2026 Eastside Candidate Forum Recap with Donna and Sam

In this episode, Donna and Sam sat down to discuss what went down at the 2026 Eastside Candidate Forum. 

The Eastside Candidate Forum, held in partnership with SEIU Michigan, took place on July 18th, ahead of the 2026 Michigan U.S. House, State House, and State Senate elections.

At the forum, residents had the chance to learn where candidates stand on community priorities, local policy, and issues shaping Detroit’s Eastside.

To stay up to date on all things Authentically Detroit and watch the replay, click here. 

THIS WEEK IN THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE:

NO SHRI FOR ME: MCKINNEY BRINGS PROGRESSIVE CONGRESSIONAL HOPEFULS

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Up next on Authentically Detroit, we're going to recap the 2026 East Side Candidate Forum, co-hosted by Authentically Detroit, SCIU Michigan, and the Home Rule Project were candidates in the U.S. House's 13th district, State Senate's 1st and 3rd Districts, plus the State House 9th and 11th districts came together to discuss their stances on a number of issues impacting Detroit's East Side. And of course, what we're reading from the Michigan Chronicle. Donovan McKinney brought out progressive congressional hopefuls to Horace Sheffield's Bridge Center over the weekend. Their new tagline, their rally cry, no shree for me. We're going to dive into that race. And of course, Abdul Al-Sayed versus Haley Stevens. Uh, Abdul has asked his supporters to lay off the unkind attacks against Stevens while Stevens' campaign doubles down on claims that El Sayed has been misogynistic toward women. Keep it locked. Authentically Detroit starts after these messages.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

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SPEAKER_00 1:54

What's up, Detroit? Welcome to another episode of Authentic Detroit. We're broadcasting live today from our living rooms, dining rooms, from StreamYard. I'm Sam Robinson. And I'm Donegans Davidson. We want to thank you so much for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for real people here in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate, and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. The Eastside Candidate Forum took place this Saturday, July 18th, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It was a long day. We are days away, a couple weeks away from the 2026 Michigan U.S. House, State House, State Senate primary elections at the forum held in partnership with SCIU Michigan. Residents heard directly from candidates about issues shaping Detroit's East Side. Held in partnership with SCIU Michigan, the Home Rule Project. Together, we unified resident voices on issues that reflect on their priorities and give Eastsiders the opportunity to learn where candidates stand on community priorities. Again, if you missed it, be sure to check out the full replay on Authentically Detroit's YouTube channel under our live videos category. On the marathon that was the 2026 candidate forum, Donna, we have to shout out Sarah Johnson and we have to shout out all of the audio visual folks that uh were were um it was a sponsor. Talk about that sponsor and just how this all came together because it was really something that a lot of people were like, man, that was a really good job that you guys did getting all of those races in one day.

Donna Givens Davidson 3:22

Yeah, yeah. I mean, we we had so much frustration leading up to it because anytime you are trying to um get 30 plus candidates to show up um on one day, um, and you know, just sequence them all and communicate with them all, you're gonna have some snafu. And so I think I went in there with a lot of nervousness, and the day just smooth was smooth as butter. Um, I loved our audiovisual team. They did a great job. The sound was good, the picture was good, all of that. Um, proud of um Sarah just did an amazing job making sure everything flowed on time, everybody was where they were supposed to be, the room was set up properly, and um, you know, the the entire time you're having to, you know, dictate things and stuff like that. So I was really proud of the fact that we were able to pull it off. And on my way out, there's a candidate. I can't remember which one is that this I've been to a lot of forums, and this is the best one I've ever been to. And um, I certainly think it's one of the best. And one of the reasons I think it is one of the best is we're able to get people to talk about substantive issues without attacking each other. Yeah, um, because the focus is not the attacks, the focus is actually not even saying what would you do. Because if you like, what would you do? Well, I did this and I did that, and you go into your track record, it opens up room for people to attack your track record. We want to know where do you stand on these issues? And I think that's the appropriate thing to do. It gives people really meaningful information, but it's also our opportunity to put out our values and share our concerns. Um, so there was a report um that I'm trying to remember which news server somebody wrote, and they said we tried to ask a question about um about this, you know, Stillantis and the Mac Assembly Plan. I'm like, I don't either we asked the question or we didn't, and we got some really good feedback because they quoted all of these answers in the paper. Um, so I thought it was good. I was really proud of it.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Yeah, shout out to Sam Schreiber. That was the MERS news reporter who was.

Donna Givens Davidson 5:21

Yeah, well, I mean, she's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

She's been doing um really a better job than a lot of our colleagues covering these state legislative races. You know, it's a lot to, as a reporter that is obviously focused on the largest race in the state, the governor's race and the U.S. Senate race, um, getting the the story and the dynamics sharing to uh the public what's happening, the money being spent in some of these um state, house, and senate races. It's it's a difficult task, honestly. It is. It is.

Donna Givens Davidson 5:56

I just want to know what it means to try to ask a question.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

I yeah, I don't know. You have to ask Sam Shriber. We love Sam Schreiber over here, so uh I don't I don't dislike Sam Shriber.

Donna Givens Davidson 6:05

I just felt like it was a little bit of a dig, and maybe it is not yeah, I haven't read it yet, but yeah. Well, I read it, I read it, and it's just a little question, it's not a big deal. Um, but it would suggest that we didn't know how to ask questions, and maybe I just read too much into it. Maybe it's a typo, but I think that we got really good responses to that question.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Yeah, um, I think you know, especially with the the all the candidates in the state Senate district three, the east side um seat where I you know we're uh we're gonna be voting for all those candidates showed up. I think what eight candidates showed up?

