{"id":29027,"date":"2026-08-05T21:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T16:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29027"},"modified":"2026-08-05T21:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T16:54:07","slug":"rep-thanedar-loses-to-socialist-mckinney-in-democratic-primary-for-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29027","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Thanedar loses to socialist McKinney in Democratic primary\u00a0for congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/9ZjJ7CAeOv2eayjq6P0oS56bmlI=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/04\/1785862829195.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>State Rep. Donavan McKinney bested two-term incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar in Tuesday&#8217;s Democratic primary to represent Michigan&#8217;s 13th Congressional District.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>The lifelong Detroiter&#8217;s win likely returns Detroit to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/detroit\/2022\/08\/04\/shri-voters-didnt-care-racial-politics-detroit\" target=\"_blank\">Black representation<\/a> in Congress, which ended with Thanedar&#8217;s 2022 victory.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>It also brings <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/01\/melat-kiros-colorado-degette-democrats-reaction\" target=\"_blank\">another<\/a> victory for a progressive-backed candidate.<\/li>\n<li>McKinney won by a slim 51.9% to 48.1%, with the race called late Wednesday morning <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/projects\/elections-2026\/michigan-primary-results-us-house\/#13\" target=\"_blank\">by AP<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>State of play: <\/strong>Thanedar had the advantage on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2026\/07\/27\/shri-thanedar-donavan-mckinney-detroit-13th-district-congress\/90905430007\/\" target=\"_blank\">funding and name recognition<\/a>. However, mainstream House Democrats didn&#8217;t seem as concerned about him losing to a progressive challenger as in other races, <em>Axios&#8217; Andrew Solender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/22\/shri-thanedar-dsa-donavan-mckinney-detroit-mi-13\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a>s<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yes, but: <\/strong>McKinney still needs to win in November to head to Congress, but defeat is unlikely in the heavily blue district.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Michigan%27s_13th_Congressional_District\" target=\"_blank\">district<\/a> includes most of Detroit and extends westward past Taylor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>Both candidates campaigned against Trump, criticized ICE and supported expanding access to health care.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thanedar, a wealthy businessman who largely self-funds his campaigns, was backed by AIPAC, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and both the Congressional Progressive Caucus and center-left New Democrat Coalition.<\/li>\n<li>But McKinney won the endorsement of local institutions like <a href=\"https:\/\/michiganchronicle.com\/black-detroiters-deserve-more-michigan-chronicle-endorses-donavan-mckinney-in-13th-district-race\/\" target=\"_blank\">the Michigan Chronicle<\/a> and labor groups, as well as national-level progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Rashida Tlaib and former Rep. Brenda Lawrence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line: <\/strong>The race was more nuanced than representing the ideological divisions in the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Factors at play included McKinney&#8217;s deep connections to Detroit, state legislative record, questions about Thanedar&#8217;s effectiveness and the prospect of restoring Detroit&#8217;s Black representation in Congress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State Rep. Donavan McKinney bested two-term incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar in Tuesday&#8217;s Democratic primary to represent Michigan&#8217;s 13th Congressional District. Why it matters: The lifelong Detroiter&#8217;s win likely returns Detroit to Black representation in Congress, which ended with Thanedar&#8217;s 2022 victory. It also brings another victory for a progressive-backed candidate. McKinney won by a slim&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/9ZjJ7CAeOv2eayjq6P0oS56bmlI=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/04\/1785862829195.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}