agents cannot stand behind this immunity to go do atrocities on our streets and create fear among our communities and community members. People, even U.S. citizens, are afraid to come out of their homes being afraid.

ICE agents talking to people. ‘Hey, you speak with an accent, you look different. You You must not be an US citizen.’ … They are entering homes without a judicial warrant. So I introduced a bill last year, anticipating all of this, to eliminate the immunity for these ICE agents. And this year, I am the first member of Congress to introduce a bill in Congress to abolish ice.

RM: It should be noted that because of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, this bill is unlikely to go anywhere at all. Have you had any person experience with racial profiling?

ST: Yeah, you know, at times. I have seen the type of questioning that I get, or sometime, I do get singled out a lot more for interrogation and questioning. But I am not so sure it is how different that is compared to their interrogation of other people.

Medicare for All

RM: What is your plan to fix health care?

ST: Well look, with a nation as rich as ours, it is unfortunate that United States does not cover health care for all of its citizens. We are the only developed nation that does not cover health care for its citizens. I am a big proponent of Medicare for All.

I would like to see a single-payer healthcare system that covers healthcare, because I believe healthcare is a fundamental human rights issue. No one, no family, should have to make those difficult decisions, whether to buy medicine, go to a doctor or buy food to feed the family.

So we saw the condition of healthcare in Detroit, especially in the Covid times. We had disproportionate number of deaths during Covid, because Detroit does not have the health care.

So I think given the poverty in my district—26% of the people in my district are at or below poverty—they are struggling as such, and cannot afford health care. Now, the loss of subsidies, the Obamacare subsidies, has doubled and tripled insurance premiums for independent workers, small business owners, and that’s causing a lot of hardship for people as well. So a single payer healthcare like a Medicare for All is the ultimate solution.

We will have a better leverage to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to ensure because prescription medication is most expensive in United States compared to everywhere else in the world and whatever. Under Biden, we dropped the insulin rates to $35 a month. There is some progress made under the current administration, but it is too little and does not cover a lot of the life saving medications. So we need to have a comprehensive health care reform, such as a single-payer health care system.

Wealth gap

RM: You mentioned that 26% of your district lives in poverty. It has one of the lowest median household income rates in the country. You are independently wealthy. I’m sure you’ve seen the how the wealth gap has increased. What is your plan to address that wealth gap?

ST: We need to create skills jobs. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. The current federal minimum wage is nowhere close to a living wage, so it is important that we raise the minimum wage, but it’s very, very important that we give people the skill set that they need.

Look, I wasn’t born wealthy. I grew up in India. My father lost his job when I was 16 years old, and while going to college, I worked as a janitor, and made a little bit of money. I didn’t get the living wages, I didn’t get the benefits, but I worked as a janitor. I worked in restaurants, serving tables. That’s how I got a little supplemental income that I gave it to my mom so she could put food on the table, you know. So I grew up in dire poverty, like no running water in my home. I had to go with my mother a block away to get drinking water for the whole day.

So I have gone through dire poverty. There are times where I’ve gone to bed hungry, but I got education. I came to the United States. I got education. After that, I got a job, and then I started a business, and that business became very successful, and that’s how I made my money.

Then I realized I achieved my American dream and I need to go help others, and that’s why I sold my business, took some of that money, gave it to all of my employees, because they helped me make that business successful.

So to close the wealth gap, we need to promote entrepreneurship. We need to give the skillsets people need.

Education costs way too much. No one should be graduating from college with 50,000, $70,000 loan. So we need to make education affordable, because like in my case, it was the education that helped me overcome poverty to be able to succeed and achieve my American dream. Every child, no matter what zip code he or she lives, every child, no matter what financial background the child comes from, must get good quality education.

Billionaires

RM: Should billionaires exist?

ST: I don’t think so. Some 80 or so billionaires have so much wealth compared to rest of the people, and that doesn’t seem like a fair system. We have billionaires who have a different set of rules that they live under. So no, I don’t think billionaires should exist, because often they exist because of because of their unethical practices, because of their monopolies. And we need to break those monopolies. We need to have a level playing field.

RM: Where has the Democratic Party gone wrong? What can they do to fix the disconnect between the base and party leadership?

ST: I can tell you just what I am doing as a Democrat, and my focus has been to fight for democracy. When this administration does illegal things when they do activities that are against the Constitution. I have stood up. I was the first member of Congress to bring articles of impeachment against this president, outlining some of the things that he did that were unconstitutional.

RM: But that wasn’t well-received by Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries though.

ST: It wasn’t. I don’t work for Hakeem Jeffries. I don’t work for Donald Trump. I work for my constituents. And my constituents felt that what Mr. Trump is doing in terms of the Trump meme coin or his families making these business deals with Middle East countries this Trump and his family have amassed $1.5 billion personal wealth using their office.

I’m doing what my constituents want me to do. Because, look, I have had more town halls than anybody else that I know of. I must have had almost 18 or so in person town halls. I have had tele-town halls where 18,000 people join in—I do this almost every month. So I am very much in touch with my constituents.

I hear them, and I’m doing what my constituents want, which is to fight with this administration and resist this administration when they do when they take law in their own hands, when they do unconstitutional activities.

Campaign finance

RM: How has it been raising money this time around? You’ve put a lot of your own money into your campaigns, but you’ve also taken a lot of money from AIPAC.

ST: I don’t do much fundraising. You know, most members of Congress spend anywhere from 20-60 hours per week on fundraising. I have put my own money when I ran for governor, I put my own money when I ran for Congress. I put my own money when I ran for state rep, so I don’t depend on anybody else’s money.

RM: But are you taking money from a PAC or one of their offshoots in this particular election cycle?

ST: I will take money from anybody who wants to support my campaign, but that is a insignificant part of my total funds that I use. 90, 95% 99% of the money is coming from my own pocket. So I am not beholden to any donor. I am not beholden to any one contributing to my campaign. I spend my own money.

War in Gaza

RM: So a lot of what went wrong for Democrats in 2024 was the failure to acknowledge people who were unhappy with Israel’s war and attacks on Palestinians in Gaza—

ST: I think it was the economy. I think Trump made a case that he alone can fix the economy. He identified the affordability struggles average Americans have, and he talked about the rising prices—and he said, Mr. Trump said, he alone can fix the economy. And people believed it. People believed that he can fix the economy, and I think that was the number one reason why Mr. Trump got elected.

RM: But I do want to suss out your personal feelings on Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. Scholars and vocal people on the left have characterized those attacks as genocide. Would you agree with that assessment?

ST: I feel that we need to fight terrorism all across the world. Terrorism needs to be fought. What happened? We suffered at the hands of terrorists on 9/11 and we just need to continue to fight and we need to fight terrorism anywhere, whether it’s Middle East, whether it is in any other part of the world.