Donna Givens Davidson 6:42

Uh I think it was nine. Eight or nine.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Yeah. 10 people on the ballot, and nine showed up. And to be able to get it done in the amount of time that that we did, um, I thought that was impressive. Um yeah, a number of a number of uh candidates didn't show up, only a couple um in those races in the 13th with Shri Tanar and Donovan McKinney. Of course, Sri did not show up, and then in the first state Senate district, that's Detroit Downriver. Um, A Bayash showed up, and then Justin and Unwenyu did not. We saw fireworks between Unwenyu and A Bayash when they first debated or had a candidate forum that was hosted by Detroit Action. That was at the Love Building, and outside the building afterward, uh, you guys saw the videos of them arguing in the parking lot. Um, none of no fireworks. Um, we did have some uh you know candidates kind of uh needing to respond to to other things. I think um some of the more fringe outsider candidates saying things that were just completely uh untrue and inaccurate um prompted some good back and forths um or or you know responses from some of the other more experienced candidates. Um, however, yeah, it was just it was a good time. It was really good to see um the the people that that came that had told me, you know, I I'm have my ballot and I just haven't turned it in yet because I've been waiting for this candidate forum to see who I should vote for in these specific races. And so um the the utility of these events, which I think a lot of the times they're not all that useful. I think this one really was uh just because of you got to hear how much candidates knew about these topics, these topics that are central to the lives of the civically engaged people within our communities that have to address these concerns, like the Kronos concrete crushing facility in in Cadillac Heights or um, you know, our our water uh affordability. You know, it was interesting to hear some of the Republican candidates that were like in the 11th that were like, I would support water affordability when you know that if you were elected to the state legislature, you would not support water affordability because you'd be led by your Republican leadership that would say, No, we are not going to subsidize poor people in Short.

Donna Givens Davidson 9:03

I think, I think one of the things that's interesting though, if I'm being honest with you, what I see is I wondered if there are cracks in the Republican Party, whether or not um with data centers coming to town and people being really concerned about energy bills and water usage and some of the other issues that um more people are aware of these issues. And it felt like there was almost bipartisan support around some of the environmental issues and water issues and housing affordability issues that you would not expect. And um, you see at the at the federal level, the bipartisan housing bill um passed. And it's the first big piece of bipartisan legislation since some of the COVID measures passed in 2020 and 2021. And so it really speaks to me of um perhaps at the ground level some changing politics. And maybe that's me being hopeful.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Well, but it was interesting to hear from Eddie Kabinsky, um, who's running in the 11th state district, as well as Matt Stafford. We did have two Republican candidates show up. Um, so shout out to them putting themselves, you know, in in the Lions.

Donna Givens Davidson 10:11

Eddie was there all day. I was like, he was like one of the first people there, and he sat through. And I was like, one of these days I'm gonna ask a question, he's just gonna get up and leave and be mad, but he sat there, he had to leave early. But the last question he answered was super interesting, Sam, because we were asking about ice. And he said, Well, he's a libertarian. Oh, you think I'm gonna be for ice, but I'm against them. They're untrained, they're unprofessional. And for him, being an army vet and somebody who really believes in the rule of law and stuff like that, it just never occurred to me that there are people who are who've been trained in military service who look at these undisciplined guys and say, you know, get off stage, you're no good at what you're doing, and you make us look bad. But I kind of got that from him. From Michigan's own Matthew Stafford, what I heard from him, Matthew Stafford, he's one of the state, right? Um, but Matthew Stafford, also running in the uh Michigan House 11th District, also in um South Warren. Um, Matthew also seemed to be willing to accept the reality that ICE needs to be reined in. In fact, probably one of the most um gung-ho persons for ice was a um was Cranstana Gina, um, who was really like, listen, these people have done something wrong and that you need to arrest them.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Yeah.

Donna Givens Davidson 11:36

And um there was that part of me, as you know, there are a couple of times when I felt unable to not editorialize. And um, so I apologize to listening audience. I tried really hard. Um, but there are a couple of times and I just felt like we have to put some things on the record, one of them being ice, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Um, because we know that they're targeting people based on the color of their skin. That's not something that we can really argue anymore, right? As a journalist, that's a neutral observer, right? I can say publicly, iCE agents are targeting brown people based on what they look like. Yes, we know that, and we know the Supreme Court has actually allowed them to do that. So it's not really a controversial thing anymore.

Donna Givens Davidson 12:15

It's not, and we need to acknowledge it. And we need to acknowledge what it is to live in a nation where you have to have ID because people talk about Nazi Germany, but I was listening to um a poet from Southwest Trade years ago talk about ice breaking in their homes and you know, chasing everywhere. And I thought of slave catchers, and I've never been able to get slave catchers out of my mind. This idea that you can be hunted down wherever you are, and that you have to prove that you are legally able to be here, and knowing that I had ancestors who could not prove they were legally allowed to be where, I mean, they were considered illegals, right? I mean, we didn't have legal permission not to be on that plantation where somebody was holding you captive. Um people are not illegal. Their existence is not, I mean, they are according to our laws, but there should never be a law that says that your existence is illegal because it sends such crazy messaging. And it, you know, it they how do they get here and why are they here? A lot of times they're working for companies that are want cheap labor, and those companies never have faced any fines, they never face any prosecution, nothing. But the people who are getting paid pennies for the dollar, because you know, listen, if you're coming to Detroit and you don't have a green card and you're working in Michigan, chances are you're not getting minimum wage. Your occupational safety and health needs are not being protected, you don't have unemployment, you don't have workers' comp. You're working here with no real rights, understanding that if you make the boss mad, you can be kicked out of the nation and it'll harm your family. So there's a benefit to employers bringing people like that. And if the concern is that they're taking jobs, somebody is giving them those jobs. And the entities giving them those jobs are doing so, not out of the kindness of their heart, but because they don't want to have to pay other people. And so it's a very emotional issue for many of us, me included. I would say, um, I know we have to move on, that my aunt is Guatemalan. She and my uncle married in the 1960s. Um, when she came to Detroit as an exchange student, she was a medical student in Guatemala when she met my uncle, and he met her and had to marry her. Um, and so she had me read a book, Bitter Fruits, where she it talks about how the United States helped overthrow the president of Guatemala when she was graduating from high school. And there has been revolution ever since. And so, growing up, she always had people from her family and the community who she helped um move to America, and they're American citizens now, and so they're my extended family, and they would not be allowed in today from Guatemala, and so it is deeply personal to me. I was a little girl looking at those people in these homes. It's not, and anybody who's seen that, you know, it just is. And so anyway, kind of got but but I want to stick to that on it.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Yeah, it's a personal issue, and you know, we heard a range of of thoughts. Um, you know, something that Abdul El Sayyed has been saying in his um primary race up against Haley Stevens is that he doesn't really believe in the left-right dichotomy that you know more people are um sort of all over the place politically. I think um, yeah, I think Eddie and Matthew are are good examples of that, being in majority democratic spaces. Um, you know, Eddie has he told me he's worked with Democrats his entire life. Um there is overlap, he told me, with some some of the the values and um positions, but it was interesting. And of course, he had his Anthony Hudson hat on, the fix Michigan. Anthony Hudson, of course, left the Republican uh primary for governor to run as a libertarian. So Eddie is also more of a libertarian than he is a MAGA. Um you know, he talked about I'm I'm the real conservative grassroots establishment, right? But just interesting that those voices um, you know, have a place. Um, you know, Don, it's it's really remarkable, honestly, that we were able to get both sides of that 11th district primary where you see these Democratic candidates don't even want to show up because they're afraid of getting clipped or getting you know a viral moment against them on social media. I think that was certainly what powered um uh Sri Tandar and Justin Unwenny's decision not to show up.

