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Steve was talking about Michigan 7 and this is such an interesting one because I will tell you that you know we've talked about the dynamic here will Lawrence and then the two other candidates who you know the question was were they going to split this more centrist lane and there are those close to Bridget Brink who say you can point the finger at Alyssa Slackin if Will Lawrence doesn't pull this out in a general election. She came in um endorsed Matt Mazdum sort of I think it was just last month and fury I think there was a lot of anger about that. Well, there's a lot of background here, right? This is Alyssa Slakin's old district. This was a seat that President Trump only won by one point in the 2024 election, but it was enough to bring Tom
Barrett along with him. Republicans view this as one of the most important seats on the map for them if they have any hope of holding on to the majority. I have to tell you, the Republicans I talked to today were rooting for William Lawrence. He was perhaps the candidate they cared the most about on the map today, and this played out exactly the way they were hoping. And there was a lot of questions about Slotkins decision to get into this race, not just because uh she did not endorse uh Brink, but also she chose not to endorse the woman in this race, which is something that she's traditionally been very supportive of Democratic women running in these campaigns. At the very least, what it
did was it meant that all the Democrats in the establishment side, the more moderate lane, were not coalesing around one candidate to take on Lawrence. Lawrence, for background, co-founder of the Sunshine Movement. That's a very aggressive climate change organization that Alexandrio Casiocortez and others are very close uh to think Green New Deal, which is associated with the sunshine movement. Uh so this is a huge win for progressives, but it's also something that Republicans hope in what is maybe the swingiest district on the map is going to help them.
Well, and Garrett, when you talk to Lawrence, he's not signaling that he feels the need to calibrate in the general election. I mean, this is someone who when you talk to him is very clear. This is his agenda. Yeah. And he doesn't feel the need to moderate in order to win over moderator. No. I mean, he spent his career as a professional activist. And to Congressman Graves point from earlier, I mean, this is one of the challenges for Democrats. Are they going to be for something? Are they going to be just against Donald Trump? William Lawrence, whatever else you think of his politics, knows what he's for. He's campaigned very openly on what he's for. But to the point Ryan was making about how closely
Republicans are watching this map, here's another indication of how closely they're watching this district. Tom Barrett is someone who President Trump, we haven't actually talked about a lot tonight, has given a lot of leeway. Tom Barrett's been one of the people who's voted for these Iran war powers resolutions. I think he even introduced one of them time and time again. Him and actually John Braun, who we just mentioned in Washington 3 district, who's been very anti-tariff, are people who are in these very competitive House races who Donald Trump has endorsed and then kind of turned a little bit of an uncharacteristic blind eye to their apostasies. And so to the degree that he's disengaged from the midterms, which
we can talk about more if you want, he is at least being strategically disengaged from going after people on issues where you might see him otherwise, you know, want his pound of flesh from Republicans who aren't, you know, doing his thing. You can't dangle strategic disengagement and not expect us to talk about it. Okay. Well, look, we could talk about it on the Senate map, too. I mean, look at Susan Collins is another perfect example, right? But I mean, Susan, the president's joked about this that she is not with him as many as often as he wants, which is going to vote against his attorney general. Quick, we just That's right. And you haven't heard a peep out of him about it. You know why?
Because she's with him a hell of a lot more than Troy Jackson would be. He probably will still get Democrat. Yeah, that's right. Well, and that's that's a decision for leadership, which you know, you know, you can let Susan Collins take a walk on that vote because it doesn't matter to your total. He's still going to get across the finish line. And so to the degree that the president is involved in these midterms, as he is in some cases a great deal, he's also choosing strategically to be hands off on some of these races where he can do more harm than good. We thank you for watching and remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.
