Progressives have achieved a significant victory with William Lawrence, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, winning a contested seat in Lansing. This victory was facilitated as two moderate contenders split their votes due to an inability to resolve their differences.
Bridget Brink, a former Ambassador to Ukraine, and Matt Maasdam, a former Navy SEAL, together secured 56 percent of the vote, surpassing Lawrence’s 43 percent, as reported by the Associated Press just before 11:30 p.m. Eastern. Neither candidate opted to withdraw, enabling Lawrence to secure the win and present Republicans with their desired opponent in the critical race against Representative Tom Barrett (R-Mich).
“If he wins, we’re done,” commented a Democratic operative regarding Lawrence’s potential success.
Maasdam labeled Brink a “spoiler,” prompting EMILYs List president Jessica Mackler, a Brink supporter, to respond that Maasdam should “take some responsibility for his own actions before telling a qualified woman to drop out.”
The inability to unify moderate backing is already causing issues for the party.
“The MI-07 Democratic primary is shaping up to be one of those ‘two people’s egos and campaign consultants caused the lefty candidate to win the primary’ situations in an essentially must-flip district for Democrats,” noted progressive Democratic pollster Adam Carlson on X as the results were announced.