Donna Givens Davidson 16:53

Well, I mean, Sri's never shown up for a debate, he's never ever engaged in a debate with an opponent. Sri just buys his um stuff. So Sri doesn't want to be accountable for what he says. He's telling just tremendous amount of lies, and it really bothers me because run on your principles, run on what you think, run on your track record, but you cannot muddy somebody's tracker with the lie and have that be okay with me. And I feel as though he does. Um, we had a debate, an actual debate in 2022, I believe, when he was running for Congress the first time. Yes, and he was the only one of the, I believe, 12 or 13 people who was running for 13th Congressional District who did not show up. He was one, only one, Sri Nanadar. He doesn't think he has to defend his record, but he says things like Donovan McKinney voted against the minimum wage law. Um, Donovan McKinney voted against reducing the minimum wage law. And um the he lost that fight because the Michigan um legislature uh reduced the minimum wage from $15 to $12 and had a slower adoption rate. That's what he did. He was standing up for minimum wage. And so um he did he can't defend that lie. Um the other thing that happened is Ayish came and I thought actually he did a very good job. Um, he's a he's a good public speaker, he responded to the questions very well. I wanted to see an open debate with um Justin Owen Owen, how many of you, who actually, you know, just graduated from Columbia Law School. So I'm assuming, you know, based on that, he can debate he can, but you know, the kinds of things I think um Abraham shared with me and a few other people yesterday and put it on social media, this MACA Abraham um thing that's going out that suggests that he is aligned with Trump and he is partially at fault for Trump being elected, and that he stopped the legislature for supporting voting rights. I mean, the kinds of stuff that's out there, and I think, you know, the concerns that I have about some of these races is that the people paying this money to produce these materials are doing it for a reason. And the reason is not good for the people who they are trying to support. There is an intentional um weaponization of long-standing conflict between black and Arab communities that they're counting on. It's divisive in the same way that Donald Trump and MAGA is divisive, and it feels like being divisive in 2026 is the thing to do. So we're going to get black people to be loyal to us because we're going to make them think this Arab person harmed or disrespected Michelle Obama or this Arab person stopped Kamala Harris for being, you know, um president. When Abdul El-Sayed critiqued the um the fitness program that Michelle Obama had, he wasn't attacking her. He was attacking the approach based on his understanding of nutrition and his public health background. And so it was not a targeted, but when you, you know, clip and paste and you just take a little thing out of context, you can make something seem any kind of way. Um, so that that was my feeling. What what else did you pick up on this on Saturday?

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Um Yeah, I I did think that the ninth that's Joe Tate's seat, Joe uh announced that he's retiring. Um there's not a lot of um um name recognition in that in that field of candidates, right?

Donna Givens Davidson 20:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

You got Anthony Eid, uh Tony Moa, Arthur Harrington, Willie Burton that showed up um on um Saturday. Rick Silva is running as the progressive candidate. He was not able to make it, he emailed us. Um Willie, I mean, on paper, has the highest name recognition because he's he's been elected. I think he's the only candidate out of that field that has been elected to a position in Detroit.

Donna Givens Davidson 21:14

I mean Anthony E was elected to the uh Michigan redistricting commission. So he was an elected official in a public body that helped redistrict, you know, all of the seats, but that's not he he talked about that. He says, I rec represent more people than it's like, yeah, but you know, I mean the seat that you were playing was not a um to represent them in a in a in a yeah. So so I mean he's been he was elected. I think Willie Willie Burton has high rank name recognition.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Yeah.

Donna Givens Davidson 21:45

Um, I felt like um Arthur Harrington came, he's a really good debater.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

He came really prepared to speaker. Um, I think a part of the criticism against him, um, and you know. People that I know I'm I'm just turned 29, so my um you know social is uh and and but but when he says just turned 29, what he didn't tell us on Saturday was his birthday was the next day.

Donna Givens Davidson 22:10

We would have had a cake or something. Oh no, that's okay. I should have known that, but yeah, go on, Sam.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Yes, I did celebrate a birthday. Um, you know, I I've known people that have known Arthur since he was in high school, right? And and his critics will say, Oh, he's been preparing for an entry into politics since he was in middle school, and this is he's you know, uh not doing it for the right reasons. I think you need to wait and see somebody's record, voting record before you start attacking them on what you think that they're going to do. Um however, I I think he really probably, you know, he he he looks strong next to those other candidates. Um, Bryant Hep as well. I mean, he was really eloquent in his delivery. I think I I hadn't met Bryant, I had seen his name and some of his um materials, but I didn't realize that it was it was, you know, this is like a wood bridge. He is really running to represent um the like higher income, uh, more educated. You know, that's gonna be his his base.