War in Iran

RM: Iran has been a large state sponsor of terrorism across the globe. Are you in support of this current military action with Iran?

ST: I am totally opposed to the current war that Trump has started in Iran. It was ill conceived. I have seen no imminent threat to the United States from Iran. Iran has the capability of these missiles and drones all along. So there is nothing new that happened, that needed United States to go spend billions of dollars on this war and get our men and women—hard working men and women from the service—to be in harm’s way. So this was an ill conceived plan of war done by one man, and he did not consult Congress.

Congress, by constitution, is the sole authority in terms of declaring war, and this President started this illegal war for reasons known only to him, because every member of his cabinet has given us different reasons why they started the war. It seems like… none of them have one cohesive reason why they started this war.

Trump has said different things. Secretary Rubio has said different things. Vice President, J, D, Vance said some other things. So it almost like they’re making up reasons why they went into war, and I have my own thinking why they went into the war.

I feel that Trump needs every distraction he can get to distract Americans from the rising affordability crisis. Trump needs a distraction because people are mad at the operation of Department of Homeland Security and ICE particularly. And people are upset with the Epstein files and all of the attorney general who, as you know, has attempted to cover up. This is the largest cover up since Watergate, and it is something that Trump needed a distraction for, and they went into this Iran war without full preparation.

Transgender rights

RM: What do you plan to do to protect the rights of transgender people since Republicans continue to attack their existence?

ST: This cultural war by Republicans is another way of distraction from the current affordability crisis. The culture war that they have done to please their own base is unnecessary.

This is not the issue we need to feed people. They’re cutting Medicaid through the trillion dollars of cuts in health care. They are cutting snap the supplemental food benefits to the tune of $300 billion taking away, you know, Supplemental Nutritional food away from hungry and poor, and we’re talking about these culture wars. That is quite a distraction. We need to really focus on what really matters, and that’s feeding the hungry. That’s getting good health care for all, focusing on skills and closing the wealth gap.

Embed player

Get from Streamguys/Teams Grid

“In this episode”

• Business Man Perry Johnson speaks about his internal polling.
• The importance of filing signatures early.

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

With one month until filing deadlines to get on the November ballot, it’s time to take a look to see who has the best chance of representing their party as their next gubernatorial candidate. This week on WDET’s MichMash, Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow and Alethia Kasben point out the candidates to watch out for as we walk further down the campaign trail.  

Handing in signatures on time is very important. Candidates for governors need to have 100 signatures from seven of the state’s 13 US House districts. Also, filing signatures earlier than your opponents do ensure that any duplicate signatures won’t be erased from your filings.  

Later on in the episode businessman Perry Johnson stopped by to talk about his bid for governor. Johnson’s candor in talking about his poll numbers from his own polling surprised the MichMash hosts. Internal polling from the Perry Johnson Campoaign showed that Johnson was at 20% in the district of Republican US Representative and gubernatorial candidate, John James. Johnson does not believe it makes sense for him to be that close  

“I did not conduct this poll, statistically I don’t see how it’s possible that I would be that close in his [John James] district. The poll numbers are so high even the candidate that I’m looking at find it hard to believe. 

Johnson had said that if he makes it to 20% he believes he would receive support from President Trump.  

• More from WDET:

  Michigan GOP governor candidates short signatures

  A Republican outlook on Michigan’s 2026 elections

  MichMash: How Trump auto tariffs impact Michigan; John James joins gubernatorial race + more

The Metro is closely watching the race for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat.

The Republican side is settled. Former Congressman Mike Rogers, who lost to Elissa Slotkin by less than half a point in 2024, is running again. This time, he wants the seat Gary Peters is leaving behind.

The Democratic side is more complicated. Three serious candidates are competing for the nomination, and the distance between them tells you something about where the party is right now.

Congresswoman Haley Stevens has Chuck Schumer’s endorsement and millions in support from AIPAC. She is running on expanding the Affordable Care Act and working within existing institutions. State Senator Mallory McMorrow wants generational change inside the party — new leadership, new tactics — but within the current system. Physician Abdul El-Sayed is running to the left of both. He wants Medicare for All, the abolition of ICE, and says Democratic leadership has lost touch with its own voters.

They disagree on healthcare. They disagree on immigration enforcement. They disagree on Israel and Gaza, on whether billionaires should exist, and on who should be leading their own party.

WDET’s Russ McNamara sat down with all three — same questions, same mic — and the answers lay out a party in the middle of an argument with itself. The Metro listened back to that story, then Russ joined Robyn Vincent for some analysis about this moment.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

One of the most watched and most expensive U.S. Senate races in the country is happening here in Michigan. Republicans are seemingly running it back with Mike Rogers – who lost to Democrat Elissa Slotkin two years ago.

However, in the race to replace Gary Peters, there’s a trio of Democrats vying for the party’s nomination. Congresswoman Haley Stevens, State Senator Mallory McMorrow, and physician Abdul El-Sayed are all serious contenders.

WDET’s Russ McNamara has talked with the three candidates about issues that separate themselves within the Democratic Party.

There is a certain ideological split within the Democratic Party that does not exist currently within the GOP. Republicans are either pro-Donald Trump or they lose elections. Democrats are split with more nuance on some policies – but even if it’s just a wiggle, there’s still room. 

Starting with healthcare

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed has been so vocal about his perspective on healthcare that he wrote a book on it.

“Medicare for All is government health insurance guaranteed for everyone, regardless of what circumstances you’re in,” El-Sayed says.  

“If you like your insurance through your employer or through your union, I hope that will be there for you. But if you lose your job, if your factory shuts down, you shouldn’t be destitute without the health care that you need and deserve so.”

Instead of the government taking on the entire burden of the health care system, Mallory McMorrow prefers a public option. Private insurers stick around, but a government-backed option exists. For her, Medicare For All is a no-go.

“I think it’s too big of a challenge. Admittedly, we are a country of more than 360 million people. When I talk to people all across the state, they don’t say that they want one single system. They say, I want the insurance that works for me,” McMorrow said.  

“I want to be able to see my doctor. I want to be able to go to my pediatrician, and I want it to be affordable. That, to me, requires more options, not fewer.”

For Congresswoman Haley Stevens,  she wants everyone who can be covered under the Affordable Care Act to get covered.  

“I deeply believe that we need to expand the Affordable Care Act,” Stevens said. “We need to protect that and we also need to make the tax subsidies permanent.”

The Republican-led Congress did not renew those tax subsidies. Rates went up and an estimated 1,200,000 fewer people did not enroll in Obamacare this year.

Will you be a good ally?

Since the last election cycle, Republicans have worked to strip transgender Americans of their rights to seek the healthcare they need.

It became a line of attack not only against trans youth, but against Democrats.

