{"id":425563,"date":"2026-08-06T16:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/425563\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T16:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:56:08","slug":"lawrence-the-victor-in-7th-district-democratic-primary-the-oakland-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/425563\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawrence the victor in 7th District Democratic Primary \u2013 The Oakland Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published<\/a> by Michigan Advance. Sign up for their weekly newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By Kyle Davidson, Michigan Advance<\/a><\/p>\n

At the end of a contentious three-person race, Lansing-area political organizer William Lawrence won the Democratic nomination for Michigan\u2019s 7th Congressional District.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press called the race for Lawrence at 11:23 p.m.<\/p>\n

He will now face the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte), in the November general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all of our win,\u201d Lawrence told his supporters after the AP called the race. \u201cBut I want to make one thing very clear at the beginning: job\u2019s not finished. Job\u2019s not finished. Zero votes have been cast in the general election, and we need to take that zero-zero mentality into the next week and the next three months because the mission is to beat Barrett and send an unbought independent-minded representative to Washington D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel released a statement congratulating Lawrence on the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill has spent his career in the fight for working people, and he\u2019s not stopping now \u2014 he\u2019s taking that fight to Congress,\u201d Hertel said. \u201cTom Barrett has spent his time in Washington helping Donald Trump jack up costs and gut the programs Michigan families rely on. Will has a bold plan to fix it. This is a clear choice for the voters of Michigan\u2019s 7th District, and Michigan Democrats can\u2019t wait to send Tom Barrett packing this November.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michigan\u2019s 7th Congressional District is made up of Clinton, Ingham, Livingston and Shiawassee counties, most of Eaton County and parts of Genesee and Oakland counties. It\u2019s considered a key swing seat, with the nonpartisan Cook Political report rating it<\/a> as a \u201ctoss-up\u201d heading toward November.<\/p>\n

The primary contest also showcased the split between the Democratic Party\u2019s more progressive wing, with Lawrence, who was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt. ), defeating his moderate Democratic opponents.\u00a0Maasdam had the endorsement<\/a> of U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who held the U.S. House seat before being elected to the Senate in 2024.<\/p>\n

Slotkin\u2019s endorsement, which came as Maasdam was running third in polling, represented a break from many party officials, including former Govs. Jennifer Granholm and Jim Blanchard, and some major labor unions, such as the Michigan Education Association, who had endorsed<\/a> Brink.<\/p>\n

In his bid to appeal to voters across political divides, Lawrence campaigned on concerns tied to hyperscale data centers, calling for a 12-month federal moratorium on the construction of new facilities.<\/p>\n

During Lawrence\u2019s election watch party, his supporters chanted \u201cdata centers lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the three candidates are scheduled to gather for a unity rally hosted by the 7th Congressional District Democratic Committee, honoring Brink, Maasdam and Lawrence\u2019s pledge to back the winner no matter who prevailed in the primary. Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel will introduce the winner.<\/p>\n

Lawrence thanked his opponents for their careers of service, specifically thanking Brink for her focus on healthcare and decision to resign from President Donald Trump\u2019s administration in protest of its foreign policy approach toward Ukraine. He thanked Maasdam for his righteous anger against the unconstitutional abuses committed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIron sharpens iron and Bridget and Matt\u2019s work has made our movement stronger,\u201d Lawrence said.<\/p>\n

Brink returned the compliment, releasing a statement shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile tonight\u2019s result wasn\u2019t the one we wanted, I\u2019m incredibly proud of the relentless, hard fought campaign we ran,\u201d Brink said. \u201cCongratulations to William Lawrence on his win tonight and for running a strong, inspiring grassroots campaign. Now we come together as one to take on Tom Barrett and work to elect a leader who will listen and fight for what matters most to our community here in mid-Michigan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrett also congratulated Lawrence in a post to social media<\/a>, welcoming Lawrence to the race while noting that his campaign would not underestimate him.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Michigan Advance is an affiliate of State Newsroom, the nation\u2019s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. To support, its journalism, donate here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by Michigan Advance. Sign up for their weekly newsletter here. By Kyle Davidson,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[204,181,23,16663,100,143,145,144,13],"class_list":["post-425563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-election","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-michigan-news","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}