“Mop Up Michigan”: Donavan McKinney on Democratic Socialism, Corporate Money & His Primary Upset

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.

Michigan made national headlines last week with the wins of progressive Democrats up and down the ballot in this battleground state. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic primary for Senate. He joined us on Democracy Now! last week. Check it out at democracynow.org.

Our next guest is democratic socialist state Representative Donavan McKinney. He defeated two-term Democratic Congressmember Shri Thanedar in the House primary to represent parts of Detroit and Wayne County. McKinney won on a platform to get corporate money out of politics, support for Medicare for All and ending military aid to Israel, among other issues. In the general election, Donavan McKinney will face Republican nominee T.P. Nykoriak.

In a press release after his victory, McKinney said, quote, “Today, we showed why being always with the people is more than a slogan — it’s a roadmap for the Democratic Party on how to move forward to defeat the fascism and divisiveness harming our country, and to deliver the leadership the Mighty 13th deserves,” he said.

McKinney took no corporate PAC money. His campaign was supported by the Justice Democrats, Working Families Party, DSA and labor unions, including SEIU and National Nurses United.

This is Donavan McKinney speaking alongside Senator Bernie Sanders and Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour in Detroit in May about what it’ll take to win Medicare for All.

REP. DONAVAN McKINNEY: We can’t get any of this, things that our communities, the people we love, absolutely deserve, unless we do something greater, which is to get all big corporate money out of our politics. And when you guys send us to D.C. and Congress, as your next congressman, I promise you this: On day one, I will sign on to the effort, that Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Summer Lee, they’re leading the fight, to overturn Citizens United. We can do that!

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Michigan state Representative Donavan McKinney, who won the Democratic congressional primary, joining us now.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Congratulations on your victory. What do you attribute it to, Donavan? You’re 34 years old.

REP. DONAVAN McKINNEY: Yes. Thank you, Amy, and just the whole show, for having me.

You know, we built the biggest and baddest coalition in the country. I’ve been quoted on saying that, but it’s so true. From our labor unions —  shoutout to UAW, SEIU, the National Nurses United, our building trades. For those folks who don’t know, we were the only nonincumbent candidate that was running for federal office in Michigan that got endorsed by the whole AFL–CIO, so that’s pretty much all the unions. And then, you know, our congressional members, from Bernie Sanders to Summer Lee, Rashida Tlaib, some of our CBC members to, you know, the local, like, folks — right? — our mayors, our city council folks, to even our most progressive organizations, endorsed us. Our faith leaders and people have come together and realized that our district deserves better. And that’s why we attributed our win. It was God, first and foremost, but it was the people on the ground that helped us get across the finish line.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about, number one — we were just talking with Justin Pearson, who’s fighting the data centers. You’ve joined politicians across the country calling for a moratorium on data centers. What’s happening in Michigan?

REP. DONAVAN McKINNEY: Yeah. So, you know, for those folks who don’t know about the data center fight, data centers have been around for decades now, actually, but this is the first time that they’re building at mass scale, like these big megasites. And so, you know, as a state rep myself, we put some guardrails in the legislation, even though it was watered down because, you know, groups like Meta and Google that came in, flooded dollars to our elected officials to water down our legislation. But in Michigan, we put some protections in there — doesn’t necessarily go far enough, but at least we have some guardrails on there saying that if you take taxpayer dollars or if you’re taking our tax credits here in our state, then you have to create a closed-loop system and, you know, protecting people’s water and their electrical grid. But it doesn’t go far enough.

And so, we’re joining folks like Rep. Pearson down there in Tennessee and other folks across the nation on a moratorium, because, in reality, there’s states that either don’t have any laws on the books, have weak laws on the books. And in reality, what’s happening is these big corporations are coming in, bullying our local communities. I mean, I’ve seen it. They come in and say, “Hey, we’re going to do this. You can’t tell us what to do.” And they just, you know, ravish our communities. I know folks that are living in neighborhoods right now, Amy, that they turn on a faucet, and nothing comes out of it, not necessarily in Michigan, but in other parts of the country. And so, we do need a moratorium. But in reality, we need to make sure that these are union jobs and that, like, at the end of the day, people’s environmental justice is protected.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about Mop Up Michigan, which — 

REP. DONAVAN McKINNEY: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Go ahead — and what it stands for and the major utility there.

REP. DONAVAN McKINNEY: Yeah, so, Mop Up Michigan is money out of politics. It stemmed from the legislation that myself and state Rep. Dylan Wegela created last term, and we reintroduced it earlier this term, which is called Taking Back Our Power. Essentially, what it does is it bars a lot of our utility companies and our insurance companies, our corporate monopolies, from giving money to our elected officials in any capacity, whether it’s a straight-up campaign contribution or to, you know, shell organizations like (c)(4)s and (c)(3)s that are associated with the politician.

