Matt Hutchison / news@whmi.com

Sen. McMorrow Says Man Shouted Antisemitic Slur at Her Husband, Daughter at Michigan Democratic Convention
HOWELL, Mich. -- State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, appearing on WHMI's “Meet the People,” shared a previously unreported account of a man shouting an antisemitic slur at her Jewish husband in front of their 5-year-old daughter during the recent Michigan Democratic Party convention in Detroit.

McMorrow, who is one of three candidates vying for the U.S. Senate seat left open by retiring Sen. Gary Peters, described the confrontation during a wide-ranging discussion that touched on antisemitism nationally and within the Democratic Party.

“At the convention a few weeks ago,” McMorrow told host Matthew Hutchison, “there was a man who walked up to my husband and my daughter. I was not there, just my husband and my daughter, and screamed an antisemitic slur at him in his face, in front of my five-year-old.”

She continued: “You can be angry about what you see happening in the Middle East. I am angry about what I see happening in the Middle East, but the second you decide that you're going to take it out on a neighbor, a Michigander, somebody here because they are Jewish? That's antisemitism, and we need to find a way to grapple with it.”

McMorrow is in a tight three-way race for the Democratic nomination alongside U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the former director of the Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services for Wayne County. The winner of the Aug. 4 primary will face Republican Mike Rogers in November.

McMorrow described the atmosphere at the recent Michigan Democratic Party gathering in Detroit as “tense and disrespectful,” and joined Jewish advocacy groups and fellow Democrats in criticizing El-Sayed’s decision to campaign alongside left-wing streamer Hasan Piker at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan earlier this month.

“If you want to go on his show, I have no problem with that,” she said, drawing a distinction between appearing on a media platform and campaigning with Piker. “But appearing with him to campaign for you sends a very different message.”

She said bringing someone “perceived to be antisemitic” into a campaign environment, particularly in the aftermath of the Temple Israel attack on March 12 in West Bloomfield, risks deepening divisions at a moment when she said elected officials should be working to build trust across communities.

Asked directly whether she believes Hasan Piker is antisemitic, McMorrow stopped short of labeling him as such. “I don’t think that he is,” she said. “I think he gets dangerously close. I think a lot of what he says is uninformed and hurtful. I can’t purport to speak for what he believes in his heart, but I can tell you, for my family, a lot of what he says is really hurtful.”

For his part, El-Sayed has argued that reaching younger voters requires engaging with voices like Piker’s, which often are outside the traditional media environment. WHMI has sent two invitations to El-Sayed’s campaign to appear on “Meet the People” but has not heard back.

McMorrow said the challenge for candidates — particularly in a state like Michigan, which is home to large Arab American and Jewish communities — is navigating issues shaped by the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Iran.

“What I know is that there is broad consensus across our residents, whether you're in the Jewish community, the Arab community, or you're just somebody watching with horror, that we want the violence to end. We want the war to stop. We want aid to get into Gaza. We want there to be a Palestinian state,” she said. “We want peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians, and that if we're splitting hairs over the definition of a word, that if you are somebody in the Jewish community who's lost family members in the Holocaust, it means something very visceral to you. And I don't want to turn anybody off from being on the team that wants the same thing, if we can build consensus towards the shared goal, let's do that.”

She continued: “I feel like this issue has become a third rail in many ways, instead of a humanitarian issue that it is, the United States must act as a moderating force with the Israeli government to end this war and end this violence.”

McMorrow also addressed breaking news around gas prices hitting a four-year high as a result of the war with Iran.

“People can't afford to make ends meet. It's killing us. And this wasn't inevitable. It was a choice we had (as a country),” she said. “You know the reporting that shows Benjamin Netanyahu convinced President Trump to go into war with Iran. Now, let's be clear, the Ayatollah and the Iranian regime were no friend to the United States, but there also wasn't an imminent threat to the United States that would justify us going to war.”

She continued, “We've lost service members, and the President seems to write them off as expendable. And people are paying for it back home, whether it's gas prices or in health care costs or in fertilizer. You know that's crushing our agricultural industry. We are paying the price for a war we had no reason to be dragged into.”

Despite the various divisions, McMorrow said she believes there is still more common ground among voters than the current political climate suggests.

“Everybody wants a safe community, good schools for their kids, clean water and clean air,” she said. “More than anything else, what I hear from people is they just want it to be boring again.”

During the wide-ranging discussion on WHMI’s “Meet the People,” McMorrow also addressed a host of other issues, including healthcare, data centers and AI, affordability and more. A separate story appearing Thursday will recap her comments on those subjects.