Donna Givens Davidson 23:13

Well, I think he's um actually, you know, I agree with you. I think I was really surprised by Bryant Hep and his strength. Yeah, he sounded good. Of course, he's the only white candidate, only white candidate up there, but he certainly was very converse on issues as they apply. I think he's going running to represent Detroit. Um, I think he comes from that group, but I think that he is on the he is an he's a progressive and he certainly brings his progressive bona fights, he knows the issues from a progressive standpoint. A lot of people say the progressives are you know not really connected to black folks, but you know, if you care about air quality, then you know, like you know, if you care about the things I care about, I'm not trying to um minimize people's role. Marianne Mahappy, for example, is one of the most progressive city council members we ever had, and she was a white woman. Um, and so many people learned and grew from her. And I feel like I let me stop here. I wrote a book, the Black Detroit Democracy Handbook, okay? I'm clearly a person who believes that black people should have democratic power, that we need to be organized to be better represented. So I am not ever going to minimize the importance of black political power and representation and having our needs there. But I also believe that coalitions are the only way that a minority of people can have power at the polls. Barack Obama was elected president based on a multiracial coalition. If you look at the percentage of people from every ethnic group other than white, he was elected the first time by dramatic majorities, right? And he also had, and he would not have gotten there without white people supporting him, men and women. Now he didn't get the majority of white votes, but he needed those white votes. And so um when Coleman Young was first elected mayor of Detroit, exact same thing, multiracial coalition. White people helped put Coleman Young. He didn't get most of their votes, but if you take 40% of white people and 90% of black people together, you're gonna get a win. Um we have to be honest, there is no real pathway for anybody to be elected in most state and federal elections in Michigan without that multiracial coalition. Yeah. That's true of District 9. That's true of District 11 because District 9 goes through what the gross points. It's Detroit and the Gross Points. District 11 goes through um that's um Donovan McKinney's district. And one of the Donovan McKinney's claim to fame, he talked about the fact, I think it was yesterday, I've seen him so many times, that he won every precinct by 60% or more. Here's a black man in a majority white community winning by 60% or more, and he's the only black candidate who was able to do that, I believe, in that cycle. And so hats off to Donovan for his ability to have that kind of cross-border uh representation. He understood the value of um coalition politics. You have Letitia Johnson, who's now part of the Working Families Party, Gabriela Santiago Romero, Denzel McCampbell, um, Donovan McKinney, Abdul Sayed, kind of, um Stephanie Chang, Ebony Taylor. These are people who have all come together and said we care about things and they come from different backgrounds, I think it's important. So I don't want to minimize Brian Hook because he surprised me too. I was like, who is this guy? He's pretty good. Yeah. And Anthony Eat was good. I want to give him credit. You know, I've known him. He is at CDAT, he certainly knows issues from the CDAT standpoint. Thought he kind of overstated his you know electoral background, but he was good in representing the issues. Arthur Harrington is just a really gifted debater.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

I mean, he he's got a skill, he's got he's got a he's got a skill in speaking and public speaking. I think you know he comes from a uh church background in which I think he's a he's an active participant and and is on stage often speaking. He's in senior homes, and I think he's definitely from my observation, um, he's he's deployed the most on the ground campaign of any of these candidates, right? I just see his campaign more.

Donna Givens Davidson 27:32

Yeah, he he he's reached out to me several times. I want to talk about Tony Moore for a minute because I love the way she closed it though.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Yeah, yeah.

Donna Givens Davidson 27:39

In her closing statement, she grabbed that microphone and walked out the audience and said what you had to say, and in her closing statement, she alluded to the fact that one of the candidates had tried to get her struck off the belt and she won all the way to the appeals court. And my understanding from her and others is that Arthur Harrington is the candidate who did that. I don't can't, and I asked for verification. If that's if that's true, if he did hire Robert Davis um to go after other candidates, that's unfortunate because he's strong enough on his own to do that, yeah. And that action could cost him vote simply because people may not feel they can trust him.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Well, it costs him the endorsement from the LGBTQ Democratic Caucus. Um it's a state legislative race, you know. I I get deploying Robert Davis against Solomon Kinlock. I don't get deploying Robert Davis against the state legislative candidates. When it's like none of these people are are big names. I mean, none of these people are people that you couldn't, shouldn't beat on your own merit. And so, yeah, definitely a weird decision to make. I think he's he's still learning. I mean, he Arthur is 23, 24 years old. I mean, he he is a he is a Wayne State law student who works out of Mary Waters' office at City Council.

Donna Givens Davidson 28:58

I mean, he's still learning, and I think there are going to be people that well, if he works out of Mary Waters' um office in city council, that tells you a lot because I don't know if it does. I I frankly, based on my conversations with him, I don't know if it does. What I mean is that if you're working there, then there are some old politicals like Sam Riddle, Sam Riddle are going to be advising you, and sometimes the advice that you get I'm not I'm I'm saying this. So this is me speaking for me. If you're working out of Mary Waters' office, Sam Riddle is in the room because I know that he's always been very closely connected to her politically.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

I don't know if he's connected at all to Arthur politically.

Donna Givens Davidson 29:40

That's I don't I said he's in the room, so you can disclaim all you want. This is me saying that you have exposure to old politics because what I was going to say is that that's the old political tactic, is trying to come after the enemy. And I think that one of the learnings, perhaps, that any candidate can learn is that you only do that if you have to. Now, in Mary Sheffield's case, Kentlock was coming at her, I mean, with bullets blazing, he was not a victim of that. He had Adolf Mango and others who were talking, saying many things about her in um in what is it, um Deadline Detroit? Where's Adolf Mango? Right. Um, and so yeah, I mean, I'm not saying that she should that she started that or who started it, but I don't I think that was more of an equal fight. It was a city council fight, and that one made sense to me. Because if somebody's coming after me and I'm reading Adolph Mongol, and if you don't know who Adolf Mongol is, you haven't been around Detroit very long. He is a person who helped get Carmi Kilpatrick elected after coming against him. So we're talking about people who know they've they've they've done a lot around here and they know how to make politics work, but to your point, it's 2026. It's House District 11, you don't nine. Nine House District 9, you don't have to do it, and it was probably him shooting himself in the foot to some extent.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Yeah, I I don't think enough people um because there has not been enough reporting on it. I include myself on the in the people that have not focused my time on contacting Robert Davis over this. I I should and I probably will. Um yeah, you didn't need to do that, Arthur. I think he knows that um now. Um yeah, I think Bryant and Arthur, um, and I we didn't hear from Rick Silva. I was interested to hear what his stump would have sounded like. He's he is showing up to you know Abdul and Donovan events, um, saying he's the progressive candidate in the House District 9. I do think that you know Brian showed up and and proved that he is also a progressive candidate. I think too uh the the the bag is still out on on Arthur, right? If he gets elected, um, you know, obviously on on in five days we're gonna see who his donors are. Um, but if he gets elected, um, I do think there, you know, it's not gonna be Mary Waters or Sam Riddle advising him.

Donna Givens Davidson 32:16

Oh, absolutely not. I agree with that. I think that what I'm saying though, when you have young people, I always worry about how young people get exposed to things and brought into politics because politics in 2026 is different. And I've been around Detroit long enough, much longer than you, and I've seen how these things get played, right? I've seen how people come out in the rumor mills and all that kind of stuff. I've seen Robert Davis deployed over decades. He's not new, okay. We know who Robert Davis is in our community, and so there's these people who have been very influential in political campaigns, and you can see it showing up in MAGA, whatever. And I'm not saying any person is doing that, but you can see these people who are just skilled at that, who are skilled at turning people, they're getting paid well in Detroit right now.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

They are Robert is a is is pay-for-play, right? And that's when his name is invoked. Understand that a political campaign or a person or group supporting a political campaign is paying for his services.

