Detroit doesn’t always cheer for comebacks until they’re complete. But anyone raised on the pulse of 7 Mile or the echo of gospel from Sunday morning pews knows that rising again isn’t a weak man’s game—it’s a Detroit tradition. Aaliyah said it best: “If at first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again.” For Adam Hollier, that’s not just lyrics. It’s marching orders.
Adam Hollier has stepped back into the arena. Monday morning, the former Michigan State Senator and Army officer made it official—he’s running for Congress in Michigan’s 13th District. A seat currently held by multimillionaire Rep. Shri Thanedar, who’s been criticized repeatedly for turning public office into a stage for personal branding. Hollier’s campaign, though, brings with it a different rhythm. One that moves with service, transparency, and urgency for a district that’s seen promises broken before.
“From housing to daycare to the rising costs of everything from groceries to the brakes on our cars, we’re in a real crisis in this country,” Hollier said. “We need bold solutions and leaders who won’t back down in the face of this challenge. The last thing we need are more millionaires and billionaires like Elon Musk and Shri Thanedar who are only in it for themselves.”
That statement isn’t hollow. Thanedar has recently come under fire for spending nearly $1 million of taxpayer money—funds intended to serve the people—on promoting his own image. Self-portraits. Vanity campaigns. Public resources used not for relief or reform, but recognition. Hollier didn’t pull punches: “It’s absurd. While everyday Michiganders are struggling, Shri Thanedar is spending hundreds of thousands of their hard-earned tax dollars putting up self-portraits of himself all over the district. That’s something only Donald Trump would be proud of.”
For those unfamiliar with Hollier’s last run, it’s worth remembering. The record speaks with both ambition and adversity. In 2022, he sought the same seat. After a close loss in the Democratic primary, where he built strong traction across Detroit, Highland Park, and Hamtramck with endorsements like the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, Hollier tried again in 2024. That bid ended before ballots were cast. His campaign was disqualified after submitting fraudulent petition signatures, halting his momentum. Now, in 2025, he returns for a third run—not with excuses, but with determination and a renewed call to serve the district he still calls home.
This marks his third campaign for elected office in a decade—and each one has been about serving the place that shaped him. Hollier was born and raised in Detroit. His family’s history is sewn into the fabric of the city. His father, Carl, was a union firefighter—literally running toward flames when others stepped back. His mother, Jacqueline, was a social worker who leaned into people’s pain when others turned away. His grandmother brought their family to Detroit from the Muscogee Creek reservation in Oklahoma, chasing the promise of better. That same grandmother descended from a great-grandmother who was forced from Georgia to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears. These aren’t just ancestors. They’re blueprints.
Now raising his own children—Lily and A.J.—with his wife Krystle, Hollier continues that tradition of service. He’s a proud graduate of Detroit Public Schools, a member of the American Federation of Teachers Local 6075, and a veteran who serves as team chief and paratrooper in the Army Reserve. Not the kind of leader who waits for things to be safe—Hollier trained to jump out of planes. He volunteered as a firefighter after Katrina. He’s always chosen proximity to pain over distance from responsibility.
This reentry into congressional politics is built on more than memory. Hollier brings receipts. As a State Senator, he delivered over $40 million to his district for job training, business development, and community advancement. He fought for lead pipe replacement, pushed for fair election maps, and stood for LGBTQ+ rights. When one of the district’s largest employers prepared to shut down an auto plant, Hollier worked side by side with UAW leadership to reimagine it as Factory Zero—a cutting-edge electric vehicle plant providing local jobs for the future.
That experience sharpened his understanding of what government must do beyond speeches. His campaign promises are rooted in the realities Detroiters speak on every day. He’s calling for federal and state investment in affordable housing, aggressive accountability for corporations that inflate costs for renters and families, and a repeal of tariffs driving up prices for everyday goods. “We keep fighting,” Hollier said. “That’s why I’m running—and that’s the same fight that I’ll bring with me to Congress every single day.”
After his term in the State Senate, Governor Gretchen Whitmer appointed him to lead Michigan’s Veterans Affairs Agency. There, Hollier helped double the state’s veterans database, expand job programs, and address homelessness and suicide rates among Michigan’s service members. That work wasn’t symbolic. It meant real policy shifts, real funding, and real lives impacted.
To understand the cultural weight of this campaign, though, you have to understand the district. Michigan’s 13th District is nearly 55 percent Black. It includes the heart of Detroit and cities like Highland Park, where disinvestment has been deep, and community needs run long. It’s a district where representation has often been symbolic without substance. Hollier is running to shift that.
This campaign isn’t a redemption story. It’s a resistance story. Resistance to the erasure of working-class voices by billionaire-funded politics. Resistance to the normalization of self-serving leadership. Resistance to the assumption that Black Detroiters can be bought with billboards and mailers while their water, homes, and schools continue to suffer neglect.
This campaign is about infrastructure that doesn’t fall apart the moment federal funds stop flowing. About business development that prioritizes neighborhood entrepreneurs, not just tech giants. About a tax system that stops penalizing the poor while rewarding the rich. About child care that is affordable and accessible for the people who make up the very backbone of this economy.
“We’re in a real crisis,” Hollier said plainly. His approach to that crisis isn’t to retreat—it’s to run straight toward it. That mindset—that sense of responsibility—didn’t start with politics. It started with his family legacy and deep community roots. It was cemented when he stood with residents in defense of their water. When he showed up in Lansing not to play politics but to push policy. When he joined the Army not for title, but because he believed in duty.
Detroit knows the difference between performance and principle. Adam Hollier is leaning into principle. And while his critics will point to this being a third attempt at a congressional seat, Hollier’s supporters see something else: a man who got knocked down and stood back up. Again.
Detroit doesn’t just survive—it adapts, it transforms, it teaches. It sends people like Hollier into battle—not for clout, but for change. His campaign is a reminder that bravery isn’t about timing; it’s about truth.
And right now, truth matters more than image.
So here we are. Adam Hollier has entered the race. Not with flash. Not with fanfare. But with fire. The kind that doesn’t burn out under pressure. The kind that knows the work is never done, especially when the people you serve are the ones most often left behind.
This district deserves a leader who knows the ground he walks on. Adam Hollier’s boots have already left their imprint. Now he’s asking for a chance to keep marching.
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