DIGITAL DIVIDE

State Senator Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak, Birmingham, Detroit), who is running for the Democratic nod for U.S. Senator, is the darling of Instagram and MSNBC, where she asserts she is “closer to the ground” and Michigan constituents than her fellow candidates, Congresswoman Haley Stevens (D-Oakland County) and former Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed. “We have to meet people where they are, not expect them to come to us,” McMorrow said to political commentator Chris Cillizza for his Substack series. But on the ground level, whispers are getting louder that in real life, while McMorrow is attending events – touring the state on brewery tours seeking out younger voters, asserting she is a young voice running for office, even though all three are roughly the same age – she is not only aloof when long-time volunteers and local media reach out to her, she just downright ghosts them for the brighter lights of the national spotlight. “I volunteered on her past two campaigns, have seen her at numerous events, she knows me by name, and she just walked right past me at two recent events,” said one more mature participant. A fellow state senator expressed surprise that Stevens hasn’t gotten more media and social media traction, noting that she has passed significant legislation during her three terms in Congress, by far surpassing McMorrow during her two terms in office. We are hearing that the Stevens camp was advertising for a social media position but no word on whether a hire was made. Beefing up that part of her campaign is long overdue. McMorrow has set the pace online as the “cool girl” when it comes to social media, even being featured in WIRED magazine in late September as one of the 22 “online upstarts” in the nation changing the face of politics. If you are over 50+, not to worry, McMorrow still wants your vote as evidenced by the taxpayer-funded franking piece she recently sent out to households in her sprawling state Senate district.