Donna Givens Davidson 33:13

He's paying for his services, it's paying for Sam Riddle's services, it's paying for Adolph Mangle's services, it's paying for Mario Morals services. There is a backbench of political consultants who have been doing these things for decades. I've watched campaigns. I remember when Sharon McPhel was running against Dennis Archer and they were able to get her on some stuff. And she looked like she was having momentum and they got her. You know, you raise your children in Southfield, you're not really here. I remember when um there was an article taken out in the Michigan Chronicle, look it up, about uh high-tech lynching of Kwame Kilpatrick, and there was actually a lynching tree and hoods when Kwame Kilpatrick was being criticized for some of his practices. And Adolf Mango posted that. And keeping in mind that Adolph Mango prior to that was coming out against Kwame. And after Kwame paid up, all of a sudden he became a surrogate. That's how Detroit politics are played.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Yeah, it's very sad. Like, think about somebody's like like your personhood, and you're just like selling out to the highest bidder, right? That's like really lame. That's like that's like this is the lamest thing. I'm I'm gonna break, you know, my journalistic neutrality here to just say, like, if you're a sellout, like get out of here. Like, that's just so lame. Like, have a value. We don't have to agree, but like just swapping your positions because oh I what? Like, do you have no no personhood? No, you're not, you know, that's like that's weak to me.

Donna Givens Davidson 34:41

And manipulating people's emotions, manipulating people on things is very personal to me. And so I don't like being manipulated, I don't like liars, I don't like being around people who are telling untruth. And if I think that what you're saying is untrue about somebody, I'm gonna look at you different. Now, I Arthur is a kid. I mean, you know, look, I'm be 63 in September. I'm not coming out against a kid. He is a kid, he's still learning, he's younger. Arthur is seven years younger than my youngest child, okay? So I'm not going to come out against him. It was not a good look. He did say, and I know I think his grandmother was there, and he pointed out his grandmother, and he did say that um that he was raised to love everybody, no matter who they love, and no matter who they how they identify themselves. And that was his attempt to clean that up. It was. And I hope that if he's elected, that he keeps that up. Again, I thought all of the candidates seemed pretty good. I thought Willie Burton is just not a good orator, right? But it was kind of funny when at the end of the closing statements, he accused Harrington of looking at all of his notes. He said, Well, I guess you just read all my notes in your speech. And it's like, okay, Willie, we didn't hear you say this, but maybe it's just because you're not the best orator. And I actually wanted to see Willie Burton's notes so I could see what he stood for.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

That is his thing, and you know, Willie is going to get uh who Willie gets, you know, and he's in there at the bus stops, at the liquor stores, at the gas stations, and there's really like gorilla campaign kind of tactic. Like he's in the streets being like, Yeah, I'm right here with you guys, like please vote for me. You know, it's it's compelling, it's a great story. I you know, I wish like the Atlantic or somebody would would just like spend a week with Willie Burton and have well. Maybe you can do that. I could, you know, do like a 2,000-word, like, you know, but here's what his his conversations with people are so interesting. And if you ever sit down, if you ever have the you know, you're lucky enough to to get a one-on-one with Willie Burton, and you sit down with him, it's so clear that his heart is in the right place, it's so obvious.

Donna Givens Davidson 36:50

Eric Thomas introduced me to um to Willie Burton on campus march just a few years ago. So we had a long one-on-one, and he was telling me some stuff, and he was gonna send me some stuff, but it was dangerous, and he didn't, you know. Willie is an interesting person, and um he definitely, like you said, he brings this man on the street perspective, and I think it's important for us to get that. There were a couple candidates who did that. Let's talk about um Senate District 3. Yeah, that was interesting.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Yeah, it was, yeah. All those candidates. Um, you know, we we had a number of um people wanting to respond to stuff that some of the other candidates uh were talking about. Um you know, I I think uh having all those women on the ballot, um well, I mean, there's uh quite a bit of men too. Is it a split? Is it even split four four to six or five to five? There's Kimberly Hill, not Ebony Taylor, Latanya, Garrett, uh, Tony Reeves, Corey Hall, Adam Ollier, John Conyers appeared. And then at the at the kind of at the midway point, Gary Hunter showed up and we allowed him to sit down and participate.

Donna Givens Davidson 38:03

Um you know, I thought that um it was interesting to me because I know um Kimberly Hill Knott from um DeFort Detroit's for environmental justice. Yeah, um, she seemed to be more industry friendly than I would have anticipated um in some of her answers. Um I thought Toy Nu had some good points. Um, he seemed to be attacking um City Council person Letitia Johnson and making yeah, instead of answering the questions we asked, using that as an attack point. So his passion came out.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

Yeah, he was attacking the people that were already elected and had already been there.

Donna Givens Davidson 38:45

That's a site, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Yes, he is trying to say, you know, that this hasn't been good enough, and everyone that has already done it, we gotta get rid of Adam Ollier, of course. Even I mean, honestly, I kind of like thought, and I think John too, John Conyers the third, thought that he might have been coming after John Conyers, you know, the people that had been there and hadn't done enough. Um, but it was interesting. Uh, he certainly was, yeah, one of the more passionate, um, and poignant. Um, I've seen some of his yard signs around my neighborhood, but of course, you know, you pass by Chandler Park, and there's a huge Ebony Taylor love fest going on there with all of her family members. Adam Oligay and um Corey Hall, you would assume are the most funded, the the have the most resources. Corey has received endorsements from um Gretchen Whitmer or Debbie Stabenow. Um seems like he is the the governor's office's pick. He is the currently MDOC community liaison.

Donna Givens Davidson 39:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

He works for the state now, and so state employees, uh, including the governor herself, are are putting their um their support behind him over Adam, which is interesting because Adam also worked very closely with the governor's office. He was appointed by the governor um and of course worked as a state senator previously. He's already been in the state senate.

Donna Givens Davidson 40:10

Yes, you know, I think that Adam um Adam had an interesting response to ICE. He said, I want to give everybody um Michigan state IDs that if they get stopped by ICE, they can have an ID. And that kind of, you know, you know, unleash some other kind of stuff. I think Adam is a person who um has also got some really close affiliation. I'm not certain where he is right now with um with Wayne County um executive Warren Evans. Um, I think, but I think Adam's political missteps actually cost him some support this time around. Yeah, I think so too. Warren actually is supporting Corey Hall. Yeah, yeah. So I think his you sometimes you do things, and it's not just the fact that he had bad signatures, it's the way they were bad, right?

