Brink, Maasdam join Lawrence for unity event after splitting moderate vote

Following a hard-fought primary, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam came together to support Democratic nominee for U.S. House in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District William Lawrence.

Brink and Maasdam split the moderate vote in the Aug. 4 primary nearly evenly, with 28.8% and 27.6% respectively, allowing Lawrence to win with a plurality of 43.7%, according to unofficial results.

Lawrence said both candidates called him Tuesday night and offered their full support.

He thanked Maasdam for “the fury I hear in his voice when he talks about the unconstitutional abuses committed by ICE” and Brink for “her principled resignation of the Trump administration and her focus on good healthcare.”

Lawrence said he will “unite and mobilize every single potential ally and resource to flip this district,” because “if we do not, the president’s attempts to establish an AI-powered surveillance state with permanently rigged elections may very well succeed.”

That includes fundraising efforts. While Lawrence said he will not accept campaign contributions from corporate PACs, “there’s going to be money from people that I disagree with.”

“There’s no purity in this, winning a general election in a swing district,” Lawrence said. “We’ve got to raise a lot of money.”

Lawrence said he expects the full support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, calling U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries the next speaker of the House.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel, who lost his own campaign for the seat to now-U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett in 2024, said the party will do everything it can to get Lawrence elected.

“The only opportunity that we have to take this country back is to take back districts like this,” Hertel said. “And if we fail, if we do not accomplish that, then it’s on us what happens moving forward. I want to end what’s happening in this country. I know you do, too. And the only way to do that is to get behind Will Lawrence.”

Hertel called Lawrence “one of the hardest working campaigners I’ve ever seen,” noting that he knocked more than 100,000 doors in the primary.

“He has been literally going door to door building a movement throughout this campaign,” Hertel said. “That is exactly what we need in order to win in November.”

Barrett congratulated Lawrence in a social media post Wednesday, saying he wouldn’t underestimate him as a general election opponent, unlike Brink and Maasdam.

But Lawrence said he doesn’t think Brink or Maasdam underestimated him.

“I think it was a tough-fought campaign and all three candidates worked hard and earned a lot of support, and I’m happy to have come out on top,” Lawrence said.

Brink and Maasdam did not speak at the unity event and appeared to mostly avoid interacting with one another, frequently standing on opposite sides of the room. The final week of the campaign saw Maasdam call on Brink to end her campaign because it “would be tough to be third in the race and know that you’re taking votes from other people.”

The three took a picture together after the event. While Brink mingled with audience members after, Maasdam departed immediately.

Brink said she was there to support Lawrence because Democrats winning the U.S. House is more important than the primary.

“That is the thing that is going to throw sand in the gears of the Trump administration and Donald Trump’s effort to undermine our democracy, make life more expensive, make healthcare less affordable and accessible,” Brink said.

Lawrence said he would be holding additional campaign events with Brink and Maasdam in the future.

While some Democratic strategists expressed concern leading up to the primary that the party establishment’s failure to coalesce around a single moderate candidate would allow Lawrence to win with a plurality, Lawrence praised the party for running a fair primary.

“It’s easy to put a finger on the scale sometimes, but you really didn’t do that,” Lawrence said. “You allowed the voters to decide, and that is absolutely essential at a time when we need to restore trust in the foundation of our democracy.”

Hertel urged voters to “join his movement,” saying, “I don’t care what side of the Democratic Party that you’re on. At the end of the day, we are one team, one party now.”

Lawrence said he is open to having conversations with voters who supported Brink and Maasdam to listen and learn. Even if they can’t reach an agreement on a particular issue, he said the goal remains the same.

“We can be united on this essential objective of flipping the district and electing a Democratic speaker of the House, and we can still maintain strong disagreements about policy matters,” Lawrence said.

Hertel, a former state senator, called Barrett “one of the worst people that I ever served with in the Michigan Senate.”

“I was certainly sad to lose the election, but I’m more sad for the country, because Tom Barrett represents the worst of what politics is,” Hertel said.

Lawrence said Barrett has been inaccessible and votes out of step with constituents on policy issues.

“We are suffering. We are struggling. The rent is too damn high, and we can’t bear it any longer,” Lawrence said, playing on Barrett’s last name.

But Lawrence said he will also stand up to Democratic leaders on issues like data center development and getting money out of politics.

“These stands are both principled and popular,” Lawrence said. “I couldn’t run as, and I don’t think anyone is really looking for, someone to move in complete lockstep with just one party line. They’re looking for someone who will represent the people of this district, and that’s what I fully intend to do.”

Lawrence responded to a question from an audience member about his decision to let his Democratic Socialists of America membership lapse by refuting “any attempt to label me in a way which is intended to divide or to frighten.”

“There’s a lot of things I agree on with a lot of people in DSA, but the fact of the matter is the national organization has a tendency of producing statements that are neither consistent with the general will of the membership, nor grounded in any clear and consistent political strategy,” Lawrence said. “And at a time we need to fend off all of these national media narratives trying to pigeonhole me into some box, we simply cannot afford that distraction.”

He addressed another audience member’s question about how he will make inroads with rural parts of the district, including Livingston County, by saying the strategy will largely be the same as in the primary.

“We’re going to do it one conversation at a time, like we do anywhere, and we’re now going to have a lot more capacity to reach every single corner of the district that we may not have spent as much time in in the primary,” Lawrence said.