By: Jasmine West
Detroit voters delivered a clear answer in one of Michigan’s most closely watched congressional primaries.
State Rep. Donavan McKinney defeated two-term U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, ending the incumbent’s four-year run and placing a Black Detroiter one election away from representing the city in Congress.
With all 346 precincts reporting, McKinney received 57,714 votes, or 52%, while Thanedar received 53,494 votes, or 48%. McKinney won by 4,220 votes out of 111,208 cast in the two-person Democratic contest.
The Associated Press called the race for McKinney Wednesday morning, confirming the defeat of an incumbent who entered Congress in 2023 after winning a crowded Democratic primary two years earlier.
“Detroit, I am honored beyond measure to be your Democratic nominee to represent the Mighty 13th in Congress. I am so proud that our community is sending me to Congress to fight for a better future — because that means our movement has shown them a fighter is what they truly deserve in Washington,” said State Rep. Donavan McKinney in a statement. “Our community united to return real leadership that represents Black, Brown and White Michiganders, union workers, working people, and veterans, clergy and socialists, senators and representatives, city councilmembers and county executives, mayors and school board presidents to show how the poorest district in the state can come together to defeat the corporate interests and multimillionaires. Today, we showed why being always with the people is more than a slogan — it’s a roadmap for the Democratic Party on how to move forward to defeat the fascism and divisiveness harming our country, and to deliver the leadership the Mighty 13th deserves. Taking back our seat and taking back our power has always been at the core of our movement, and I’m so excited for all that our community will accomplish together.”
McKinney will face Republican T.P. Nykoriak in the Nov. 3 general election. Michigan’s 13th District is centered in Detroit and also includes communities such as Allen Park, Hamtramck, Romulus and Wyandotte.
The November election will decide whether McKinney becomes the district’s next congressman. But in a heavily Democratic district, his primary victory carries historical weight before the general-election campaign even begins.
“We are so proud to send a working class son of Detroit and Michigan’s second Justice Democrat to Congress,” said Alexandra Rojas, Executive Director of Justice Democrats. “Donavan was the first candidate we recruited this cycle because this campaign embodied the fight for the future of the Democratic Party: working class people taking our power back from multimillionaires and corporate lobbies to deliver for everyday people. When we elect leaders like Donavan who have lived the struggles of poverty wages, evictions, rising childcare costs, toxic air, and poisoned drinking water, we get leaders who fight with the urgency of those crises.”
Detroit had continuous Black representation in Congress beginning with Charles Diggs Jr., who took office in 1955. That lineage included some of the most consequential Black political figures in Michigan history, including John Conyers Jr., Barbara-Rose Collins, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Brenda Jones, Brenda Lawrence and Rashida Tlaib.
That nearly seven-decade period ended after the 2022 election, when redistricting reshaped Detroit’s congressional boundaries and Thanedar won the newly configured 13th District. When the new Congress convened in January 2023, Detroit was without a Black member of Congress for the first time since the early 1950s.
McKinney’s victory does not mean Black representation has already returned. He must first defeat Nykoriak in November and take office in January 2027.
Still, the Democratic primary created the strongest opportunity in four years for a Black Detroiter to again represent a district rooted in a city where Black political leadership has shaped local, state and national government for generations.
McKinney represents Michigan’s 11th House District in the state Legislature. He ran as a progressive challenger with support from leaders and organizations including U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the Congressional Black Caucus’ political arm and the Working Families Party. His campaign focused on the cost of living, healthcare, housing, environmental justice, public education and working-class residents who have often felt disconnected from Washington.
The race was also a test of whether Thanedar’s financial resources and the advantages of incumbency could overcome dissatisfaction among voters who wanted representation more directly connected to Detroit’s Black communities.
Thanedar had survived a Democratic challenge in 2024, but this year’s contest was different. Instead of facing a divided field of candidates, he faced McKinney in a direct, two-person race. That gave voters a clear choice between the sitting congressman and a lifelong Detroiter who argued that lived experience, community relationships and policy priorities should all matter in determining who speaks for the district.
More than 111,000 Democratic votes were cast in the race. McKinney captured nearly 52 of every 100 ballots, enough to deny Thanedar a third term and change the direction of Detroit’s congressional representation.
“Donavan has spent his career fighting for working families in the labor movement and the Michigan Legislature,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said in a statement. “He will take that fighting spirit to Congress to make the wealthy pay their fair share, expand access to healthcare and housing, and make sure every Michigander has a fair shot at life, no matter their zip code. I look forward to helping send Donavan to Washington this November to fight for the great city of Detroit and its people.”
The numbers also show that the district was not unanimous. Nearly 53,500 voters supported Thanedar, leaving McKinney with the immediate task of bringing together a district that extends beyond Detroit and includes communities with different racial, economic and political concerns.
His victory, however, creates a moment Detroit has not had since 2022: the opportunity to send a Black representative from the city back to Congress.
For generations, Detroit’s congressional delegation gave Black voters a direct voice in national debates over civil rights, voting access, labor, housing, healthcare and economic justice. The loss of that representation carried particular significance in the nation’s largest majority-Black city.
McKinney is now positioned to restore it.
The final decision belongs to voters on Nov. 3. But after defeating an incumbent by more than 4,200 votes, McKinney enters the general election with a Democratic nomination, a city behind his candidacy and the possibility of reopening a chapter of Black congressional representation that Detroit carried for nearly 70 years.