SPEAKER_00 41:01

Yeah, yeah, he did not hire the correct people to do that. I mean, you gotta go through them yourself, if not.

Donna Givens Davidson 41:07

Yeah, I mean you have to go through them yourself, and you know, but it was the people have bad signatures, and then you have um clearly falsified signatures where everybody has the same address, and so that means they shouldn't. You weren't doing your due diligence, and can I trust you with this? And so I think um Adam finds himself a little bit on an island he didn't expect to, and we had an earlier conversation about his campaign war chest, and somebody explained to me, I'm trying to remember who explained to me, and I found this to be true, that the money in his campaign war chest when he was running for secretary of state, most of it cannot be used in his run for um the Senate District 3. Well, it's a congressional that that was the the well, it was because the Secretary of State has higher giving limits. Yes, and so if you're going from somewhere with higher giving limits to something with lower giving limits, you can't transfer that money.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

As does the the congressional, um, and we thought we we assumed that he would put some of the money that he raised while he was running for Congress to into a pack. Um, but I I have not really seen he was on a billboard earlier this year, but that was like a month and a half ago.

Donna Givens Davidson 42:20

Yeah, I think that there was this expectation that he was gonna have more juice than he did, at least for me. I thought it was gonna be much easier for him.

SPEAKER_00 42:28

This was wide. Oh, it's it felt that right, and then Ebony's Bernie Sanders endorsement came, and that sort of solidified was in there before he got in there. Oh, yeah, I know.

Donna Givens Davidson 42:39

I'm saying but Ebony was in the race before John Conyers, before Joeinu, before Ebony. I didn't know the race was gonna be this competitive, and then all of a sudden, all these other people jumped in, and I supported Ebony um because I've worked with Ebony and also because of Stephanie Chang. And so um, you know, during that um forum, I certainly did not throw support behind any candidate, but I supported her, not understanding it was gonna be a competitive race. I'm just thinking, okay, it's gonna be her. And then, you know, you have all this competition, yeah. Um, you know, but there's a disclosure. I mean, I have to disclose it because my name is on one of her flyers in picture. Um, but I I thought that, you know, you had some good candice in the race. I thought Ebony did a good job. I thought Toinu did a good job. I thought Latanya Garrett did a good job, and I don't really know her, but I thought she held her own.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Yeah, I thought it was a great um I mean, even some of Gary Hunter, you know, which I like Gary Hunter.

Donna Givens Davidson 43:41

Gary Hunter is just Gary, he's not he's not a serious politician, he's a polarizing figure in our community. He's polarizing, he's not a serious politician, but what Gary Hunter is gonna do is give the voice of the man on the street to me. I don't think that he's going to win, I don't think he's threatened to win, but he gives Gives this anger, and I don't always agree with it, but I think it's good to have people who are speaking from outside the box because it kind of forces people to think outside that box.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

He's in a lot of our boxes. I mean, I find Gary Hunter in almost every single event that I appear in the city. He's an outsider, but he's an insider. And you know, I kind of feel similarly. So yeah, I am a you know, I'm a I'm a journalist also. He is publisher of the shot news.

Donna Givens Davidson 44:27

Yeah. Um, yeah. So yeah I thought it was fun. I thought he was he was fine. John was a little bit subdued to me, and I he said he was sick.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

He was holding back. I think he was holding back a lot. I made it, you know, my look turned that way, and he would look at me and be like, I'm not gonna say what I really want to say here. Um, I think he was respecting the other candidates as well, just trying to be mindful of the time.

Donna Givens Davidson 44:53

Um running for office, you bring up a game. Yes, um, I think that there had been some concerns that that he was intentionally excluded from flyers and stuff like that. And um, you know, I'm um do I do a lot of things. Um, in my free time, I'm putting together these mailing lists, trying to get people on the ballot. And you know, if you look at the times I'm sitting here, I'm sitting like 11:30 at night, midnight, because I'm done with all my other work and trying to, you know, track who get game new, but there was never an attempt to exclude anybody. I if we get a full race, that's a much better look for us than if we only get our favorite candidates. And so this idea that we were trying to, and I tried to communicate that clearly, we want everybody to bring their A game. And so I certainly hope that that perception of bias did not, you know, influence how he showed up because he said he wasn't feeling well, and I believe him. Um, his campaign manager said she was going to be there and she was not. Um, and you know, quite honestly, prior to this, there were um accusations made publicly that East Community Network is a transphobic organization. And I really worried that that was going to impact people's willingness to show up and that you know our reputation was under attack. And so the fact that people did show up, the fact that we it was not until 4 p.m., you know, we were out of there maybe at 4:30, 4:45. People stayed and stayed engaged, and so many people came from the community. I just hope people who heard that, and I hope that Chantelle and John now realize that there was never an attempt to be excluding anybody or to throw the race to somebody. This is not the kind of form where we're gonna ask a question to try to call a person out. This is actually the type of form where we want the people who are listening to hear what other candidates think.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

And quite frankly, if if I believed that that was your intention, Donna, I would not have participated, of course.

Donna Givens Davidson 47:01

And so I mean, you wouldn't be my you wouldn't be my co-host.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

No, I would not. Um let's take a break and let's uh talk about Donovan and Sri and Duel and these ads. Uh, we'll be right back with Authentically Detroit.

SPEAKER_01 47:23

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SPEAKER_00 48:07

Welcome back to Authentically Detroit. We are going to be talking about some of my reporting uh over the last few days as it pertains to the 13th Congressional District race between Tree Tanadar and Donovan McKinney. Uh, last week we saw Congressional Hopefuls Melat Kairos from Denver, Colorado, Chris Rabb from Philadelphia. He's a state rep in Pennsylvania. Both of these folks are backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. Donovan McKinney received that same backing today, Monday, July 20th. Last week, he was endorsed by the Metro Detroit DSA. There were pins, there were rallying cries. I hadn't heard it before. You know, shout out to Chantel and the the Bridge Center folks because they're good at making these political messages. No Shree for me, uh, was the the uh the the saying at some time. Yeah, and I had never heard that. I got a pin for my collection. Uh Shree Tanadar is why wildly outspending and widely, wildly and widely outspending Donovan McKinney in this race. He's a self-funded candidate, and we are seeing some of his ads very similarly to uh Haley Stevens in her race against Abdul Al-Sayed. Um ads that are paid for by outside groups supporting Canadar like they're supporting Stevens. Um, Donna, you've seen some of those ads and some of those mailers against Donovan McKinney. What do they say?

