At the SAY Detroit Play Center on the city’s east side, Kendrick Lamar’s hit “Not Like Us” blasts over the speakers as Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney greets dozens of supporters on his way to the stage.
It’s late April and McKinney is back in his old neighborhood in Michigan’s 11th House District, one of the poorest in the state, to declare his primary challenge to Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), who McKinney calls a “cardboard cutout of a congressman.” McKinney’s sharp criticism of the two-term House member echoes Lamar’s ferocious diss track anthem, apt for McKinney’s announcement.
McKinney, a 32-year-old progressive who’s pledged not to take any corporate PAC money, has cast his challenge to Thanedar, 70, one of the richest members of Congress, as a choice over who public institutions are made for: corporate interests that elites obediently serve, or a future of “community over corporations” and “people over profits,” as McKinney puts it. Before being elected to local office, McKinney worked as political director at the national group Climate Power and as an organizer with Service Employees International Union Healthcare.
Thanedar, who represents Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, is the embodiment of the status quo, according to McKinney. “People like our congressman … are the problem,” he says in a launch video, referring to Thanedar, who “has more in common with Donald Trump and Elon Musk than people like us.”
McKinney, on the other hand, “is a man of integrity and honesty,” says Shawanna Vaughn, a local activist at the announcement event. “We don’t have any more time for people like Shri Thanedar to … play games with us” and do “things [in Congress] that do not reflect us.” So far, McKinney has locked in endorsements from a dozen legislative colleagues as well as Justice Democrats, a national progressive organization that recruits workingclass candidates to run for Congress. Former state Sen. Adam Hollier has also entered the race, after narrowly losing to Thanedar in 2022.
In his announcement speech, McKinney connected the impossible choices his mother faced, their uncertain housing situation and the threat of neighborhood violence to the struggles of everyday people, from “taking care of [younger and older] loved ones” to the cost of gas, groceries, child care and housing. But rather than put targets on the backs of immigrants, as President Trump has, McKinney blames “billionaires and millionaires” who ensure “our voices get drowned out” and exert control over our politics. Citing the importance of public libraries, schools and parks, McKinney has also called for expanding “public investment because the public and this community invested in me.”
“Donavan doesn’t have to guess at what working people need because he’s lived it, organized around it, and is already advocating for it,” Ken Whittaker, executive director for Michigan United, a statewide grassroots organizing group, tells In These Times. “He’s about strategy, accountability and a vision that’s rooted in real lived experiences.”
These are core themes across the campaigns endorsed by Justice Democrats. The group, launched in 2017 to unseat corporate Democrats, was behind Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) stunning defeat of incumbent Joe Crowley in 2018, followed by the 2020 elections of former Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) among others. Five incumbents in total have been ousted by Justice Democrats candidates, but the group has suffered setbacks as both Bowman and Bush lost 2024 primaries after big money groups, such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, spent more than $30 million against them, allegedly for speaking out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
“The biggest lesson from every cycle,” Usamah Andrabi, the 31-year-old communications director for Justice Democrats, tells In These Times, “is just how much of a threat working-class people fighting for working-class communities are to these moneyed interests.” McKinney’s campaign is the first that Justice Democrats has backed this cycle.
The backlash may be severe. Democratic Party elites are notoriously hostile to anyone who challenges an incumbent. In 2019, for example, the party blacklisted firms that support primary challengers. Meanwhile, Democratic National Committee (DNC) members took steps to nullify the election of DNC Vice Chair David Hogg after he announced plans to fund challengers to “ineffective” incumbents.
But these fights have been brewing for decades. As the influence of corporate money shifts the Democratic Party rightward — on economics, climate and foreign policy — the progressive wing has sought to elect candidates who will resolutely represent the interests of the working class. McKinney and Justice Democrats argue the party needs new voices that won’t back down from fights for ordinary people.
“Democratic voters are so fed up with the Democratic Party being just so not built for this moment,” Andrabi says.
The evidence suggests he’s correct. Polls show voters consider Democrats even more out of touch than Trump, and only 27% view the party positively. In an April poll, 72% of Democrats said they prefer the combative style of progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez over the “roll over and play dead” approach favored by many party insiders.
“Honestly, we’re trying to go into as many [districts] as possible” by listening to communities that need champions in Congress, Andrabi says, signaling McKinney won’t be the only challenger Justice Democrats endorses ahead of 2026. “Just like in this district,” he adds. “We asked the community, ‘Who do you think is the best person?’ … Everyone was like, ‘talk to Donavan.’ ”
ELI DAY was an investigative fellow with In These Times’ Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting. He’s also a Detroiter, where he writes about politics, policy, racial and economic justice. His work has appeared in Vox, Current Affairs, Mother Jones, and the New Republic, among others.
