Political Revolution

Tonight we will see how much power we’ve been able to build as a movement.

All eyes are on Michigan today. There are three races in particular I’ll be watching closely. One, obviously, is Abdul El-Sayed in the primary for Michigan Senate. The other two are for the House of Representatives, Donavan McKinney in Michigan’s 13th and Will Lawrence in Michigan’s 7th.

All three of these candidates are running as a new kind of Democrat. A Democrat committed to ideals that are more reminiscent of an older Democratic Party, one that was interested in outcomes for the overwhelming majority of the people in this country, one that earned the trust of voters so frequently that we had majorities in the House and the Senate for fifty or sixty years, cumulatively. That trust was earned.

Then our elected public servants sold it to the highest bidder, cycle after cycle.

But not these three. The are each running on a hopeful vision that we can build a country that works for the people who live in it. They are asking voters to trust that we can do big things again.

if your online or watch TV you’re hearing from all sorts of folks, whether it’s Dan Goldman, James Carville, or numerous other Democratic experts, that the socialist are going to ruin the party and our nation.

These “Democrats” are aligning themselves with Trump and his administration in their efforts to vilify socialists and socialism, to vilify political ideas.

It’s not socialism that scares these folks. What they’re most terrified of is losing power over a party that they’ve had a stranglehold on for the last thirty or forty years.

The year I was born, 1980, was the beginning of what was called the Reagan revolution. For most of my life, I’ve lived under the results of that revolution. Since 2015, I’ve been hoping for a new kind of political revolution, one that could restore balance to our government, to our society, to our economy. I was first inspired by Bernie into this revolution, then joined with AOC. We’ve watched it grow. We watched it in New York. We watched it in Colorado. Like you, I’ll be watching tonight, hoping that a new Democratic Party continues to be born in Michigan. I’m hoping to see a continuation of this movement.

Abdul El-Sayed’s race is one that will show that regardless of how much money is spent against you trying to vilify you, demonize you as a socialist or a communist or a scary Muslim, voters will make decisions based on what they think, and they can filter through all sorts of noise to get there. It looks like they’re doing it.

Donavan McKinney is a state rep from Detroit taking on Shri Thanedar, a multimillionaire congressman who spent his own fortune getting to Washington. If McKinney wins tonight, it won’t be because of the money. It’ll be because of the people.

Will Lawrence helped start the Sunrise Movement, the young people who forced the Green New Deal into our national politics. Now he’s running in a swing district we have to win if we’re going to take back the House.

The centrists keep telling us progressives can’t win seats like that. Tonight the voters of Michigan’s 7th get to answer them.

Tonight may well be filled with hope. But it’s the beginning of the work to build and wield power. The power to change our country into one that adds rather than extracts. One that uplifts the working class rather than exploits them. The power to rebuild the trust that our elected public servants won’t sell themselves out. Tonight is just another step in a lot of work that is yet to come.

A big part of how I’m doing that work is A Fight Worth Having, the super PAC I started. We’re ramping up for November and for the 2028 primaries, so we can keep promoting these candidates, these causes, these ideas.

If you want to help, please do.

So tune in tonight with me all over the internet. I’ll be on Substack, YouTube, and maybe a handful of other places, and we can watch these elections together and talk about what comes next.

Corbin Trent