Donavan McKinney for Congress
Progressive Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney will challenge the Democratic incumbent in Michigan's 13th Congressional District.
The brief era of progressive success in House primaries coincided with the rise of Justice Democrats. The political action committee, formed by former Bernie Sanders campaign advisers after Trump was elected in 2016, brought firebrands like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) to power, and unseated five incumbents with more than 15 years of service in Congress.
After endorsing 79 candidates and successfully electing seven in 2018, Justice Democrats narrowed its scope in 2020, focusing on electing the most promising candidates and defending the seats they already held. Two of the three candidates they helped elect in 2020 were Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.
The group has had a rough few years, though, a combination of a loss of resources and a formidable counterattack from forces to its right. In 2024, both Bowman and Bush faced strong primary challengers who received millions of dollars from pro-Israel lobbying groups aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In the end, the two races became the most expensive House primaries in American history, and both Bowman and Bush lost.
That has not stopped the organization, however. Today, Justice Democrats is announcing its first congressional endorsement in four years: Donavan McKinney, a 32-year-old progressive in Michigan’s state House, running in Michigan’s 13th District, which encompasses the Detroit metro area. McKinney is challenging the 13th District’s two-term Democratic incumbent, Shri Thanedar.
This is just the beginning, according to Justice Democrats communications director Usamah Andrabi. “Donavan is the first challenger we’re proud to endorse, but he won’t be the last,” Andrabi said. “We want to support and endorse as many working-class champions challenging corporate, do-nothing politicians as we can this cycle.”
Justice Democrats doesn’t always back candidates with legislative experience—AOC, for example, was an activist and bartender when she won her seat. But McKinney brings a background in Michigan state politics to the campaign, having served in the state House since 2023. There, he helped win over $10 million in community violence intervention programs for his district, which helped spur the creation of Michigan’s statewide community violence intervention initiative, which will focus on preventing gun violence. McKinney also won $600 million in federal funds to replace lead pipes in Detroit and its suburbs, and is vocal about environmental justice in the region.
McKinney introduced a slate of bills in the Michigan House of Representatives to regulate corporate money in politics.
His background mirrors that of Omar and Tlaib, who were also state legislators before winning seats in Congress with Justice Democrats’ help.
“I am so proud to have the endorsement and support of Justice Democrats in our campaign to bring working class leadership back to the mighty 13th,” McKinney said in a press release announcing his candidacy. “Our families are struggling to make ends meet while literal millionaires buy our elections and then ignore our calls when we need their help.”
The reference to millionaires buying elections is rather intentional. While McKinney grew up in northeast Detroit in a poor family, moving 13 times throughout his childhood due to evictions, Thanedar is a multimillionaire who used his prodigious resources to elbow his way into a House seat.
McKinney has specifically called out Thanedar’s lack of constituent services, and by all accounts, Thanedar seems to have taken a back seat as a congressman on that topic. Tlaib told The Detroit News that some of Thanedar’s constituents call her office instead, knowing that he won’t help them. Michigan state Sen. Darrin Camilleri said on X that he too has given up on calling Thanedar if any federal issues arise in their district, and reaches out to Reps. Tlaib or Debbie Dingell instead.
Thanedar was elected to Congress in 2022 after serving briefly in the state House. In 2018, he mounted an unsuccessful bid for the governor’s race, marketing himself as a progressive, “fiscally savvy Bernie [Sanders]” while privately wondering if he should run as a Republican or independent instead. Consultants that Thanedar met with before his run told The Intercept that he didn’t have firm issue stances and expressed frustration at progressives. “I laughed when he walked out the door, because a fool and their money part ways often, and that was my impression,” Dan McMaster, a Republican consultant, told The Intercept.
Indeed, Thanedar is currently the 28th-wealthiest person in Congress. That’s in no small part how he won his seat in Congress in the first place, giving millions to his own campaign. He also received money from AIPAC and DTE Energy, a Detroit-based fossil fuel company and energy service.
While in the state House, McKinney introduced a slate of bills to regulate corporate money in politics, with one goal to ban donations from monopoly utility companies like DTE. McKinney’s state House district is the state’s poorest, with a median household income of less than $20,000.
The fact that Thanedar has received about $33,000 in his House career from AIPAC could set up another Justice Democrats–AIPAC battle in a primary race. But Thanedar hasn’t been consistent on this either; he once called Israel an apartheid state while in the Michigan House, only to change his mind after an AIPAC-funded trip to Israel in 2023. That’s just one of the flip-flops that have made Thanedar an attractive candidate for a primary challenge.
Asked about the potential for AIPAC spending, Andrabi of Justice Democrats replied, “We’ve been up against these lobbies, corporate Super PACs, and billionaires’ bottomless pockets before and we’re ready to take them on again this cycle. The future of this Party starts with taking on big money in politics and exposing these corrupt, corporate politicians for who they’re really fighting for and why their communities are paying the price.”
In a press release, McKinney summed it up: “I’m running for Congress so that you will never have to wonder if your Congressman is fighting for you in Washington. You know I will be—and I will always answer the phone for our community, for our kids, for all of us.”
