Congressman Tom Barrett: 'Being a socialist should disqualify him for people's consideration in my district'

Control of Congress may very well run through Michigan's seventh district.

Anchored by Lansing, the state capital, it features a large blue city, surrounded by reddish suburbs, and deep red rural areas.

It is consistently described as one of the closest swing districts in the country.

Freshman Congressman Tom Barrett narrowly won the district in 2024, and is now locked in a tight race with William Lawrence, an activist and founder of the climate change-focused Sunrise Movement.

Barrett is a 21-year Army veteran helicopter pilot, who served numerous deployments overseas, before returning to Michigan and spending nearly a decade in the state legislature.

7 REPUBLICANS REBEL AGAINST TRUMP, VOTE WITH DEMS TO REIN IN IRAN WAR POWERS The race has recently been roiled by a series of controversial social media posts.

In some of them, Lawrence called the nuclear family "an isolating, violent way of organizing society" and praised campaigns to abolish the police.

He now claims that his views have changed.

Barrett argues that the newfound shift is about political expediency, not genuine conviction: "I think we got to take him at his word that this was his absolute true ideology and it wasn't just this one statement that he made.

He made repetitive statements against police, calling to not just defund but abolish the police altogether.

He wanted to throw open the borders.

He said if we're a humane country, we've got to throw open the borders and redistribute all of the wealth.

"He called the nuclear family a violent way to organize society, as you said.

Countless other statements that he's made and other things that he has done that show a pattern of behavior that this is not an isolated incident.