On a Monday in 2022, when Michigan State Senator and now majority Whip Mallory McMorrow woke up, she saw that one of her colleagues, State Sen. Lana Theis, sent out a fundraising email calling out McMorrow by name. In that email, Theis said, “These are the people we are up against. Progressive social media trolls like Senator Mallory McMorrow (D-Snowflake) who are outraged they can’t teach can’t groom and sexualize kindergartners or that 8-year-olds are responsible for slavery.”
Talking in front of an audience of more than 100 people Friday night at the Salem Church of Christ in Doylestown as part of a book tour for her new book Hate Won’t Win: Find Your Power and Leave This Place Better Than You Found It, McMorrow walked the audience through her reaction.
“First there was a lot of cursing,” said McMorrow, who is also running for U.S. Senate. “I was at my home office. Debbie Rosenman, who was a retired teacher, who was working on my reelection campaign, was sitting a room away from me. And she, as a retired teacher, intimately knew who my colleague was. My colleague (Theis), was the chair of the state senate education committee. So, I’m yelling back and forth to Debbie about what I was just called, and by whom.”
McMorrow then talked about how she came up with her viral ‘We Won’t Let Hate Win’ speech. According to McMorrow, the first draft of the speech called out the hypocrisy of Theis’s statement when the former Speaker of the House in Michigan, Republican Lee Chatfield, was currently being investigated for sexual assault. When McMorrow looked at the first draft, she realized there was a major flaw with her argument.
“I realized if this is what I say, if I get up and it’s ‘a Democrat says this about a Republican,’ and it’s just a spat back and forth, that nobody would listen. It’s just politics.”
McMorrow then decided to write about herself, her family and her background. She also said she wanted to make it a point that she is “a straight white Christian married suburban mom who knows that hate will only win when people like me let it happen.”
The message about using compassion and love to drown out hate was apparent from McMorrow, but also from the other two speakers who made appearances at the event, State Rep. Tim Brennan and Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta.
“All of us are here in this room because I think one of the best communicators in the Democratic party is Senator McMorrow, who had an opportunity, as we all will. That special moment that you don’t know when it is going to come, but where you step up and say the truth, even if your voice shakes a little bit,” said Kenyatta. “And I’m so incredibly proud, that like all of you, we have gotten to watch her journey and her story.”
While talking about the book, McMorrow said her main thesis was that everyday people are going to be the ones who implement the biggest change.
“It really is about how do we stitch our communities back together, how do we build power and how do we want to make the change that we want to see. Not on some massive level because I think when we watch the news every day and see headlines like the fact that Kristi Noem wants to start a reality show to grant people citizenship,” said McMorrow. “That can feel overwhelming. We are not going to stop that today but we can start building power right here in Doylestown, in our communities, in our school boards, in our city councils, in sheriff’s offices, in our judgeships and build back from the ground up.”
Kenyatta and McMorrow, who both famously carried out a huge copy of Project 2025 during the DNC last August, then had a 30-minute discussion about McMorrow’s book, about her life and journey, and also about the state of the country. When asked by an audience member about how to bridge gaps with Trump supporters and how elected Democrats can bridge the gap, McMorrow said, “I think if we can solve the issue of the fact that for way too many people, there is not no longer an American Dream. It’s not accessible. People do not believe it is available for them. And that’s why so many people were willing to vote against democracy.”
McMorrow then referenced a Michigan poll where 35 percent of respondents said Democracy was not the best form of government. “People look at democracy as a concept and they say ‘Well that’s the system, and the system is not working for me. So whatever this is I don’t want it. I want something else.’ So, as we get across Pennsylvania, across Michigan and talk to people, I think anchoring ourselves in addressing people’s very rightful anger.”
McMorrw concluded by arguing that if the government gave everyone the benefits it is supposed to, then more people would go away from authoritarianism.
“If we can get there and we get back to a place where people do believe in an American dream or if you work hard enough and play by the rules you can afford the house you want in the neighborhood that you want to live, and have good schools and when turn on your faucets the water is clean. That is how we get people to not want to cut these programs and not want to hurt people who really need our help,” she said.
After the event State Rep. Brennan said McMorrow’s event was valuable in how it gave community members actionable and pragmatic remedies to cure our ailing democracy.
“I think it’s a message that we’re all concerned about. It’s a message that we all want to believe, that as a government we have a role in improving people’s lives, and that we should do that for all people,” said Brennan. “I think hearing some nuts and bolts examples about where do we go from here and how we keep our values are important, and I think that was enjoyable.”
