William Lawrence, the Democratic nominee in one of the country’s most competitive House races in Michigan, deleted hundreds of old social media posts in which he embraced police and prison abolition, called for nationalizing fossil-fuel companies to end their production, attacked moderate Democrats and argued for a “fundamental overhaul” of the Constitution.
Other deleted posts show Lawrence writing “f**k” the nuclear-family home and calling it an “isolating, individualistic, violent way of organizing society,” envisioning “a world of free and open migration,” and calling to “Abolish the Senate.”
Lawrence even wrote a song inspired by moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s resistance to Democrats’ climate agenda: “Our generation says f**k you for everything,” Lawrence wrote in lyrics he posted in December 2021. “Hurry up and die so that we can get started.”
The deleted posts, most of which have not been previously reported and came under a previous Twitter handle, stretch back years to when Lawrence, now 36, was building his career as a progressive organizer as an original co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, helping propel the Green New Deal into Democratic politics in 2018.
Since winning the Democratic primary in August, he’s now the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, running against incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Barrett, who is seeking to win his first reelection.
