The progressive group Justice Democrats is backing a primary challenge to Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar — its first effort to take out a sitting lawmaker in the 2026 cycle.
Justice Democrats announced Monday that it’s endorsing Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney in the primary against Thanedar, who holds one of Detroit’s congressional seats. Thanedar, who entered Congress in 2023, has faced opposition from the Michigan Democratic establishment and prominent Black lawmakers, who allege he is out of touch and that Detroit, a majority Black city, should be represented by a Black politician.
“There’s a reason this is our first primary of the cycle. It embodies the fight that we’re trying to wage within the Democratic Party, which is: taking on a literal multimillionaire who has spent over $17 million of his money to buy a seat in Congress at the expense of the people he represents,” Usamah Andrabi, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats, told NOTUS, pointing to Thanedar’s history of pumping millions of his personal funds into his political campaigns.