Mallory McMorrow Wants Democrats to Reclaim the American Dream

Mallory McMorrow has been considered an up-and-comer in the Democratic Party since 2022, when she went viral after a speech responding to Republican attacks that she was a "groomer" for supporting trans kids. On April 2, the Michigan state senator announced she is launching a campaign for the U.S. Senate seat that will be vacated by the retiring Democratic incumbent Gary Peters.

"We need new leaders," McMorrow, 38, says in a video announcing her candidacy. "Because the same people in D.C. who got us into this mess are not going to be the ones to get us out of it."

TIME spoke to McMorrow earlier in March, as she was contemplating a Senate run, about her party's messaging mistakes, the story the Democrats should be telling, and how to reclaim the American dream.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

So what went wrong for the Democrats, and how can they fix it?

I think people just do not know what Democrats stand for and what Democrats are actually going to do for them. And I don't know if it's PTSD, I don't know if it's just struggling with how to manage this moment, but watching Democrats fall back into talking exclusively about what Donald Trump is doing and what Elon Musk is doing, it does not give the alternative vision or a reason to positively vote for Democrats. I think at this point everybody knows who Donald Trump is. We need to say who we are and what we stand for, and we haven't done that.

What do you think is the positive vision? What is the reason to vote for Democrats?

Democrats fight for the American dream. The idea that if you work hard, you get a good education— which should be available no matter where you are—you will be able to have a good life, afford to buy a house and raise a family, and in a place like Michigan, maybe have a place up north and go on vacation. We've just lost that universal value. We're the first generation that did worse than our parents. And I think people just are so angry with the idea that, ‘I did everything right, and I still can't afford anything, and I am never going to get to where I want to be.’ Democrats have to show that that is what we stand for, and we will fight for you, at a moment when the Republicans are just once again giving massive tax breaks to billionaires.

So how specifically should Democrats do that?

You have to do contrast, and that isn't just to say, ‘Donald Trump is bad.’ Something that has been really frustrating for me is watching Democratic messaging talk about things like tax cuts for billionaires as if it is just free money that falls out of the sky. We have to made it abundantly clear: these are our taxpayer dollars as Michiganders that go to Washington, and then the Republicans are turning around... and giving your money to Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. This is reverse Robin Hood at its grossest.

And what Democrats want to do—we've been doing this here in Michigan—is we expanded the earned income tax credit. We have vastly expanded childcare. We passed the first permanent funding in the state budget to expand housing units across the state. We are on the path to universal pre-K. We recognize that for a lot of people, the American dream is no longer an option, and we are fighting to make sure that you have good schools, you have enough housing, you have solid infrastructure so that you can realize the American dream again.

What do you wish Democrats would stop talking about?

I wish Democrats would stop talking about Donald Trump in extremes. Throughout a lot of the 2024 election, the message from Democrats was, ‘Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy, and he is a fascist, and if you vote for him, democracy will end.’ And the perception that people took away is that that means it will end immediately. And then when you turn around and you're attending the State of the Union and maybe you're wearing a pink blazer, but you're still there, and you're treating it like somewhat normal, you are losing trust with people because you are perceived as the boy who cried wolf.

The last time the Democrats had a robust internal policy debate, it was about health care during the 2020 election. What issue should be at the core of the Democrats agenda moving forward?

Talking exclusively about healthcare was too in the weeds. I really focus on the American dream because it is that aspirational vision that I think people are missing. Healthcare is just one piece of it. Everybody wants to know that they can afford to go to the doctor, or if they have an emergenc they can go to the ER and not end up bankrupt. But there's a lot more to life than that.

It feels like Democratic messaging is always about the bare minimum. I constantly get draft mailers in my office that say things like, ‘Democrats are fighting so you could put food on the table.’ That is the bare minimum. That is not aspirational. And I think that has left a massive vacuum where, you may not like Donald Trump or Elon Musk, but there is something aspirational to the idea that if I work hard enough, I want to be rich. And look, they're rich and successful, and maybe we should have them in charge.

What's the story that Democrats should be telling?

We are dealing with an Administration who for the next few years is going to be robbing from you, taking your hard-earned dollars to give it to the wealthiest. They are robbing you of your American dream. And the reason to change in the next two years, in the next four years, is to get that future back for you.

Most people are tired of how chaotic and crazy everything is, and they just want it to be normal. So if you can present a very normal, very American future to people, that's really appealing. I can tell you, based on the reaction on the ground right now, regardless of party, people are anxious and angry, and that's not sustainable.

I think that if you look at the results of the 2024 election and how and where Democrats lost, it wasn't just with one group of people. It was small enough numbers of people across every single demographic, across every county, across every state, you know, basically every age bracket, except black women. Which said to me that even if you are somebody who's struggling to put food on the table, your aspiration is still the same as everybody else. Your aspiration is not, 'Well, I just want to pay the bills and put food on the table.' It's, 'I want to be able to work myself out of this situation to where I have a house in a great community and my kid is going to a great school.'

We spend too much time just talking about the individual policy pieces that impact the most vulnerable, when really the message is universal and the same. And Democratic messaging too often talks about people's worries. And I think it keeps people in that state of anxiety. People want to be comfortable.

You came to national prominence for the floor speech you gave about defending trans kids. Now the landscape around that issue has changed a bit, and some Democrats are questioning whether putting trans equality so close to the center of their priorities has alienated people, or has been a mistake. What do you think about that?

I think that that's bull---t, because Democrats did not make these issues the center of our agenda. Republicans made it the center of Democrats' agenda. Donald Trump spent millions and millions and millions of dollars on one ad: 'Kamala Harris is for they/them and Donald Trump is for you,' right? Where I think Democrats go wrong is taking the bait and falling into the trap. I think the right answer in this moment is to say, unequivocally: yes, sports should be fair, but is that an issue that a politician should be deciding? In the same way that a politician should be deciding whether or not you have reproductive rights and what you can do with your own body? No, I think that a local sports governing body is the best place to make those decisions.