Supporters of Donavan McKinney rallied Tuesday, July 14, at the LaVonne M. Sheffield Bridge Center Library on Grand River where other progressive candidates for Congress made the case for the Detroit House Rep.
Joining McKinney on the campaign trail was Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb of Philadelphia and Denver’s Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old first-time candidate who was fired from her job at a law firm after making pro-Palestine posts after the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel by Hamas. Both Rabb and Kiros won their primary elections in districts considered a lock for Democrats in a general election.
“I’m looking to join these two in the halls of Congress to push our government to have courage to stand up to this big boogie man,” McKinney said.
Supporters of McKinney wore pins that said, “No Shri for me,” a rallying cry repeated by the candidates and supporters on stage during a photo op.
Not only did speakers and members of the crowd asking questions stress the need for Black leadership in Congress, people inside Horace Sheffield’s Bridge Center demanded a new style of Democratic politics.
Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who is running for Secretary of State, emphasized the need to improve campaign finance laws and curb the influence of corporate money in politics.
“You know who’s not represented by that big money? Black folks in Detroit,” Gilchrist said. “You know who’s not represented by big money? Poor people in rural Michigan or anywhere — that money feeds a system that is failing us.”
McKinney’s campaign last week was endorsed by the the Metro Detroit Democratic Socialists of America, which also endorsed the campaigns of Rabb and Kiros.
“We have an opportunity here to elect real people, working people who care,” Rabb said on stage.
The race between Thanedar and McKinney is one Detroit voters have seen before in a state house contest six years ago.
The two faced each other in the 2020 Democratic primary for the 3rd State House District. Thanedar won the primary with 34% of the vote (4,745 votes), while McKinney came second with 20% (2,771 votes).
McKinney has been an active member of the House and Detroit’s legislative delegation since he entered the Legislature in 2022. So has Thanedar during his tenure in Congress, frequently introducing progressive legislation and resolutions like abolishing ICE or impeaching President Trump.
One of the ways McKinney has used his power in the Legislature was single handily killing former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s attempt to pass a Land Value Tax law that aimed to targeted speculating developers, he told the crowd Tuesday.
“The Land Value Tax deal that our former mayor wanted, guess who killed the bill? You want to know why I killed the bill? Because we had a one seat majority in both chambers. And all we needed was that one voice and one vote to make sure you killed it,” McKinney said, adding that block club leaders across the city told him they opposed the proposal.
With less than a month until the Aug. 4 election, supporters of Thanedar and McKinney and their campaigns are spending thousands of dollars airing attack ads against each other on local television stations.
An ad campaign paid for by Thanedar’s campaign accuse McKinney of being “bankrolled by the worst actors in politics.”
McKinney has admitted he accepted money from the controversial Moroun family, which owns the Ambassador Bridge, saying he used the money to sponsor a turkey giveaway during Thanksgiving, and hasn’t taken money from the Moroun’s since.
A TV ad from McKinney’s campaign points to the controversy over Thanedar allegedly abandoning dogs in an animal lab he owned, which he has long denied.
“As our Congressman, he’s left the people of Detroit behind to line his own pockets and the pockets of his wealthiest crypto and Trump donors,” McKinney said in a social media post.
“Shri Thanedar tested drugs on dogs, then left them to die,” a narrator says during the 30-second commercial calling Thanedar, “one sick puppy.”