For many within the Democratic Party, the steadfast support of the LGBTQ community has shown cracks when it comes to trans rights.

McMorrow says part of the reason why trans folks are a target is that people are looking for someone to blame for a bad economy.

“I fundamentally believe the way forward is that we have to be the party that solves those fundamental problems for people,” McMorrow said. “If we can restore the American Dream and ensure that in Michigan and in the United States, if you work hard, you play by the rules, you can achieve that life that you wanted, then there won’t be this appetite to target and hurt vulnerable kids.”

Congresswoman Stevens has been supportive of the LGBTQ community and has tweeted support saying every American, regardless of their gender identity should feel safe to be their authentic selves. She voted against the anti-trans Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act earlier this year.

Dr. El-Sayed says Democrats need to be a good ally.

“I believe that rights are rights are rights. And when you assent to somebody taking away somebody else’s rights, you are at some point assenting to somebody coming for yours,” El-Sayed said.

“We have to stand together to fight for our collective rights, even when those rights are rights we may never see ourselves using.”

The fight for trans rights will come up again, with President Trump’s Save America Act attempting to tie restrictions to healthcare for trans people to a bill about adding strict voter ID laws.

Should ICE exist?

Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be a hot topic this year for the midterm elections. ICE agents have killed at least three American citizens in the past year. The government has deported or jailed tens of thousands of immigrants, most with no criminal records.

Before she was fired, Congresswoman Stevens advocated for the removal of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “Well, ICE needs to be overhauled. I will tell you that we need to start seeing accountability, and we need a complete overhaul of ICE. And there has been mismanagement from the very top.”

Mallory McMorrow was asked if ICE should exist as an agency.  

 “Yes, and it needs to be vastly reformed. Michigan is a border state. We need immigration and customs enforcement to do the work of what and who comes across the border. That should be its job,” McMorrow said. “Its job should not be to be unleashed on communities, to terrorize people, to go after people whose skin color isn’t exactly right, or who have an accent.”

Abdul El-Sayed believes ICE should be abolished.

 “We can have a safe and secure southern border. We can enforce immigration law, but ICE is not about that. What ICE is about is about a paramilitary force normalizing the use of government power on peaceful streets, in thrall to one man,” El-Sayed said.

Should billionaires exist?

The concentration of wealth at the top has been a growing concern since the Reaganomics era of the mid-to-late 1980s. Now tax rates for corporations and the wealthy have been slashed – while the federal government – and many states – have defunded social programs.

The number of billionaires has tripled in the past 15 years. I asked the candidates if billionaires – from an ethical standpoint – should exist.

McMorrow was unequivocal.

“Yes, I think they can and should exist, and I look at somebody like Mark Cuban as an example. You can be a billionaire without being a jerk,” McMorrow said.

It should be noted that Cuban wrote a blurb praising the State Senator’s book that came out last year.

 El-Sayed says billionaires should be the exception, not the norm.

“I don’t think that our system should be in the business of creating billionaires. I think our system should be in the business of empowering everyday folks to be able to live a life with access to the basic dignities that they need and deserve, good housing, good health care, affordable food,” El-Sayed said.

Haley Stevens says the wealthiest need to pay higher taxes, but didn’t outright say they should be taxed out of existence.  

“Well, we’re not going to be seeing someone like myself do billionaire bidding in the United States Senate. I’ll tell you that much. And tackling where and how billionaires are not paying their fair share needs to get done.”

That’s a good lead into:

Campaign contributions

When it comes to campaign cash, El-Sayed and McMorrow aren’t taking corporate money for the senate run.

McMorrow has taken corporate money in the past. but not this round. The filings with the Federal Elections Commission bear that out.

 “More than half of our donations are from people donating $200 or less,” McMorrow said.

El-Sayed avoided taking corporate dollars in a failed run for Michigan governor in 2018.

“I’m the only person running for US Senate who’s never taken a dime of corporate money to fund a campaign, and that shows up in the ways that I stand up to corporations.”

Congresswoman Stevens has no such hangups and says she will use all avenues to raise campaign money.

 “Well, look, I’m running my campaign in a grassroots way, with individual donors who participate in the democratic process and the way that our country allows,” Stevens said.

Some of that money is coming from AIPAC – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Stevens has taken millions from the controversial organization that aides pro-Israel Republicans and Democrats. Earlier this month, as Israel and the U.S. continued to bomb Iran, Stevens appeared in a video for AIPAC.

The war in Gaza

Stevens supports a two state solution for Israel and Palestine.  

 “We need people in Gaza Palestinian people to have dignity and peace, just as we need people in Israel to do so.”

Mallory McMorrow was initially reluctant to criticize Israel’s attacks, but this fall when asked if the tens of thousands of dead Palestinians was tantamount to genocide, McMorrow said “yes,” even if she doesn’t seem comfortable using the term.

 “I am somebody who looks at the videos, the photos, the amount of pain that has been caused in the Middle East, and you can’t not be heartbroken,” McMorrow said. “But I also feel like we are getting lost in this conversation, and it feels like a political purity test on a word—a word that, by the way, to people who lost family members in the Holocaust, does mean something very different and very visceral.”

Abdul El-Sayed has unequivocally said that Israel’s assault on Palestinians – and the role the U.S. has played in supporting it – is genocide.

“I believe in international law,” El-Sayed said. “I want our tax dollars to stop killing children.”

Do Democrats need a change at the top?

Support for the Democratic Party and its leadership are at an all-time low. The party is polling behind artificial intelligence and ahead of Iran.

The biggest complaint is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer aren’t doing enough to push back against the Trump Administration.

Mallory McMorrow says a change at the top is needed and a youth movement needs to happen among Congressional Democrats.

“We need leaders who understand how to engage with people, not as just a number, not as a voter or a donor, but as part of the team,” McMorrow said.

Abdul El-Sayed says stunning defeats in 2024 mean there’s a disconnect between party leadership and its base.

 “I think right now, we are in a place where there is so much profound frustration about the chasm between the Democratic Party writ large and its voters,” El-Sayed said. “And I think any democratic leader who wants to win elections in the future should be less worried about who holds the luxury suite on the top of the Titanic and more worried about getting in the engine room and saving the Titanic, which is where we are.”

Congresswoman Haley Stevens – who has Schumer’s support – sidestepped the question. 

“You’re asking me about the future of the Democratic Party. And there are some people who are running who assume that’s what this race is all about, and I don’t think that’s fair to the people of Michigan,” Stevens said. “I believe that this race is about the future of Michigan.”

Changes to SCOTUS?

The future of the U.S. Supreme Court has come up a lot since the conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Justices have been a bit inconsistent in their rulings depending on who was president.

Stevens says something needs to change.