And so, what happens is, we couldn’t get a hearing in the Democratic trifecta last term that we had or earlier this term with split government. So, what happened is, Amy, people on the ground, organizations on the ground got fed up, and so they took our legislation and created a ballot initiative. Those folks collected over 600,000 signatures statewide. And by the grace of God, literally two — about two weeks ago or so, the State Board of Canvassers here in Michigan agreed to greenlight it on this year’s November ballot. And once it gets on this year’s November ballot, it’s going to pass with probably 80% of the vote, because no matter if you’re a Democrat, independent, Republican — doesn’t matter what your political affiliation is — we can all agree that corporate influence in our politics is just too much.

AMY GOODMAN: What does it mean to you to be a democratic socialist? And do you see yourself — I mean, something like five democratic socialists have won their primaries now. The significance of this? And not only are you taking on a Republican candidate in your district, but do you see yourself taking on the Democratic establishment?

REP. DONAVAN McKINNEY: Yeah. So, listen, I’m currently running to represent the fifth-poorest congressional district in the country, fifth-poorest, and I have a diverse district, you know. But Detroit is the Blackest and poorest major city in all of America. And what I hear that’s top of mind from my residents is that at the end of the day, no matter if they live in inner-city Detroit or they live in a suburb downriver in my district, that they’re having tough times to make ends meet.

And so, democratic socialism, to me, is, and how I define politics, is the redistribution of resources. That’s it. And so, I’m a big believer. You should be able to work one full-time job, to not only make ends meet, but have disposable income, benefits to take care of your family and retirement to look forward to. I think that’s the American dream. That’s what most folks want to be able to do. But right now folks are working two, three jobs, not even making ends meet, not even scraping by. I got seniors on fixed income. All they get from Social Security is $900 a month. And their rent is going up. Their utility bills are skyrocketing. Their out-of-pocket costs, because of the Republican shenanigans with Trump and H.R. 1, the “one big ugly bill” that they passed, the implementation of that, it’s taking people’s resources, whether it’s food assistance or healthcare, so they got to spend a lot of money to do the doctor visits, to pay for lifesaving medicine, and they have to make those decisions every single day, those tough decisions of how to live.

And so, for me, democratic socialism is about just that: working people, putting them first, instead of spending money overseas for bombs and weapons and wars that, you know, we have no business being in, like Iran. We’re spending a billion dollars a day, on average, in Iran, Amy. And you’re telling me the people in my district can’t get the resources they need? I don’t think that’s an America anybody wants to live in.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Medicare for All. You have Abdul El-Sayed, a doctor, who wrote the book Medicare for All.

REP. DONAVAN McKINNEY: Yeah, he did.

AMY GOODMAN: And you made it a major component of your campaign.

REP. DONAVAN McKINNEY: Yeah, yeah. So, listen, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, me and him, we — he endorsed me. I endorsed him. We got the endorsements of, you know, UAW, Bernie Sanders, you name it, Summer Lee, a lot of folks. And in reality, this is a coalition. You can’t do it by yourself. So, you need people in the Legislature, in the House, but you need some folks in the Senate.

And I’ll tell you this, Amy. It’s a couple times that I’ve been disappointed in my short life on this planet, 34 years. And, you know, I have a beautiful wife, three amazing children, ages 4 and younger. And what type of world are we going to leave them? And so, that is my conscience. That is what’s top of mind and forefront for me every single day.

And I know Abdul and I, we’re working for Medicare for All because, whether you have a preexisting condition or not, you deserve to get the care you need, as well as getting all this money out of our politics, because, in reality, the reason why we can’t get what we all deserve and what we all need and what we all want is because we’re spending dollars to do these corporate subsidies with no end in sight.

And so, we have to provide that relief, and we’ve got to help our working people, because, in reality, they are struggling. I can’t stress enough how many times I’ve had folks cry in my arms who were telling me, “Donavan, please do something. Please do something.” And this is our opportunity to do it, and we’re going to do it, and I’m so excited about it.

AMY GOODMAN: Donavan McKinney, I want to thank you for being with us, now a Michigan state representative, has won the Democratic House primary in Detroit. We will continue to follow that race.

Coming up, American Doctor, a new documentary about three U.S. doctors who risked their lives to volunteer in Gaza. Back in 30 seconds.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Abaq” by the Palestinian oud musician Huda Asfour in our Democracy Now! studio.