William Lawrence, the Democratic nominee in one of the country’s most competitive House races, deleted hundreds of old social media posts before launching his campaign that showed him supporting a world without police and prisons, open borders, government takeover of fossil-fuel companies and the abolition of the U.S. Senate. The posts also show Lawrence repeatedly attacking the nuclear family, including describing the traditional family home as an “isolating, individualistic, violent way of organizing society.”
Lawrence, 36, is challenging Republican Rep. Tom Barrett in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, a closely divided seat previously represented by now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin. President Donald Trump carried the district by less than two points in 2024. Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, won the Democratic nomination in August. The deleted posts, uncovered by CNN’s KFile and made under a previous Twitter handle, stretch back several years.
In December 2021, Lawrence posted lyrics to a song he said was inspired by then-Sen. Joe Manchin’s opposition to Democrats’ Build Back Better agenda. The lyrics included the line “Fuck you..hurry up and die.” Lawrence also repeatedly criticized the nuclear family. In one post he wrote, “F**k isolation and the nuclear family domicile,” calling the nuclear-family home an “isolating, individualistic, violent way of organizing society.” “I don’t want to be part of that,” he added.
In another, Lawrence argued that the “hetero-patriarchial nuclear family” is a “MATERIAL foundation of wealth accumulation” because inheritance was concentrated through male family lines, while “Queer families create MATERIAL conditions for solidarity and wealth sharing,” adding “But y’all ain’t ready for that convo…”
His posts extended beyond family structure to immigration, capitalism and the American political system. On Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2020, Lawrence thanked indigenous writers and organizers who he said helped him “imagine a world beyond the nation-state and capitalism… May the 21st century begin an indigenous millennium.” In another post, he envisioned “a world of free and open migration.” Asked, “You mean, ANYBODY can move ANYWHERE??” Lawrence replied, “Yes!”
Lawrence also targeted fellow Democrats. In January 2020, he wrote that he was “ashamed to be represented” by Slotkin and called her a “supposed Democrat.” He later encouraged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, writing, “AOC primary Chuck Schumer challenge! Leadership have failed their jobs. It’s time for the Dem civil war to rage.”
His positions at the time also extended to policing and energy policy. In 2021, Lawrence praised a Minneapolis activist group’s “defund the police” campaign for bringing the country “nearer to a world without police and prisons.” He also called for remaining fossil-fuel production to be wound down through “forced nationalization.”
Lawrence has since distanced himself from several of those positions. In a statement provided to CNN, he said: “Like many millennials, I’ve done my fair share of thinking out loud on the internet. I’ve been clear that I disagree today with some things I posted in the past. I don’t support defunding the police or open borders. I don’t agree with my previous statement about Senator Slotkin, who has been fiercely critical of the Trump administration’s war in Iran and is doing essential work to protect the integrity of the upcoming election. I remain a staunch critic of the political status quo, and the obscene concentration of wealth and power that corrupts our politics and leaves working people unrepresented.”
He previously told Semafor that his 2020 posts supporting the “defund the police” movement “are out of step with what I believe now” and told CNN that he allowed his Democratic Socialists of America membership to lapse in July, as if his long time association with the radical party just disappears when you don’t send them money. Lawrence faces Barrett in November in a race both parties consider critical to control of the House.
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