“I deeply support ethics reform for the Supreme Court, what seems to look like pay-to-play, the fact that they have a different set of ethics rules, I think it would be more than appropriate, given that the Supreme Court doesn’t have elections and it’s a lifetime appointment,” Stevens said.

McMorrow thinks there needs to be a plan that makes sense both ethically and politically.

 “I am talking to some constitutional experts right now, some judicial experts on whether that means term limits, whether that means oversight, whether it means reforms, or whether it means more justices, I am open to anything to ensure the Supreme Court does its job,” McMorrow said.

El-Sayed has been working on a plan for SCOTUS for a while.

“I proposed a system here that says that every president should have three appointments, every Supreme Court justice should have at least ten years and a possible renewal for another ten years. But what that does is it incentivizes the selection of jurists who want to interpret the Constitution on its own terms,” El-Sayed said.

There are no shortage of issues for candidates in the upcoming elections, and more are sure to pop up along the way. Questions for the primary will be different than those in the general election this fall.

Detroit Public Radio plans to talk with these candidates multiple times over the next few months so our listeners can make an informed decision at the polls.

Michigan voters may get a ballot proposal changing the way they are verified to vote. This week on WDET’s MichMash, Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow and Alethia Kasben discuss what this ballot would require. Later, candidate for Michigan governor Mike Duggan joins the discussion.

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode

• What is in the citizens-only ballot proposal?
• How is former mayor Mike Duggan connecting with voters during his gubernatorial campaign?

More from WDET:

• MichMash: Unpacking Michigan’s ‘Citizen Only’ ballot initiative
• Filmmaker Ken Burns says new American Revolution doc shows citizenship carries responsibility
• New Hampshire judge decides to pause Trump’s birthright citizenship order

About a thousand protesters showed up to city hall in Romulus to protest a planned Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the city. 

Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, who is hoping to win the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State was also there. “I make sure that people have the power to vote against those who would want to sign off on a budget that would approve these kind of expenditures… that would approve this kind of ICE personnel deployment,” said Gilchrist. “That is unacceptable, and we need ICE out of Michigan.” 

Romulus City Council voted unanimously to condemn the proposed detention center, but admitted they still have not received formal confirmation of the building’s sale to the federal government.

-Reporting by Russ McNamara 

Additional headlines for Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026

Whitmer will use State of the State to talk affordable housing

Governor Gretchen Whitmer will use her State of the State address Wednesday to call for more programs to address a shortage of affordable housing in Michigan.

Her plans include an affordable housing tax credit to spur development, cuts to regulations and faster approval of building permits. The governor has expressed concerns that President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs will add thousands of dollars to the costs of home-building materials. The governor delivers her State of the State address the evening following the president’s State of the Union address tonight. (MPRN) 

New office of Community Safety

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield has established a new office of Neighborhood and Community Safety. Its goal is to help prevent domestic violence and promote conflict resolution.

Teferi Brent will lead the office. He says domestic abuse is a major source of violence that the city needs to address. Brent says that effort would further lower the number of homicides, which hit a 60-year low in 2025. 

-Reporting by Pat Batcheller

Detroit Historical Society celebrates Women’s History Month

The Detroit Historical Society is kicking off Women’s History Month with ‘Love and Flowers: A tribute to Detroit’s Black Matriarchs’ Sunday. 

 The event is a celebration of caregivers past and present and an opportunity to reflect on the question of what it looks like to honor the Black women who “built… nurtured and fought for a better Detroit.”

Registration is through the Black Bottom Archives as a part of its Bottom Up series of community programs exploring memory, storytelling and Black Detroit’s living history.

A museum membership is required for admission, but the Detroit Historical Museum offers a free membership to Detroiters and individual memberships starting at $60 on its website.

Literacy fundraiser

The Flint Unity Farming Project is having a popcorn fundraiser to support is literacy and learning programs.

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 2026, voters in Michigan will cast ballots for races involving the office of Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State. Gary Peters (D-MI) is opting to retire, so there’s an open U.S. Senate seat.

Democrats have three strong candidates: Mallory McMorrow, Haley Stevens, and Abdul El-Sayed. All three have raised millions of dollars for their campaigns ahead of the August primary.

Throughout the primary, Detroit Public Radio will be checking in with the candidates so our listeners can make an informed decision. The focus of this first round of interviews is to set a baseline for the candidates views on policy and what separates them from their competitors.

Having talked with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow, this first round of conversations concludes with Congresswoman Haley Stevens.

She talked with All Things Considered Detroit Host Russ McNamara on Feb. 18, 2026.

ICE overhaul

Russ McNamara: This week, you went to the largest detention center for migrants in the Midwest- the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin. You’ve called for the impeachment of homeland security secretary Kristi Noem. Should Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) exist as an agency?

U.S. Representative Haley Stevens: Well, ICE needs to be overhauled. I will tell you that we need to start seeing accountability, and we need a complete overhaul of ICE. There has been mismanagement from the very top, and that’s Kristi Noem. That’s why I’m signed on to the articles of impeachment.

It’s also why I have signed on to legislation to redirect the $75 billion plus up that came from the Big Beautiful Bill championed by Donald Trump that went to ICE. That $75 billion needs to go to local law enforcement and for training and for safety and protocol measures that are really going to keep our neighborhoods safe.

What ICE is doing right now is so out of control, it is so damaging, and it’s chaotic. Michiganders are seeing what unfolded in Minneapolis, and they are worried about that coming here.

RM: In Baldwin, you told reporters, “There is female leadership here, and there are women who walked with us today…and explained how important it is to treat people with humanity.” I’m kind of curious about this quote, because taken as it is, it almost seems like you’re saying what’s happening there is okay as long as women have a seat at the table.

HS: Well, what’s happening with ICE is not okay at all. And what was very astonishing, and the reason I made that point, is because these are supposed to be the most “dangerous criminals” that ICE is taking into these detention facilities, and yet there are guards and people in that facility who don’t carry any weapons.

There’s no weapons, there’s no tasers, and yet we are supposedly dealing with the most dangerous criminals. So what ICE is doing is certainly not okay, and that’s why I’m pushing very hard for these reforms and accountability. I mean, we need to see accountability, particularly for crimes that have been committed, and we need to see prosecutions out of what happened in Minneapolis.

Affordable health care

RM: What is your plan to fix health care? Your opponents have endorsed a public option or Medicare for All. Where do you stand in all that?

HS: I’m writing legislation and fighting for Michigan’s affordable health care each and every single day, and I have throughout my time in Congress. I deeply believe that we need to expand the Affordable Care Act. We need to protect that and we we also need to make the tax subsidies permanent. We’ve seen before our very eyes time and time again how Republicans do not believe in the promise of affordable, quality, accessible health care.

I worked in the Obama administration. I want to protect Obamacare. I also want to address the cuts to Medicaid that have come down. We need to keep expanding Medicaid.

