The People’s Voice candidates make strong showing in Michigan Primary

Driven by a vigorous phone and text effort by its members, the Michigan People’s Campaign (MPC) saw 12 of its 18 endorsed candidates win their primary races Tuesday for local, state and federal seats. While the group threw its support behind several incumbents, such as Reps. Brenda Lawrence, Debbie Dingell, Haley Stevens and Elissa Slotkin, for their record of fighting for racial and economic justice, they also endorsed Jon Hoadley, a long time champion for long-term care. He’s making the jump this year from the state house, where he represented Kalamazoo, to a run for congress in the 6th district.

In the 13th congressional district race, Her opponent’s strategy, to paint Rep. Rashida Tlaib as being too confrontational, failed to resonate with voters. Before she was even a member of the House of Representatives, Tlaib took part in civil disobedience with MPC, challenging candidate Trump on his history of sexism. She later made good on her promise to “impeach the M-Fer”. Then as a Congresswoman, she deliberately subjected herself to arrest as part of a protest by fast food workers seeking a living wage and the right to unionize. By a 2 to 1 margin, her party rewarded Tlaib by nominating her to return to Washington, DC in November.

MPC also endorsed Yousef Rabhi, Felicia Brabec, and Christine Morse but they are especially proud of the graduates of their Movement Politics Academy, like Reps. Laurie Pohutsky and Padma Kuppa, which trained and inspired people who had never before considered a role in public office.

One of the people responsible for the success of the Movement Politics Academy, MPC Political Training director, Abraham Aiyash, built on the foundation of his 2016 campaign to win the nomination for the house seat in the 4th district this year. "We are very pleased at the selection of Abraham Aiyash to run for the state legislature,” said Ken Whittaker, MPC Director of Movement Politics. “His resounding victory reinforces our narrative that movement politics and movement campaigning works. Abraham lifted the issues our members care about and we trust him to be a co-governing partner, leader, and champion on our issues in Lansing."

Because of the pandemic, the typical door to door canvassing effort the group usually organizes was neither safe nor practical. So instead, in the weeks leading up to Election Day, MPC members made more than a thousand phone calls to voters and sent out more than 22,000 text messages. MPC expects to ramp up this effort as new members are brought on board to join the fight.