Donna Givens Davidson 49:48

Well, they accuse him of opposing the minimum wage. Um, they just make all kinds of terrible. I don't even remember all the accusations against him, but this is why, you know, I really do believe we need money out of politics. I don't believe a candidate should be able to spend their own, you know, $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, $400,000 attacking somebody. And I also think there should be some level of integrity behind ads. So with Shree, it makes me sick to my stomach. I was talking to somebody who said I was gonna vote, knew I was gonna vote for, and then I saw these ads and I was like, wait a minute. Um it's you know, and and you know, I I think that his refusal to debate the issues, to stand up to the community and stand on his political beliefs is problematic. And so that one just hits me in a really bad place.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

Yeah. Yeah, uh, I mean, the same thing can be said. I think a lot of Abdul Al-Sayed supporters are telling me that the Obama mailers and advertisements are just completely misleading. When I talk to you know, Jonathan Kinlock, the chair of the 13th Congressional District, Democratic Party, and the Wayne County Commissioner, he'll say, Sam, this is just fair. This is absolutely fair game. Politicians from all stripes have used Obama in their political ads, and he is right. Bernie Sanders in 2020 used Obama in a political ad.

Donna Givens Davidson 51:11

Clearly, Obama never supported Bernie Sanders's campaign as it to make it seem like I I don't know if I saw anybody use him as blatantly as Helly Stevens, because the ad that she put out there implied that she he had her vote. I support Hellie Stevens. He's saying that in this ad and saying all of these things, and so you know, people believed and said, I voted for her because Obama told me to. Yes. So run on your own record. I don't know. I think this is a Senate seat, this is not a Detroit seat, and I don't know that Barack Obama's endorsement plays for every demographic either.

SPEAKER_00 51:57

No, I do think he is the most popular Democrat in the world, in the world, but not among young people. I think people are voting in elections. Young people that hate Obama don't vote.

Donna Givens Davidson 52:08

I think that it's not even hate Obama. I don't, I'm not talking about hating Obama. There's a lot of younger people who voted for Obama and felt let down and then voted for Bernie Sanders and felt something. And so I think that you know, there's an assumption that young people are not going to vote and that 60-year-olds are going to control the votes forever. Some of the young people who they're talking about are 40 years old now. And so that millennial who didn't vote at 30 is 40. And I think that we can't make those assumptions, but I know that there are people who absolutely love Obama. He is very popular. Um, and there are people who also feel as the Obama politics are outdated, and we need a different brand of politics that is more, and that's what you're seeing in the divide in the party right now. I mean, what you didn't see is Mandami didn't run on Obama politics, he ran on something very different. And I think that that is a political movement sweeping the nation in many places, and those people aren't running on that.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

No, yeah, I think Obama's invocation in this race has been highly effective among a base of Haley's voters, which probably would have voted for her anyway, to be honest, because a lot of her, you know, elderly black Detroit base are not fans of progressive leftism, they're not fans of Arabs, frankly. I mean, I think there's a small subset of voters in Detroit that are conservative and racist. And I think that exists everywhere in every community, in every urban place. But I do think that that is what is powering. I mean, even in the ads, the attack ads on you know Michelle Obama or Gretchen Whitmer, there's an ad that I just saw paid for by the United Democracy Project, which is linked to APAC. Um accusing El Sayed of being a misogynist because he said that Michelle Obama's food program was uninspiring and that Gretchen Whitmer is bought and sold. You know, that uh but the narrative about his hatred of women, a lot of his supporters will ask openly, is that a part of the perception of him as a Muslim?

Donna Givens Davidson 54:28

Yes, it's it's definitely Islamophobia. They're playing into Islamophobia. I want to speak to older black voters in a lot of instances, keeping in mind that there are many people in my peer group, in my circle of friends, who are definitely supporting Abdul El-Sayed and very vocal and passionate in their support. But you have to remember that there's two factors. One is the devil you know, and Haley Stevens is aligned with the devil we know, the Democratic Party that has stood up for black people for over for decades in many people's minds, and it's been, you know, Bill Clinton's party, and you know, because Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, this this group of people who you trusted to fight Republicans, and now you have a whole bunch of progressives criticizing the one group of people you counted on to support you, and there's that fear that they don't love us. A lot of them are not black or white, but they are other people of color. America used to be black and white. You had black politicians and you had white politicians. And sometimes in Florida and Texas, you had Hispanic politicians. Now you've got Indians, Asians, and um and um Middle Eastern people who are seeking powerful positions and getting them. And I've seen some older black people talk about the browning of black power, this feeling that black people are losing out to other people of color, and this memory of other people of color also being racist. And so, you know, there's a fear of losing ground. The black congress, you have a congressional black caucus. We don't have a congressional people of color caucus. What happens when, you know, Rashida Talib and Sri Danadai are the two people representing Detroit, neither of them is African-American? That feels like a loss of power. When Stephanie Chang won, there are many black people who felt like, wait a minute, this is a black person's seat, Stephanie Chang is in. She took our seat. Rashida Talib, there are people who really feel like she took our seat. And when you felt marginalized, then any loss of representation feels dramatic. Haley Stevens is aligned with old school democratic politics that is really that binary white black.

SPEAKER_00 57:01

Yeah, and a lot, and it's interesting. I think the same thought that exists within the Haley Stevens camp about Abdul Al-Sayad being unelectable or being, you know, this uh, well, he's Muslim and his name is this way, so the white racist Republicans of Michigan aren't gonna support him.

Donna Givens Davidson 57:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:23

That's this that's the same thing that white racist Republicans in Michigan are also saying to themselves. Is it true? Is it true?

Donna Givens Davidson 57:32

Well, they say that about they say that about John James, and you know, I think the reality is white racist Republicans aren't going to vote for a Democrat. Right, right, right. A white racist Republican is going to revolt for vote for a Republican, they're not going to vote for Haley Stevenson.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

And it's about turning out the people who are traditionally undecided. It's about turning out who's not Republican or Democrat, they're just Michigan resident voters.

Donna Givens Davidson 57:56

Or turning out people who feel passionate. You have a lot of races that young people feel passionate about. When Obama was running, Obama would not have been president without young people the first two times. Okay. Young people helped animate his campaign. That's the reason why the Obama is all he's always had this affiliation with young people. I'm not suggesting young people don't like him, I'm suggesting they don't trust his politics, and that's two different things. But Obama won because of young people. If anybody is gonna win and be Arab, if anybody is gonna win and be progressive, young people are going to be the people who push them over the edge. And the question is going to be what will the election look like this time? Because if young people is showing up for Kamala Harris, she'd be president. Now, some people said if Elon Musk did not mess up the results, she'd be president. But if if the turnout would have been different if young people showed up, because what she lost was not necessarily Arab people, she lost young folks who just didn't vote, they didn't vote for Trump, they didn't show up.