And then lastly, we need to tackle the cost of prescription drugs. We’ve made some headway on that in previous times. Right now, it feels as though our prescription drug efforts are falling on deaf ears. I believe in benchmarking prescription drug costs to the cost of Medicare.

Abortion rights and government reform

RM: Being in the U.S. House, you know better than anyone that Congress has largely been in gridlock these past few years. If elected to the Senate, do you support the elimination of the filibuster?

HS: I’ll tell you that I do for a variety of matters, particularly women’s health protection. That’s legislation that I have championed in the house, that I’ve seen pass the House and then fall flat in the Senate. Republicans like Mike Rogers (U.S. Senate candidate) are going to vote for a national abortion ban, and they are going to stand in the way of codifying abortion rights in this country. We have those rights here in Michigan, we had a tremendous victory at the ballot box a handful of years ago, and yet those rights are still vulnerable. There are lawmakers on the other side of the aisle who are not going to stand up for people’s health, not going to stand up for women’s abortions rights, and addressing the filibuster will get us out of that mess.

RM: Do you support reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court—packing, term limits or otherwise?

HS: Look, all three branches of government have some real need for reforms and some ethics. I deeply support ethics reform. For the Supreme Court, what seems to look like pay-to-play, the fact that they have a different set of ethics rules, I think it would be more than appropriate, given that the Supreme Court doesn’t have elections, and it’s a lifetime appointment to look at the term limits and age limits and the like.

Focus on Michigan

RM: Approval ratings for Democratic leadership right now are around 25%. Do you think Congress needs a fresh look or move on from the current leadership of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries?

HS: Well, I’ll tell you what, Congress and this open U.S. Senate seat that we have here in Michigan needs its best champion in the United States Senate, and that’s me. Someone with a track record of results for our state when we’re in moments of uncertainty, I put up my hand to run at it. I did that as chief of staff in the administration of Barack Obama on the U.S. auto rescue, when General Motors and Chrysler were steering bankruptcy off the cliff and 200,000 Michigan jobs were on the line; I have stood up for our state economy and our workforce when supply chain disruptions were coming down, and helped to pass the CHIPS and Science Act. That’s a track record of delivery and speaking directly to what drives our economy, which keeps people employed, and also a plan to lower costs. And so I’m ready to hit the ground running in the United States Senate. And I believe my run for United States Senate is about the future of Michigan.

RM: But that wasn’t the question. I was asking you if there should be a change in Democratic leadership.

HS: You’re asking me about the future of the Democratic Party. And there are some people who are running who assume that’s what this race is all about, and I don’t think that’s fair to the people of Michigan. I believe that this race is about the future of Michigan and our workforce, and who’s going to get points on the scoreboard for organized labor.

I’m sitting before you here today as the only candidate in this race who’s been endorsed by organized labor, and in terms of, you know, the inside baseball conversations, because I understand what you were specifically asking me. Of course, we can make those decisions. You know, Elissa Slotkin and I will absolutely hone in on what’s best for Michigan and what’s best for the Senate operations. That’s what’s got to happen. You know, in terms of some of those inside baseball, who’s in leadership and whatnot? What Michigan needs, and what I am focused on, is Michigan leadership.

AI data centers

RM: Michiganders seem to hate data centers. The growing A.I. boom, if it comes to fruition, will eat up a lot of resources. How do you weigh the need to address climate change with the constant need for business growth and more jobs in Michigan?

HS: Well, look at what we accomplished with the Inflation Reduction Act—something that I was proud to champion in the House of Representatives alongside leaders from our environmental movement, like the League of Conservation Voters. And that was the first time in history where the industry leaders, automotive companies in particular, also endorsed that legislation. And when we look at the large challenges that we are facing in terms of climate change, it is an all hands on deck approach.

We have got to take climate changes and energy needs very seriously, and this is something that I have fought for in the United States House of Representatives on the science committee, right? I held the first hearing on recycling technology in a decade when I got to Congress.

And so in some respects, you know, the table setting and the way in which we can look at creating jobs, winning the future and ensuring that we are not polluting, that we’ve shown that that can be done, you know, in terms of data centers and winning innovation races, I have been rigorous in conversations around the environmental protections and the consumer protections and the cost needs.

Wealth gap

RM: Money in this country seems to be going upwards. We’re creating lots of new billionaires. How do you address the growing wealth gap?

HS: We need someone who’s gonna fight for our organized labor and our middle class, and get the protecting the right to organize legislation done, as well as ensuring that the National Labor Relations Board actually has people with a labor background on the board. This administration has gone after people’s rights to organize, they have been trying to squash the voice of organized labor, and that is one of the best keys to addressing the wealth gap: the negotiating power of the workforce. I’m not running for Senate to do billionaire bidding.

I believe that this race is about the future of Michigan and our workforce, and who’s going to get points on the scoreboard for organized labor.

You know, I didn’t vote for the Big, Beautiful Bill because for a variety of reasons, and one, very starkly, was that that bill was a billionaire giveaway. We we have to have a fair marginal tax rate. Billionaires have got to pay their fair share. And lastly, we need a plan to lower costs for hard working Michiganders and retirees. I’ve got legislation to do that, tackling the cost of food and tackling the prices of everyday goods.

RM: When people in this country are going hungry, ethically, should billionaires exist?

HS: Well, we’re not going to be seeing someone like myself do billionaire bidding in the United States Senate, I’ll tell you that much. Tackling where and how billionaires are not paying their fair share needs to get done. We need a fair marginal tax rate. That is something that I feel very strongly about, and I feel so frustrated because we have seen this administration trample over our middle class put into place reckless tariffs that have created job insecurity and job loss.

Parts of Michigan have some of the fastest growing unemployment in the country right now because of these tariffs and the cuts to clean energy investments going into our manufacturing sector, and now we have a president who doesn’t want to open the Gordie Howe bridge—another slap in the face to our workers. We can’t be in the business of these billionaire giveaways, and we also can’t be in the business of not adjusting our tax code and fighting for labor rights.

PAC funding

RM: You say you’re not doing billionaire bidding, but you are taking corporate PAC money. That separates you from your competitors in the primary. Why?

HS: I’m deeply proud to have a campaign that has got 95% of donations that are $200 or less and those are coming from nurses and factory workers and grocery workers. I’m deeply proud to have the endorsements of the Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus, former Speaker Joe Tate, the mayors of Livonia and Lansing and Grand Rapids in my campaign. And it’s it’s a grassroots endeavor. And look, you’ve got someone like Mike Rogers, who is going to continue to rubber stamp Donald Trump and stand in the way of comprehensive campaign finance reform. I have an “A” grading from the leading anti-corruption campaign finance reform organization because of my record.

