There are things you can say in the course of a political career and there are things you can say that surface three days before a primary in a swing district that Democrats must win in November to have any chance at the House, and a Michigan progressive congressional candidate named Lawrence once said that Black Democratic leaders exist to “defang the white left,” which is now in the public record, and which Bernie Sanders endorsed him anyway, and which the district’s Black voters are being asked to weigh as they decide whether to send him to Congress.
Lawrence is running in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, which covers much of south-central Michigan, is currently held by Republican Tom Barrett, and is rated a toss-up by election analysts who have watched Democratic and Republican super PACs reserve $22 million in airtime for the general election, which is how much a competitive House race costs in 2026, and which the Democratic primary winner will need to survive first. Lawrence had long been an afterthought in a primary field dominated by Matt Maasdam, a former Navy SEAL with millions in fundraising, and Bridget Brink, a diplomat who served as ambassador to Ukraine, both of whom had raised far more money than Lawrence as of March. He has since surged past them both, earning the backing of Bernie Sanders, Abdul El-Sayed, and the progressive infrastructure that has turned New York’s congressional map upside down over the past month.
The “defang the white left” comment, surfaced by HuffPost this week, involves Lawrence’s past argument that Black Democratic establishment figures systematically moderate progressive politics to make it palatable to centrist donors and suburban voters, a critique that has an academic literature behind it and that is, in a swing district in Michigan, a sentence that Republicans will put in every mailer from now until November if Lawrence wins the primary. Lawrence is 35. He is running on Medicare for All, a federal jobs guarantee, and ending US military aid to Israel. He is doing this in a district that Trump won in 2024 and that Democrats need to flip to have a path to the House majority.
Sanders’s backing for Lawrence follows his endorsements of Graham Platner in Maine, which ended when Platner dropped out amid a rape allegation, a Nazi tattoo, and a sexting scandal, and of multiple New York candidates who won their primaries in June. Sanders’s endorsement record this cycle is one win in New York, one disaster in Maine, and now a swing district candidate in Michigan whose past comments are currently being reviewed by the Republican National Congressional Committee with the specific energy of a committee that has just received a gift.
The primary is this week. The general election is November. The $22 million in airtime is reserved.
When the progressive frontrunner in a swing district the party must win once said Black leaders defang the white left, and Bernie endorsed him after Platner, what exactly is the endorsement strategy?
Sources
HuffPost: Surging Progressive Once Said Black Democratic Leaders ‘Defang The White Left’
Raw Story: Polls show surge in Michigan Senate race after opponents’ smear campaign ‘backfired’
