Detroit's Democratic Primary Features A Pro-Genocide Incumbent vs A Peace Candidate

As of March 31, freshman Shri Thanedar (D-MI) had spent $3,350,000 of his own on his primary reelection bid in a district (MI-13) that includes much of Detroit and suburbs like Highland Park and Grosse Point to the north and Lincoln Park, Romulus and Southgate to the southwest. It’s the bluest district in Michigan with a D+46 partisan lean. Obama won it both times with 85%; Hillary and Biden both won it with 79% and Whitmer took 81% in the 2018 gubernatorial election. In 2022, Thanedar, then a state Rep, won the congressional district with 71%. He needs to spend all that money of his own because there are an awful lot of people who are pissed off that they’re being represented by someone who isn’t Black, the first time that’s happened in nearly 70 years. The district’s ethnicity breaks down like this:

• Black- 45.3%

• White- 36.8%

• Hispanic- 10.3%

• Asian- 2.9%

Others are pissed off because “opportunist” is a word they feel best describes Thandar rather than “principled” or “values-driven.” He joined both the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the far more conservative corporately-funded New Dems. Before being elected to Congress, while he was a state Rep., he was a co-sponsor of a resolution to halt aid to Israel, which was accurately described as an "apartheid state." That caused AIPAC and DMFI to support state Sen Adam Hollier against him in the congressional race with almost $4.3 million. Thanedar put $6.2 million of his own into the race and won. 

A few months later, he traveled to Israel on an AIPAC brainwashing trip and came back spouting the AIPAC line. Since then, AIPAC abandoned Hollier, who had challenged Thanedar again, and supported Thanedar’s reelection bid, since he has been loudly opposing a ceasefire, referring to victims of the Israeli genocide against Palestinians as “unfortunate casualties.”

But the millions of dollars he’s spent on his various campaigns— over $10 million in his failed gubernatorial race— can buy a lot of positive messaging that some voters come to believe. Detroit City Councilmember at-large Mary Waters, jumped into the race as a third candidate more to the left of Thandar, who has no political values and Hollier, a conservative. Waters is running as an anti-war candidate. 

Waters’ pitch has been that Thanedar doesn’t deserve a second term— while she highlights an endorsement from Hamtramck’s Mayor Amer Ghalib and her solidarity with Arab American and Muslim voters who are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The former three-term state rep. said she was the “number one supporter” of a ceasefire resolution passed by the Detroit City Council last year. If elected, Waters said she would promote a “world peace agenda” and shift military spending to social programs.

Detroit Democrats who were looking to stop Thanedar from winning reelection on August 6 were fretting that another crowded field would split votes and benefit the free-spending Indian-American multi-millionaire. And a gaggle of misguided national figures who would like to see Thanedar defeated endorsed Hollier, including Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, and DNC Black Caucus Chair Virgie Hollins. And then, last month… Hollier was disqualified for not filing enough valid signatures.

Local politicians who had backed Hollier quickly switched their endorsements to Waters, starting with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan who brought along a majority of Detroit’s city council as well as a handful of state legislators, even though he and Waters have had a rocky relationship. Gettin’ rid of Thanedar is foremost on everyone’s priority list.