RM: AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has raised millions on your behalf for this Senate run, and in past campaigns. Since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks, Israel has been accused of war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian people. How do you reconcile voting for military support for Israel when you know exactly how the Israeli military has been using it?

HS: Well, I’d say this, that the goal has always been long term peace. We have needed to see the hostages come home, which they did, and that was an incredible day. We are in the second phase of a ceasefire, and the goal is a lasting ceasefire that will mean that Hamas has to put down its weapons, and also the calls that I have made for Israel and the United States to work together on rebuilding efforts and on humanitarian aid. We need people in Gaza, Palestinian people, to have dignity and peace, just as we need people in Israel to do so.

RM: So there’s been no hesitation in taking money from AIPAC?

HS: I’m running my campaign in a grassroots way, with individual donors who participate in the democratic process in the way that our country allows. I’m proud of my record of standing up alongside democracy and freedom and humanitarian needs. You know, here in the United States and and certainly abroad.

Note: A planned question about the rights of trans people in the U.S. was withheld because Congresswoman Stevens needed to leave for another appointment.

Candidates for Governor of Michigan gathered on Friday for a forum with the Michigan Education Association.

The forum covered topics including funding, teacher recruit and retention, and improving services that could relieve pressure from educators such as mental health services and childcare.

Both Democrat candidates in attendance, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Genessee County Sheriff Chris Swanson, have backgrounds in education.

Focus on funding

Jocelyn Benson is building her education platform on starting teachers’ salaries at $60,000 a year and removing what she calls a one size fits all funding model for schools.

“The goal is to make sure it’s equitable, that it’s designed to invest in the unique needs of what an Alpena student needs versus what a Muskegon student needs. And you’ve got to build it with educators at the center of the table in figuring out what that funding is,” Benson said.

She added providing services outside of schools such as daycare and affordable healthcare can help increase teacher recruitment and retention.

Chris Swanson agreed that raising salaries would build retention rates among teachers and attract the highest quality talent. He also suggested a 2-year budget for education instead of an annual to avoid starting the school year without funding, as the state did this school year when the state budget hung in limbo.

“You saw what happened last year where July 1 hit it wasn’t signed federally to July 4, and nothing kicked off until the fall,” Swanson said. “That is unfair for you trying to figure out how you’re going to build your curriculum and have the resources to do what you need to do.”

Curriculum first

Republican Candidate and former Attorney General Mike Cox stressed accountability among decision makers on what curriculum is important needed to be addressed before any more money is allocated.

“We had a third-grade reader law, right that every child had to be able to read by the end of third grade, and we threw that away. There are 26 states across the country that require that,” Cox said. “We were 31st in fourth grade reading. We’re now 48th you know, when you throw away accountability, you’re just throwing away money, and more importantly, you’re squandering children’s lives.”

Less government involvement

Independent candidate and former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is building his platform on returning $1.3 billion, he claimed was reallocated from schools by both parties over past three governor administrations.  He also vowed to end what he calls “Yo-yo school standards,” where curriculum is often changed under a new administration. Duggan said educators should be the ones designing the curriculum, not politicians.

“I don’t think the average person realizes that most of these decisions they’ve changed the reading curriculum twice in the last four years. Legislature has is that the legislature is making decisions on curriculum, ” Duggan said.

Schools threatened by ICE

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence grows around  the country, Michiganders are concerned about ICE targeting schools.

Cox believes that the conversation around ICE is a mere side show, asking the educators in the room “What does Donald Trump have to do with your salaries? What does Donald Trump have to do with student performance in your classrooms?”

Cox went on to claim that ICE has not targeted any Michigan school. In early January this year there have been reports of ICE agents targeting parents at school bus drop off sites.

Duggan took the stance that local police agencies are unable to interfere with federal enforcement. He said that by law, if ICE is looking for a person that the Detroit Police Department has in their custody, they honor the detainer and release the person into ICE custody. Duggan claims the alternative would be to release the person of interest in the street and risk ICE going in the neighborhoods and increasing fear among residents.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said she’s not afraid to stand up to the President.

“The next Governor of Michigan must have and demonstrate that they will the moral courage, that I have as Secretary of State, to protect the young people, the educators, every resident of every community in this state, no matter what type of tactic the bully in the White House tries to bring to our communities,” Benson said.

Sheriff Swanson condemned the actions of ICE, calling it bad law enforcement. He said as governor he would demand that schools are off limits to ICE.

“When you talk about the most one of the most sacred places a kid could go to feel safe, That’s not a place to do that type of law enforcement. Not at all,” Swanson said.

The primary election for governor of Michigan is Aug. 4. 

In 2026, voters in Michigan will cast ballots for races involving the office of Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State. Gary Peters (D-MI) is opting to retire, so there’s an open U.S. Senate seat.

Democrats have three strong candidates: Abdul El-Sayed, Mallory McMorrow, and Haley Stevens. All three have raised millions of dollars for their campaigns ahead of the August primary.

Over the next few months, Detroit Public Radio will be checking in with the candidates so our listeners can make an informed decision. The focus of this first round of interviews is to set a baseline for the candidates views on policy and what separates them from their competitors.

The series continues with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a public health expert who has served as the health director for both Detroit and Wayne County.

He talked with All Things Considered Detroit Host Russ McNamara on Jan. 21, 2026.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

Medicare for All

Russ McNamara, WDET: You’ve written a book about Medicare for All. Why do you prefer that over a public option for health insurance?

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed: We’re watching as healthcare is becoming very quickly one of the most unsustainable features on anybody’s budget sheet. You’re seeing premiums go up 10, 15, 20%—and that’s not even if you’re on one of the ACA plans, for which the Trump Administration has now pulled subsidies going into next year. The unsustainability of our system is going to be paramount, and it’s going to be top of voters’ minds.

I’ve been consistent about the need for Medicare for All.

Medicare for All is government health insurance guaranteed for everyone, regardless of what circumstances you’re in. If you like your insurance through your employer or through your union, I hope that’ll be there for you. But if you lose your job, if your factory shuts down, you shouldn’t be destitute without the health care that you need and deserve.

But Medicare for All does more than just guaranteeing health care. It also addresses the increasing costs that we’re seeing skyrocket in our system by being able to negotiate prices on behalf of all of us, and it also creates a system where doctors and hospitals and clinics can compete with each other in a truly free market system. This is what we’ve needed in America for a very long time, and like you said, I wrote a book on how to do it back in 2021.

The foundations of our system have just gotten less sustainable since then. It would free us of so many of the fears that people have every day, the $225 billion of medical debt that Americans currently hold, which is higher than the GDP of half of the states in the entire country.

And beyond that, it gives us the safety and security that would spur the economy. Too often, small businesses don’t get founded simply because people are stuck in dead end jobs, even if they have an amazing idea, because they’re afraid of losing their health insurance.

