DSA-backed Donavan McKinney defeats Rep. Shri Thanedar in Michigan primary upset

Michigan Rep. Shri Thanedar lost his Democratic primary to a socialist-backed state legislator on Tuesday, the latest in a growing wave of far-left challengers ousting incumbent Democrats across the country.

State Rep. Donavan McKinney, 32, backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and "Squad" member Rep. Rashida Tlaib, beat the two-term congressman in Michigan's 13th Congressional District by a margin of 52% to 48%, the Washington Examiner reported. The district covers a large portion of Detroit and is so heavily Democratic that McKinney is now all but certain to win the general election in November against GOP candidate T.P. Nykoriak.

Thanedar's defeat marks the end of a turbulent congressional career defined less by legislative accomplishment than by controversy, abandoned animals at a facility he owned, taxpayer-funded billboards featuring his own face, and a late-breaking push to impeach President Trump that failed to rally either his colleagues or his constituents behind him.

Thanedar's anti-Trump gambit did not save him

Around April 2025, as McKinney entered the primary, Thanedar pushed articles of impeachment against President Trump. The New York Post noted the timing suggested Thanedar was trying to shore up his left flank by burnishing anti-Trump credentials. It did not work.

Thanedar himself seemed to sense the futility. In comments before the vote, he told reporters he was not trying to win a popularity contest among his peers in Congress.

Breitbart reported that prediction markets priced McKinney at roughly 87% to win the day before the vote, even though one earlier poll had shown Thanedar leading 46% to 42% before candidate biographies were presented to respondents. Once voters learned who was who, the numbers moved sharply against the incumbent.

Thanedar insisted he was the strongest fighter against Trump in the race. But his own Democratic colleagues showed little interest in defending him, a fact he acknowledged publicly.

"It's not like a high school. I'm not trying to be the most popular member of Congress."

That was Thanedar's own assessment of his standing within his caucus. It turned out to be an understatement. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries endorsed Thanedar, but establishment backing could not overcome the energy on the left.

McKinney ran as the anti-establishment outsider, with plenty of establishment help

McKinney framed the race as a fight between working-class Detroit and a wealthy outsider who bought his way into office. Thanedar, an India-born multimillionaire who made his fortune from an Ann Arbor-based chemical testing lab he helped found in 2010, was an easy target for that message.

McKinney did not hold back about the contrast. In a statement captured by Fox News, he laid out the case bluntly:

"People like our congressman, Shri Thanedar, are the problem. A multimillionaire who spent millions to buy a seat in Congress, who has more in common with Donald Trump and Elon Musk than people like us."

McKinney consolidated endorsements from the progressive left's most prominent figures. Beyond Tlaib and Sanders, he picked up backing from "Squad" members Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley. Unlike past challengers who split the anti-Thanedar vote, McKinney had a clear one-on-one matchup, and he used it.

Thanedar's 2022 primary victory had left Detroit, a city that is nearly 80% Black, without Black congressional representation for the first time since 1955, according to AP News. That history gave McKinney, a Black state legislator, an additional advantage in a district where representation carries real weight.

Thanedar responded to the challenge by touting his record and dismissing his opponents. He told reporters that voters had a choice between his "bold, strong and proven leadership" and what he called McKinney's "inexperience." Voters chose inexperience.

Thanedar broke with the DSA, and the DSA broke him

Thanedar had once been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America himself. But he broke with the organization in October 2023 over his support for Israel following the October 7 terror attacks. The DSA then turned its organizing muscle against him, endorsing McKinney and channeling resources into the challenge.

The pattern is now familiar. DSA-backed challengers have been toppling Democratic incumbents from New York to Colorado. Reps. Adriano Espaillat and Dan Goldman, both New York Democrats, and longtime Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette have all fallen to insurgent primary opponents in recent cycles. Thanedar is the latest name on a growing list.

Michigan's Democratic landscape has been fractured by internal conflict at multiple levels this cycle, with progressive and establishment wings battling over the party's direction.

The broader trend is not limited to congressional races. Across the party, Democrats have struggled with a pattern of candidates being forced out or overwhelmed by challenges from their own side. In Wisconsin, Mandela Barnes dropped out of the governor's race under pressure earlier this year, and Michigan's own Senate primary saw similar turbulence when Mallory McMorrow exited the race, leaving the field in disarray.

Controversies that dogged Thanedar long before primary day

Thanedar's political vulnerabilities went well beyond ideology. Roughly 170 dogs and dozens of monkeys were abandoned at a facility he owned, a scandal that dogged him throughout his time in office. He also faced scrutiny over billboards of himself that were paid for with taxpayer money. Neither controversy was ever fully resolved in the public record available, but both gave opponents easy ammunition.

His personal wealth, in the tens of millions of dollars, made the "out-of-touch millionaire" attack line stick in a district where median incomes sit far below national averages. A member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on paper, Thanedar never managed to win the trust of the progressive grassroots organizations that increasingly drive Democratic primary turnout.

Even some prominent voices outside the party have noticed the trend. Bill Maher recently called Democrats "cowardly" for failing to push back against the socialist wing gaining ground within their ranks, a criticism that looks more prescient with every DSA-backed primary victory.

What McKinney's win means for November, and beyond

McKinney now advances to the November general election against Republican T.P. Nykoriak. In a district this heavily Democratic, the general election is a formality. Michigan's 13th will almost certainly send a DSA-backed socialist to Congress.

DNC Vice Chair David Hogg has already faced sharp criticism from within the party for raising money to challenge Democratic incumbents, a practice that establishment figures view as self-destructive but that the progressive left sees as essential housecleaning. Thanedar's defeat will only intensify that debate.

For Thanedar, the lesson is stark. He spent his final months in office trying to out-progressive the progressives, pushing impeachment articles against President Trump in a bid to prove his left-wing bona fides. His colleagues largely ignored the effort. His voters did not reward it. And the DSA, the organization he once joined and then abandoned, delivered the final verdict.

When a party's incumbents cannot survive their own primaries, the problem is not one congressman's campaign strategy. The problem is a party that no longer controls its own direction.