April 30, 2025 Story by: Editor
State Rep. Donavan McKinney (D-Detroit) announced Monday that he would mount a challenge to U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Detroit) in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District.
McKinney, who noted that the 11th state House District he currently represents is one of the poorest in Michigan while the 13th Congressional District is among the poorest in the nation, said that he would bring working-class representation to residents.
“I was born next to smokestacks. We moved 13 times as a kid. Sometimes it was an apartment, sometimes it was a family member’s house. Sometimes it was even our own car. But wherever it was, my mom and grandma made sure it felt like home. I spent my life trying to get back to help the place and people I love. I’ve never forgotten my roots, or the true purpose of why I serve; to always put the people first,” McKinney said in his campaign launch video, adding that Thanedar has “more in common with Donald Trump and Elon Musk than people like us.”
Thanedar, who spent $10 million of his own funds seeking the governor’s seat in 2018, served one term in the Michigan Legislature from 2021 through the end of 2022. He was elected to Congress for the first time that year, winning reelection in 2024.
“I bring the lived realities of the people of this district, lived realities that multimillionaires have no understanding of,” McKinney told the Michigan Advance ahead of his campaign’s launch. “I know our community’s struggles because I’ve lived them — and that’s why I understand just how urgent delivering monumental solutions to their monumental problems are.”
He said he would focus on economic security, environmental justice, education, public transportation, workers’ rights, and more.
McKinney isn’t the first state lawmaker to launch a primary challenge against Thanedar. He joins a race that also features former state Sen. Adam Hollier (D-Detroit).
“I think the fact that there are multiple candidates in this race already just makes it crystal clear how fed up our community is with Shri, and how excited they are for representation that truly fights for us in Washington as hard as I have been fighting for us in Lansing,” McKinney said. “I’m running because our community has been calling me over and over to stand up and fight for them in DC, and they want a fresh, new voice leading the biggest, baddest coalition to deliver for this community and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Thanedar has defended his constituent service record while in Congress, previously telling the Advance that since his election, his office has solved over 2,800 constituent cases, recovered nearly $3 million for constituents, received approval for $30 million in community projects, and sponsored and cosponsored 810 different bills.
“We have world class constituent communication, including a record 11 in-person town halls,” Thanedar said.
Since the retirement of former U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Southfield) in 2022, neither of the two congressional districts that encompass Detroit has had a Black representative, an issue considered to be critical by leaders in the predominantly Black city. Both McKinney and Hollier are Black.
Detroit elected its first Black U.S. representative, Charles Diggs Jr., in 1954, and consistently elected a Black representative up until 2022, when voters elected Thanedar, who immigrated from India, alongside Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), who is Palestinian American, to Michigan’s 12th Congressional District.
When asked what resources he plans to bring to a race against Thanedar, who he called “Detroit’s own Elon Musk,” McKinney told the Advance he was supported by an “incredible coalition of elected officials, faith leaders, labor, community members, and more” and he was excited to grow that coalition between now and 2026.
“I’m not running because I’m a millionaire. I’m running because I’m not. I’m running because our community deserves to be able to sleep at night knowing they have a Representative in Congress who truly knows their struggles and truly fights for them every single day,” McKinney said.
McKinney’s campaign claimed the endorsement of a dozen Democratic state legislators on day one, including state Sens. Darrin Camilleri, Stephanie Chang, Veronica Klinefelt, and Paul Wojno, and state Reps. Stephanie Young, Erin Byrnes, Kimberly Edwards, Alabas Farhat, Peter Herzberg, Tullio Liberati, Tonya Myers-Phillips and Veronica Paiz.
McKinney plans to hold an official campaign launch event Monday evening at SAY Detroit Play at the Lipke Community Center in Detroit.
Source: Michigan Advance