SPEAKER_00 59:06

As Israel in the Michigan U.S. Senate primary in 2026, right? There's they're outspending anybody times 10. You know, it's like 12 to 1 right now, right? It's 50 million to 4 million is the TV ad buys.

Donna Givens Davidson 59:21

And you know what? Nobody, there's no amount of advertising in the world that is going to just help an Abdul El-Sayed true believer turn to Haley Stevens. There's no amount of spinning in the world that's going to make a Haley Stevens true believer turn to Abdul. The only thing that's going to happen is which one of them get their base out, which one of them get their voters out.

SPEAKER_00 59:43

And that's the scary thing for Democrats leading into the election against Mike Rogers, right? If Haley is the nominee, are we going to see? And I think it's shifting from are we going to see to if Haley is the nominee, she's going to lose half of the Democratic base because they're not going to support her. That's what I'm hearing from folks when I talk to when I talk to Abdul supporters, they say, Hell no, I will never vote for and I'm and I'm hearing the similar, similarly Arab voters that are telling me, I'm going to vote for Mike Rogers if Haley's the nominee. I mean the Democratic Party.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:00:14

Yeah, and it's very possible that they'll do that. And it's very possible that whoever wins is going to have to connect with the voters who feel let down and embrace them and show them there's room for them in their campaign. You know, it happens. But the other thing that's happening, and this is why I'm not that concerned, is that there are too many races at stake. You have too many races at stake, too many people who are running progressive campaigns, too many people who are running Republican campaigns, and you have the need to defeat the Republican Congress and to hold Donald Trump accountable because if we don't have a changeover in Congress in the fall, then all of these big, beautiful bill um, you know, things that were postponed until 2027 are going to come to pass. That's the real danger. Medicaid cuts don't really show up until 2027, 2028. So, and that was done on purpose so that the Republicans could survive the midterms before a lot of those changes go into effect. Um, I hope the Democratic Party hits those points hard so that people who are Democrats understand the what's really at stake. That we we vote for people who we like in in primaries. Yeah. And then in general elections, we vote for people who we vote for party or people who we think are going to defeat the people we don't like.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:41

Yeah, yeah. And I just again I want to ask openly about the electability question when you had Abdul Al-Sayed Niraj Work, who on Twitter, he's a free press reporter, just pointed out eight years ago in the Democratic primary for governor in 18, he got 96% of the vote. Um, in in the uh one part of Dearborn that went for Trump in 2024. Right. And so if we are going to be talking about electability, I do think it is worth really examining with some skepticism sort of the conventional wisdom that Abdul, because he's Muslim, that that is somehow a risk.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:02:27

I just I don't I agree with you, and I think that we should challenge that. And I don't think that we should vote for people because we think that the other people like them better. Um, we don't do a very good job of attracting Republicans to cross over to the Democratic side. I think vote your values, vote for the person you think is going to make the kind of change you're gonna make that you want to see. If you are a person who does not want to disrupt the status quo, Haley Stevens is a safe bet. If you're a person who wants to disrupt the status quo, Abdul El Sayyid is a safe, safe bet. If you want to vote for a person who's gonna maintain the Trump agenda, then a vote for Mike Rogers is a safe bet. We understand how these things sit, right? And um, but again, I think that there's this is noise. A lot of it is noise, a lot of it is really, really bad, you know, conversations taking place all across America where people on the left are just tearing each other up. Um, you're hearing people who are long-term strategists, I'm trying to think of the guy's name who came out and said, you know, well, um, who's Jamie? Jamie um said, oh my god, don't you if you don't like Democrats, don't use our people, don't use our resources, you know. Jamie Harrison. Yeah, it's people are hurt, and hurt people say things like that. And we need a healing uh if we're going to see anything good happen. Other than that, um, you know, this kind of, you know, mudslinging and character attacks. And, you know, Haley Stevens has done things I don't like. She said things I don't like. I think she's light years better than Mike Rogers, if I'm being honest with you. Um, Abdul El Sayyed is not perfect. He's light years better than Mike Rogers. That's the other thing. We're not going to get a perfect person.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:23

Yeah, so so you're not gonna join the uh angry Abdul supporters. If Haley's the nominee, you you you plan on fully supporting her over.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:04:32

Did I tell you that I'll be 63 in September? I've seen what happens when we use political retribution over and over and over again, the most significant time being I did not support Jim Blanchard, and we got Ingler, John Ingler. I just didn't vote. I'm like, uh uh Tweedledee, Tweedled. John Ingler was horrible and he made permanent changes to Michigan that cannot be undone. And I will always live with that on my conscience. So I think for me, I have to understand that as much as I may not like the Democrat who shows up, for me, I care about certain things. Um I'm I'm gonna vote for the person who I think cares about my community more than the other person. I'll do it in the primaries. I'm gonna do it in the general election. I encourage everybody else to do the same. I know you have to go.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:29

Yeah, we want to thank you all. And uh certainly if you want to appear on our show, if you have discussions, topics that you want us to talk about and tackle on Authentically Detroit, please hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or you can visit our website at Detroit-authentically-detroit.com. Um Donna, I want to thank you. I want to give my shout out this week to you and Sarah and the whole ECN team for doing just a fabulous job in informing our community um and informing really the state, because a lot of the a lot of folks have not heard from these legislative candidates. There's a huge Senate race and a governor's race that's taking up a lot of airtime and and uh print space. So thank you. Uh and and thank you, everyone, supporting ECN as we try to do the right thing out here. We're we're just trying our best, aren't we?

Donna Givens Davidson 1:06:24

Back at you, Sam. Um, shout out to you. It's the first time that you sat in with on one of these forums. And you know, it was a marathon session, and you know, it was great. And I just really appreciate having you there. It's kind of scary because, like, okay, we haven't done this before. Orlando's usually in this seat, and you came in and it just went really, really well. And so I was really proud of our team, um, all of us. And yeah, I mean, it's it's when good people come together and try to do a good thing, the change happens. And part of it is just informing people. Knowledge is power. Thanks, Michael. Um, thank you. He came back out of vacation on a Saturday to make it all happen. So that too.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:04

Thank you guys for showing up for us. All right now. We'll hear from you next week.