After primary debate falls through, Lawrence takes questions at Lansing town hall 

More than 100 people gathered in the basement of the downtown Lansing branch of the Capital Area District Library to grill William Lawrence on his platform as he pursues the Democratic nomination for one of Michigan’s most competitive congressional districts.

While the Sunrise Movement cofounder and tenants’ rights advocate pitched the event as an alternative to a televised debate, which his opponents – former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and retired Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam – declined to attend, Lawrence was the sole candidate on stage Thursday evening. 

While he emphasized that his mission is to defeat sitting U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) and support the Democratic nominee, whoever that may be, Lawrence took the opportunity to set himself apart from his opponents, stressing his campaign’s focus on getting voters involved who would otherwise feel left behind by the democratic process.

“I’m really excited just to have the opportunity to practice democracy with you all this evening, to hear whatever questions you have,” Lawrence said. “Easy questions, hard questions, there’s no dumb questions. Whatever is on your mind is very welcome here.”

Attendees asked Lawrence about issues like data centers, schools of choice and the immigration system, alongside technical questions on what he would look for in staff and what committees he would like to serve on if elected.

Lawrence reiterated his call for a federal moratorium on new data center developments to ensure that regulations are in place to protect people and the planet. When setting those regulations, Lawrence stressed the need for greater oversight on the power data centers generate on site, as well as assurances that these facilities will be powered by clean and renewable energy.

On schools of choice, Lawrence said that by funding its schools through property taxes, the state has set up a two-tier system, and that the way schools are funded needs to be reevaluated.

Lawrence said he supported the Invest in MI Kids ballot initiative, which would have amended the state constitution to place a 5% income tax on joint-filers with incomes over $1 million a year, and individuals with income over $500,000. While the effort will not appear on the 2026 ballot, Lawrence said a similar proposal should be considered at the federal level, while looking at what additional resources a rebuilt federal Department of Education could provide.

When asked about immigration and the backlog of 3.2 million cases pending in immigration court, Lawrence said border security and immigration enforcement needs to adhere to the rule of law, stressing that every person, citizen or not, has a right to due process.

“That is what has been stripped away,” Lawrence said. “We need to have more judges in the immigration court system, because a big reason why there is such a backlog is because they simply can’t get their cases heard fast enough, and that doesn’t help anybody.”

If elected, Lawrence said he would like to serve on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Committee. 

While there was an open seat for both of his opponents at the town hall, Brink’s campaign said she was slated to speak with members of the Clinton County Democratic Party at 6:30, just before Lawrence’s event was scheduled to end. 

“Bridget is the only one in the race that’s actually stood up to Trump, which is why her campaign continues to pick up momentum with new, major endorsements from former Governors Granholm and Blanchard and the Detroit Free Press,” Brink Campaign Manager Sam Boorstyn told Michigan Advance in a statement. “Bridget has welcomed the opportunity to make it clear where she stands on the issues that matter most at more than 100 public events and forums – including tonight at the Clinton County Democrats meeting.”

Brink resigned from President Donald Trump’s Administration in April 2025, telling PBS News Hour the administration was putting pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than the aggressor, Russia.

Maasdam Spokesperson Emma Grundhauser told Michigan Advance that Maasdam would be in attendance at an upcoming candidate forum on July 16 at the Eastside Community Action Center in Lansing, and that they were looking forward to doing more.

Multiple attendees asked Lawrence about his political philosophies and his plan for a path forward after the primary, with one woman asking him to explain a 2022 tweet where he summed up his ideology as a “social democrat in the streets, libertarian socialist in the sheets.”

“People talk about, you know, social democracy as the politics of the New Deal and the Nordic states like Scandinavia,” Lawrence said. “A belief in a strong social safety net and believing in capitalism, but you know, capitalism, that is held in check by a strong public sector, a strong labor movement that then is able to ensure a high standard of life for everybody, so that’s what I mean when I say social democracy.”

However, Lawrence said he also identifies with parts of the libertarian streak that exist within the United States, like the belief in small “r” republicanism, and the fear of “big brother” whether that’s corporations or the government, and a belief in the role of community life and self-determination in American politics. 

“People will call me a socialist,” Lawrence said. “Sometimes I call me, call myself, a socialist, other times not. Sometimes I call myself a progressive, a conservative, a law-and-order candidate, and I think I am all the above, but just that I believe that unchecked capitalism is killing people, and we all know the feeling of being squeezed on every paycheck or on every single bill.”

Attendees also asked Lawrence how he would reach out to those who had supported his opponents in the Aug. 4 primary, and how he would work to court independent and conservative voters heading toward the general election.

During his time working on efforts like the Sunrise Movement and The Rent is Too Damn High, Lawrence said he was always the person who drew the straw to go and sit down with political leaders they had been protesting to figure out what they could accomplish together.

“I’m just going to do what I always do, which is to try to extend grace, try to represent everybody,” Lawrence said. “The job is not to represent the people who vote for me in the primary or the general election. The job is to represent the people of this district.”

As for courting voters in the general election, Lawrence said he didn’t think his campaign would need to pivot much at all.

“There’s a lot to find common ground on with Republican and independent voters that I’ve already been finding by focusing on issues that are popular among the public, but unpopular among the billionaires and the political class,” Lawrence said, pointing to opposition to data centers and the war in and demands to prosecute those tied to sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as examples.

While concluding the town hall, Lawrence pledged to hold similar unscripted events at least once per quarter if elected.

Absentee ballots for the primary election began going out on June 25, and information on in-person early voting information is available through the Michigan Voter Information Center.