Now a public option is exactly that; it’s just an option. There is no reason why it would actually address any of the foundational problems in our system. It wouldn’t bring down the rising costs. It wouldn’t guarantee people health care, and we don’t really know how much it would cost. Plus, there’s an added thing that folks need to think a little bit about—that those of us who’ve thought about the health care system understand—if you have a public option, what happens is, the private health insurance system will try to dump all of the most expensive patients onto that public option, vastly increasing the cost of that public option and making it unsustainable.

That being said, I want to be clear about something. I think too often when we talk about health care we talk about this or that. To me, anything that increases health care access, anything that would do so by increasing the public’s capacity to provide it and would reduce the power of corporations, is something that I would vote for. But I’m not going to make the mistake of pretending like that’s the whole answer. The whole answer is we need to get to Medicare for all. But if you want to climb to Mount Everest, you got to get to base camp, and you got to climb some other hills.

So I understand that we need to take steps along the way. But anybody who wants to tell you that somehow a public option will solve our health care problems doesn’t understand how health care works, or has taken too much money from the industry that does not want Medicare for All because of what it may mean for their profits.

The growing wealth gap

RM: High health care costs are just one part of the equation when it comes to the high expenses that Americans are facing right now. There’s also a concentration of wealth in the top 1, 5, 10% How do you address the growing wealth gap in this country?

AE: You know, I’m the only person running for U.S. Senate who’s never taken a dime of corporate money to fund a campaign, and that shows up in the ways that I stand up to corporations. So there’s two pieces here.

Number one: we’ve got to make it so that corporations can no longer buy access to politicians to do their bidding—a system that every other candidate I am running against has willingly participated in but me—and that makes sure that the system is not rigged against the rest of us, so that big corporations and billionaires can continue to make yet more money off of a system that funnels money from our back pockets into theirs.

But the second part of this is that I think we finally need to start taxing billionaire wealth. I’ve been very clear about the fact that for too long, our system has allowed billionaires to pay a lower effective tax rate than you and I, who make our money the old fashioned way—working for it.

The way we should be judging our economy is not by how much wealth accumulates at the very top, how many more billionaires we spit out, but rather we should be judging our economy based on whether or not it provides everyday Americans access to the basic means of a dignified life.

And I think we need to rethink the way that we do taxation in mainly so that we’re taxing the wealth of people make $100 million or more, because guess what? If you tax a billionaire at 8%, guess what? They’re still they’re still a billionaire. They’re still going to have money their kids, kids, kids, kids are still going to be rich.

And I think that we can get along to making sure that our kids have great public schools, that we’re providing health care and good infrastructure for all of us. And if we can do that, I think we can start to bring down the massive wealth inequality that’s only growing in this country.

RM: Ethically, should billionaires exist?

AE: I don’t think that our system should be in the business of creating billionaires. I think our system should be in the business of empowering everyday folks to be able to live a life with access to the basic dignities that they need and deserve, good housing, good health care, affordable food, the experience of knowing that you’re sending your kid to a school that dignifies their brain and empowers them for a career into the future.

Too few people have access to that right now, and I think that the way we should be judging our economy is not by how much wealth accumulates at the very top, how many more billionaires we spit out, but rather we should be judging our economy based on whether or [it] not provides everyday Americans access to the basic means of a dignified life.

We are the richest, most powerful country in the world. It is a crazy thing that people are struggling to afford their groceries, struggling to afford housing, wondering whether or not if they’re under 40 they’ll ever own a home, or if they can stay in their home. If they’re under 65, worried about whether or not they are going to go bankrupt simply because they got sick. Those are choices that we make, and at the wrong end of creating an economy that spits out more and more billionaires is the opportunity to be able to solve so many of those challenges for folks.

I think we need to reorient that system. That means, yes, taxing billionaires—it also means rethinking the firewall that should exist between billionaire money and corporate money and our politics. It means standing with unions, it means empowering small businesses, and it means guaranteeing every single person the health care that they need and deserve.

Data centers and the AI boom

RM: Michiganders seem to hate data centers. The growing AI boom—if it comes to fruition—will eat up a lot of resources. How would you weigh the need to address climate change with the constant need for business growth and more jobs in this state?

AE: In the last year alone we’ve had 15 data center proposals. Each of those data centers is partnering with a corporate utility that has raised our rates without actually improving the reliability of our electricity. Our costs go up, our reliability does not and we’re watching as these huge corporations are partnering with these utilities to try and bring these projects into our communities, promising a certain number of jobs.

I understand the fears that everyday folk have about what this will mean for the price of their electricity, the water that we take for granted in a state like Michigan, whether or not they’re going to have a job in the future. And so we’ve issued a data center terms of engagement. And what these terms of engagement are meant to do is clarify what the real risks are and hold data center projects accountable to addressing those risks.

Number 1: if you’re promising jobs, you better actually create the good union jobs that you say you want to create.

Number 2: your project should not increase the price of electricity for anyone in our state.

Number 3: you should have closed loop systems that do not rely on our fresh water or stress our water infrastructure.

Number 4: there should be a community benefits agreement that is negotiated with the local community to make sure that the value of the project actually moves into the community in which it’s going to be housed.

Number 5: investments that are made should improve the reliability of our utilities.

Number 6: these should be enforceable by penalty.

And the beautiful thing about this approach is that it offers a roadmap, both for local communities to hold data center projects accountable, but also it creates the pathway for the kind of federal legislation that I’d like to get passed as a U.S. Senator.

But these are challenges that we’re facing and the kind of approach that we’ve seen on the part of the corporations and the utilities, where they try to fly by night and steamroll local municipalities to get their projects done, all it’s done is fan the flame on mis and disinformation.

So what we want is clarity. We want transparency. We want integrity. We want honesty, and we want to make sure that folks understand exactly what’s coming to their local communities.

Accountability in government, Supreme Court reform

RM: Do you support the elimination of the filibuster, and how do you feel about making significant changes to the structure of the Supreme Court, whether it’s packing it, term limits, or making sure that there’s some sort of ethical accountability?

AE: The filibuster allows senators to hide behind just one senator, in effect, veiling them from democracy itself. Because if you don’t have to take a hard vote, your public won’t hold you accountable for the hard vote that you just took.

Similarly, the Supreme Court has acted in ways that demonstrate that really it’s become just a third political arm of government. So I oppose the filibuster.

If you look at what Trump is doing, he’s doing most of it by executive fiat. Most of what he’s trying to do is he’s trying to operate through the White House itself and where checks have failed have been at the Supreme Court, and I think that we need to start talking a bit about what term limits might look like.

