SOUL OF THE PARTY
- Jul 20
- 2 min read
While the U.S. Senate race has captured the attention of political observers because it has the potential to redefine the direction of the Democrat Party, a similar battle is being waged in the 7th district of Congress where three contenders are pushing to be the standard bearer against incumbent Republican U.S. Representative Tom Barrett who won the seat as Elissa Slotkin moved from the House to the Senate. The district is anchored by Lansing and East Lansing, both Democrat-leaning communities, but it is a sprawling district, encompassing 129 municipalities in the counties of Clinton, Shiawassee, Ingham, Livingston and most of Eaton, along with the Milfords and South Lyon-Lyon Township areas in Oakland. As one moves away from the capital and college town, the electorate becomes more conservative. Two more-traditional Democrats – Bridget Brink and Matt Maasdam – are squaring off against community activist William Lawrence. Brink was the ambassador to Ukraine in the current Trump administration but resigned because she disagreed with the president’s declining commitment in the war with Russia. Maasdam was a former Navy Seal who was also the military aide (keeper of the nuclear code briefcase) for President Barack Obama. In the case of Lawrence, he is occupying the far-left progressive path. He was co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, a climate action group that has morphed into an anti-Israel and anti-data center organization, which captures best the Lawrence role in this race. One school of thought has it that Brink and Maasdam could split the center or just left-of-center votes in this primary which could give Lawrence the necessary far-left votes to pull this off. However, because the MSU student base that leans Democratic is mostly out of town and at home for the summer, Lawrence can’t count on this likely liberal support base. Brink has picked up a number of impressive endorsements, including former Michigan governors Jim Blanchard and Jennifer Granholm. Maasdam has been endorsed by Senator Elissa Slotkin who cut a television commercial for him in the last week. But Lawrence has support from U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and senate-hopeful Abdul El-Sayed, all of whom gathered in the state this past weekend to give the progressive candidates a boost three weeks before election day. Then there is the question of money. As of the end of June, Brink has raised the most, $2.866 million with cash on hand of $1.106 million. Maasdam has contributions of $1.970 million, with about $548,000 cash on hand. Lawrence has brought in $900,000 and sits with $570,00 cash. And there’s the outside money which has started to roll in as we near August 4, some of it targeted at Lawrence in a bid to block his chance of victory. He is getting some blowback from those who found his recent criticism of Black leadership and negative comments about Kamala Harris and Obama to be offensive. The Cook Political Report ranks this race a toss-up.
