William Lawrence Wins Democratic Primary in Michigan, Setting Up Battle Against MAHA-Endorsed Incumbent, Rep. Tom Barrett

MAHA Action-supported Rep. Tom Barrett, who stood up to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during Covid and has been a strong MAHA voice in Congress, will face Democratic Primary winner William Lawrence

This fall, MAHA-endorsed Michigan Rep. Tom Barrett will face Democratic primary winner William Lawrence in what promises to be one of the most hotly contested congressional races in the country

Barrett represents Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, which includes the state capital of Lansing and also East Lansing, the home of Michigan State University. He’s a freshman congressman who flipped the district from blue to red in 2024. He’s also a champion of medical liberty and has been endorsed by MAHA Action, the MAHA movement’s advocacy and activism 501c4.

As a state senator during the Covid pandemic, Barrett fought Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on lockdowns. In Congress, he’s emerged as one of MAHA’s biggest supporters, recently introducing a package of bills to improve food quality and infant formula, and push for more recess in public schools nationwide.

Tom Barrett

On Tuesday night, the two moderates running in the Democrat primary – a former Navy Seal named Matt Maasdam and the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink – split the vote, as predicted. This enabled the far Left candidate, William Lawrence, to win. .

Lawrence is a supporter of the Green New Deal and universal healthcare, and a founder of the Michigan Rent is Too Damn High Coalition. He’s also one of the founders of the Sunrise Movement, which opposes fossil fuels and helped elect Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar to Congress.

Michigan’s 7th District is rural and conservative outside of its two larger cities – Lansing and East Lansing. It’s one of the few districts in the country that is considered a true “toss-up” district – and is expected to be a top target of Democrats in their drive to regain control of Congress in November.

Some Michigan Republicans who know Barrett don’t think he’ll have a hard time pulling out a win in November.

“Regardless of Tom’s opponent, I think he will win by a better margin than he did his first term,” 7th District Michigan Republican Party Chair Dan Schifko told The MAHA Report on Tuesday.

Schifko says Barrett was one of the top two conservatives in the Michigan Senate and that he’d encouraged him to run for Congress the first time he met him.

Barrett was hesitant, saying he had a young family and wanted to raise his kids in Michigan. But he ultimately got into the race in 2022, running against Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst. It was the most expensive House race that year, and Barrett came out with 46.5 percent of the vote to Slotkin’s 51.5 percent. When Slotkin ran for the Senate in 2024, Barrett ran for the House seat again and won.

Barrett served in the Michigan state Senate during the Covid pandemic and was one of the most vocal Republicans opposing Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s draconian lockdown policies, which famously included telling Michigan residents in April of 2020 that they were not allowed to go to their vacation homes in other parts of the state.

In a July 2020 radio interview, Barrett blasted Whitmer, saying she had no right to use emergency powers she’d claimed early in the pandemic. He added that it was necessary to “restore the constitutionally guaranteed form of government in Michigan,” which gives every person “the right to representative democracy.”

Barrett helped promote a petition drive called “Unlock Michigan” – to repeal a 1945 state law that Whitmer cited, claiming that it allowed her to continue using emergency powers indefinitely, essentially usurping the role of the state legislature.

“He learned facts and he had a level head throughout the whole thing,” said Schifko, remembering Barrett’s advocacy during that time.

Barrett, now age 45, served in the U.S. Army for 22 years, which included tours of duty as a helicopter pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan. After the Army, and prior to running for state legislature, he served as an analyst with his state’s Department of the Treasury.

The package of MAHA bills Barrett recently introduced in the House of Representatives includes one that expands tax-free, health savings accounts (HSAs) and would allow people to use their HSAs to pay for nutritious food, vitamins and gym memberships.

Another is a MAHA-friendly bill to study how screen time and video-game playing may be affecting the mental health and well-being of boys and young men.

Barrett also introduced the Safe Baby Formula Act to ban toxic metals in baby formula and require the FDA to study the effects of heavy metals in formula.

Three other MAHA-friendly bills Barrett introduced aimed to make sure our troops and public schoolchildren have healthy food. The Healthy Commissaries, Healthy Families Act would require the Department of Defense to team up with local farmers and bring more healthy food into military commissaries – the grocery stores on military bases. The Know What’s on the Tray Act would require schools to publish information on their websites about every item on the school menu. And the Healthy Recess for Learning Act would encourage elementary and middle schools to expand recess to at least 60 minutes a day.

As the dust settles on Tuesday night’s Democratic primary results, MAHA Action president, Tony Lyons, reflected on why it’s so important for Barrett and other MAHA-endorsed candidates to win in November: “The Democrats stifle debate, which makes them anti-science,” he said.

Lyons added, “They say they want to protect individual freedom and rights, but deep down they want to control everything—what you do, what you think, what you put into your body and what you read. That’s why the midterms are existential. They are a battle between personal freedom and communism.”

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