I don’t think that this current system serves our democracy very well. I proposed a system that says that every president should have three appointments. Every Supreme Court justice should have at least 10 years and a possible renewal for another 10 years. But what that does is it incentivizes the selection of of jurists who want to interpret the Constitution on its own terms, because all of them may not know who the person making a decision about the reappointment might be, and it addresses the fact that you don’t want jurists who are too Junior and haven’t had as much experience or too senior, and may not be at the top of their game. I do think we need Supreme Court reform. 

Foreign policy

RM: U.S. foreign policy is currently at the forefront of the global conversation with President Trump’s ongoing thirst for Greenland, his Board of Peace for Gaza and the recent attack on Venezuela for oil. As a senator, what would your ideal foreign policy for the US?

AE: I believe in international law. I read my history. I look at all the effort after World War II, to stop the next world war from happening again. And courageous leaders who watched the carnage of that war came together and said, We need international law that we all abide by.

And the frustration is that as we’ve developed as the world’s superpower, we have sometimes abided by that international law and sometimes broken it. And I think where we have abided by it, where we have stood up, for example, to protect international law in circumstances like Bosnia and Herzegovina, in circumstances like Ukraine, I think we do great good in the world, but too often, we have decided to skirt that international law. When you look at the war in Iraq, when you look at Vietnam, and right now, when you look at the unilateral funding and subsidies of a genocide in Gaza, we have been the chief violator of international law.

My vision for our foreign policy is that, yes, we are strong, but we are the first among equals to stand up for that international law, rather than being the first to break it.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

RM: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been terrorizing immigrants in communities of color – in blue states and cities – especially over the past year. Should ICE exist?

AE: No, we need to abolish ICE.

I just recently came back from my own personal fact finding mission in Minneapolis. Now I’m running for Senate in Michigan, but I also understand that if they can occupy a city like Minneapolis, they can do the same here in Michigan.

I just want to be clear about what ICE is. They tell us that this is about immigration and customs enforcement, but let’s be clear, immigration law is not criminal law, it’s civil law. So why do you need masked men carrying heavy weaponry on peaceful streets?

They tell us that this is about protecting the southern border, but I’ve looked at a map, and Minneapolis is not very close to the southern border. We can have a safe and secure southern border. We can enforce immigration law. But ICE is not about that. ICE is a paramilitary force normalizing the use of government power on peaceful streets, in thrall to one man. They are using the pretext of immigration to weaponize against the laws and norms and mores of our democracy and our Constitution itself. And I believe that it ought to be abolished.

If the idea of ICE is that they’re supposed to keep you safe, go ask Renee Good, or her widow or her orphaned child about how safe Renee Good is because of ICE.

I talked about abolishing ice back in 2018 because anybody could have seen where this is going. And now we’ve gotten here, and I shudder for our state, because they’re talking about buying a facility in Highland Park. They’ve got the facility in Baldwin. I do not want to see what I saw in Minneapolis here at home.

So when I’m in the U.S. Senate, I intend to lead the effort to abolish ICE, because I do not believe that it has anything to do with keeping our southern border secure and safe—which I intend to do—or with enforcing any of the laws when it comes to immigration, this is about normalizing paramilitary force and thrall to one man on our streets. And if there is anything that’s antithetical to the idea of America, it’s that.

Transgender rights

RM: The rights of transgender people to seek care, serve in the military or just play high school sports has been used by conservatives as a wedge issue, not just between Republicans and Democrats, but within the Democratic Party, what will you do to support that small, but disproportionately targeted part of our community?

AE: I believe that rights are rights, are rights, and when you assent to somebody taking away somebody else’s rights, you are at some point assenting to somebody coming for yours.

We have to stand together to fight for our collective rights, even when those rights are rights we may never see ourselves using. And I think that is it is critical for us to recognize where MAGA has tried to use this conversation to tear people apart, to get them into positions where we’re having a conversation about high school sports, rather than a conversation about health care or a conversation about affordable groceries or a conversation about how to make sure home ownership is possible. Those are the conversations that I’m hearing about up and down my state.

So I think it’s perfectly within the means of local communities and sporting governing bodies to lead the conversation about high school sports. I think it’s important for doctors to be able to provide the health care that their patients need in consultation with their parents if they are not of age.

But that has nothing to do with our broader public conversation in our politics. And so I want politics to be solving the problems that politics should be about solving. I want to make sure that communities and parents and families and doctors and sporting bodies get to make these decisions together, in consultation with each other, to take on these problems. Because every single moment that Republicans want us to be talking about trans kids or trans kids playing sports is a moment we’re not talking about making sure that everybody gets the health care that they need and deserve, and that people get access to housing, and those are the conversations we need to take on that they are imminent in our lives.

But rights are rights, are rights, and we need to be standing up for everybody’s rights when anybody tries to take them away.

Is it time to rewrite Michigan’s constitution? Voters will answer that question in 2026.

A ballot proposal asks whether state residents want to call a constitutional convention. The last one happened in 1961. Voters approved a new constitution in 1962.

By law, the issue must appear on the ballot every 16 years. Voters rejected convention calls in 1978, 1994, and 2010.

Justin Long is an associate professor at Wayne State University’s School of Law. He’s an expert on state constitutions, including Michigan’s. He says the 16-year cycle gives voters time to think about how state government works and whether to change it.

“The thought was if there’s something seriously wrong with the structure of state government, it’ll take us a few years to figure it out,” he says. We’ll give it a try for a few years, and by 16 years, it’s time to decide whether it’s working or not.”

What does it say?

Proposal 1 will appear on the November 2026 ballot as follows:

A PROPOSAL TO CONVENE A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE PURPOSE OF DRAFTING A GENERAL REVISION OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION

Shall a convention of elected delegates be convened in 2027 to draft a general revision of the State Constitution for presentation to the state’s voters for their approval or rejection?

Voters can either say “yes” or “no.”

It’s not a popular question

So why haven’t voters felt the need to call for a new convention in over 60 years? Long says caution may be one reason.

“I think neither political party [Democratic or Republican] feels assured that they’ll be able to control the convention, because delegates are elected directly by the people,” he says. “And the delegates would presumably know that if they did anything too wild, the voters wouldn’t pass it.”

That said, delegates could either tweak parts of the constitution or rewrite the entire document. For example, Long says they could decide which offices get elected and which ones don’t.

“They could decide whether we want to have two houses of the Legislature or just one,” he says. “They’re basically unfettered at that point.”

What happens at a ConCon?

If voters do call for a constitutional convention, another election would take place within six months. Long says that’s when voters would choose delegates.

“There’d be one delegate elected from every House district and one from every Senate district,” he says. “They would then hire staff, and then they would meet and debate.”

Long says once the delegates have drafted a new constitution, they submit it to the voters.

“And that vote would be by a simple majority,” he says.

If voters say no to a constitutional convention this year, it wouldn’t come up again until 2042.