‘Midwestern fun’: The Michigan senator who lugged a giant book on stage says this DNC is different • Michigan Advance

Michigan Sen. Mallory McMorrow has a simple rule for communication.

“Talk like you would talk to your friends at a bar,” the Royal Oak Democrat told the Michigan Advance after grabbing national attention for slamming an oversized copy of Project 2025 on the podium at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago on Monday.

From the time she was tapped to speak for the convention, McMorrow and her team knew they wanted to use a book of the 900-some-page right-wing blueprint for former President Donald Trump’s second term to illustrate what’s at stake in the election.

“We wanted you to be able to see it from the very last row in the arena,” McMorrow said, adding that the book weighed about as much as her toddler daughter — so moving it over to her hip to carry it was “a familiar posture.” 

The photo of McMorrow hauling the oversized book onto the stage also sparked a few memes.

It’s rare for a state legislator to be asked to speak at the national convention where Vice President Kamala Harris was officially nominated as the party’s nominee. For McMorrow, “there was no hesitation” when Julie Chávez Rodríguez, Harris’ campaign manager, called to offer her a speaking slot.

“I was over the moon,” McMorrow said. “I’ve never spoken to an arena before.”

This is not the first time the metro Detroit legislator has seized the attention of the nation, however. Back in April 2022, McMorrow delivered a speech on the Michigan Senate floor after one of her Republican colleagues in a fundraising email called her a groomer for her efforts to support LGBTQ+ rights in the state.

McMorrow’s speech received over 9 million views in 24 hours and was praised by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden. And next year, McMorrow has a book of her own coming out, “Hate Won’t Win: Find Your Power and Leave This Place Better Than We Found It.”

McMorrow said people can call her whatever they want, but she knows exactly who she is.

“I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom. I want my daughter to know that she is loved, supported and seen for whoever she becomes. I want her to be curious, empathetic and kind. People who are different are not the reason that our roads are in bad shape after decades of disinvestment, or that health care costs are too high, or that teachers are leaving the profession,” McMorrow said. “We cannot let hateful people tell you otherwise, to scapegoat and deflect from the fact that they are not doing anything to fix the real issues that impact people’s lives and I know that hate will only win if people like me stand by and let it happen.”

It was her 2022 speech, where she talked about family, identity and her mother’s commitment to service in her local community, that McMorrow believes caught the attention of the Harris campaign as they looked for someone who could disseminate the lengthy Project 2025 into simple language.

“I want to tell you about just one aspect of Project 2025, it’s plan to turn Donald Trump into a dictator,” McMorrow told the DNC crowd, referencing a section of the plan where she said Trump would change the rules to be allowed to get rid of federal employees for political reasons.

“That doesn’t sound that scary, right? But here’s what it actually means in plain English,” McMorrow said. “If Donald Trump gets back into the White House, he’s going to fire civil servants like intelligence officers, engineers and even federal prosecutors if he decides that they don’t serve his personal agenda. They’re talking about replacing the entire federal government with an army of loyalists who answer only to Donald Trump.”

This year, the Democratic Party is taking a talking to “friends at a bar” approach to conveying their message, McMorrow said — and Midwesterners are the natural experts on that particular mode of communication. (The convention also is taking place in the Windy City).

“I think for so long, the Democratic Party, not entirely of its own fault, has been sort of painted as elitist and out of touch with the majority of the country. And when you have so many Midwestern voices at the table, it is reaching out to the way that we know how to lead, which is more fun and a little goofy,” McMorrow said, hailing Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as the epitome of Midwestern leadership.

“You’ve got a guy like Tim Walz who can be a dad and a football coach and loves his daughter and makes goofy videos, and that’s really exciting. And I can’t wait to have that much Midwest energy in the White House,” McMorrow said.

Michigan, the lake-encrusted jewel of the Midwest, not only continues to be a pivotal battleground state in presidential elections, but this year is home to an open race that could determine the partisan majority in the U.S. Senate. 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has played a prominent role in national politics, co-chairing President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign before he dropped out. She’s still a top surrogate for Harris and was the only Democrat on the VP shortlist for Biden and Harris. 

On Thursday, Whitmer is slated to speak at the DNC, following other Michigan leaders like U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Twp.), U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and UAW President Shawn Fain.

“The election is going to come down to Michigan. We are going to be one of the deciding states for what happens, not only in the presidential race, but every race down the ballot. … And I think the fact that we were given, and are going to be given throughout the week, such prominent space at the convention signals, not only a recognition of how important we are electorally, but that we’ve done a lot that’s worth paying attention to,” McMorrow said. 

Specifically, the fact that Democratic women lead all three of Michigan’s statewide offices is particularly worth recognizing, McMorrow said, referring to Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel.

“I think the way that women are leading in Michigan is something that has attracted a lot of attention, that we are pragmatic and practical. We don’t put up with anybody’s B.S. and I think that’s a stark contrast to maybe some of the traditional party stalwarts in the past,”McMorrow said. “So it’s just a real honor that we, throughout the week, are playing a prominent role in a way that hopefully is showing not only Democrats, but people around the country a different version of leadership that is very Michigan, and I think worth replicating.”

Though she was born in New Jersey, McMorrow attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and now calls Michigan home. She notes that inclusion is the hallmark of the Midwestern identity, which is why Pennsylvania is part of the Midwest in her eyes.

Pennsylvania’s delegation even made room for her husband, Ray Wert, to sit front and center to watch her speech Monday, McMorrow said. The group welcomed him and chatted about what Pennsylvania and Michigan have worked on together.

“The Midwest vibes are very strong,” McMorrow said.

Wert also posted on social media during second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s Tuesday night speech about Harris that the two men have a lot in common.

Meanwhile, their daughter will likely watch the speech later when they get back, McMorrow said, inevitably re-creating slamming the book with her toys.

And while Republican political commentator Dave Urban said after Monday on CNN that the convention is leaving out white, working-class voices in favor of women of color, McMorrow said the DNC is showing a different vision of the future than the “caricature of macho-masculinity and of grievance and anger” that the Republican National Convention presented last month.

“If you want to fit into this narrow vision of the future that really centers, Hulk Hogan ripping off his T-shirt as what it means to be an American, that’s fine. That’s the vision for you. If you want anything else that is represented in what we’re putting on display at our convention, I think it’s just really exciting. And women are leading that, and I think that it’s energizing,” McMorrow said. 

“It’s also not the center of the conversation. It’s just accepted now, and I think, to me, thinking back to 2016 that is a wildly different experience,” she added, referring to when Clinton was the first woman nominated for president by a major party. “That just means you can exhale a little bit instead of kind of walking on eggshells about what it means to be a woman in office or in leadership.”

Midwestern values are values of unity, McMorrow said, which is why as she was waiting to do a different interview after her speech, the legislators from Michigan’s mortal enemy in sports, Ohio, leaned over to say hi and exclaim how proud they were of her.