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Michigan Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow has defended her previously deleted tweets criticizing rural America, in which she implied that they could benefit from learning from coastal elites. Despite the backlash, McMorrow maintains her stance.
The tweets, initially highlighted by The Post last year, are again under the spotlight following a recent CNN feature. The messages have sparked debate over her views on rural versus urban cultural understanding.
In an appearance on CNN’s “Inside Politics” this past Sunday, McMorrow expressed the importance of mutual understanding across different communities. “I believe we should all strive to understand one another better,” she stated. “Having lived in various parts of the country, I’ve encountered diverse perspectives, and I stand by that sentiment. Admittedly, the tweet wasn’t my most articulate moment.”
Following the 2016 presidential election, McMorrow agreed with a tweet suggesting the focus on coastal elites needing to comprehend other parts of America was misplaced. Instead, she argued, “Many rural Americans have isolated themselves from the broader national conversation by residing in areas that do not reflect the country’s diversity.”
“It is much of white working class America that needs to reach outside its comfort zone and meet people not like them,” then-reporter Patrick Thornton argued in the X thread.
“Many rural Americans have isolated themselves from the rest of the country. They live in very unrepresentative areas.”
She quote-tweeted that post, writing, “I’m from rural New Jersey, this rings 100%. Empathy should go both ways, but Trump’s base fears what they’ve never seen.”
During her wide-ranging interview with CNN, McMorrow said that she sees parallels between Nazi Germany and the Trump administration
“Yeah, I do,” she told CNN. “It is deeply concerning that we’ve seen an authoritarian slide and, as we’ve talked about earlier, dividing people against each other.”
“I don’t think a lot of people would argue [with the notion] that there are shades of authoritarianism here that we need to be deeply concerned about.”
McMorrow, a Michigan state senator, has been seen as a rising star within progressive circles and is running in a very competitive Democratic primary to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.)
Polls show a close three-way race on the Democratic side, with lefty physician Abdul El-Sayed leading the pack with 23% support, followed by McMorrow at 20.7% and moderate Rep. Haley Stevens at 20.3%, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.
The primary is slated for Aug. 4.
Republican Mike Rogers is widely expected to lock down the nod on the GOP side. Rogers narrowly lost to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) in 2024 by 0.34 percentage points and has President Trump’s backing.