Early life and education
McMorrow was born in the Whitehouse section of Readington Township, New Jersey, and graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School. [2] She was raised Catholic and her family was active in their local parish. [3] McMorrow sang in her church choir, and her mother taught Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) classes. [3] However, her parents divorced, and their priest said her mother was "not living up to the Church's expectations". McMorrow said that on Sundays, she and her mother instead volunteered at local soup kitchens outside of the diocese. [4]
McMorrow received a Bachelor of Arts in industrial design from the University of Notre Dame in 2008. [5] During her junior year at Notre Dame, she won a public design contest for the 2018 version of the Mazda3. She also finished second in a contest to design the logo for the Indiana Toll Road. [6] [7] After graduation, McMorrow worked for design firms in New York and Los Angeles, as well as for Mattel and Gawker , before moving to Michigan. [6] [7]
Political career
McMorrow participated in the 2017 Women's March in Detroit and began writing postcards to Betsy DeVos, the U.S. Secretary of Education, challenging positions of the Trump administration. She applied to Emerge America's Michigan chapter, which provides training to political candidates. [7]
In 2018, McMorrow ran for the Michigan Senate, seeking to represent Michigan's 13th Senate district. She was unopposed in the Democratic Party's primary election, and faced incumbent Republican Senator Marty Knollenberg in the general election. [8] McMorrow defeated Knollenberg, receiving 52 percent of the vote, with 73,138 votes to Knollenberg's 67,798. [1] [9] Michigan Senate Democrats chose McMorrow to serve as the assistant minority floor leader. [10]
In January 2020, McMorrow, lobbyist Melissa Osborn and Michigan Advance reporter Allison Donahue accused Republican state Senator Peter Lucido of sexual harassment. [11] McMorrow stated that Lucido touched her lower back and upper buttocks in November 2018, shortly after she was elected to the state senate, and made comments during a training session that suggested she won her election because of her appearance. [11]
In June 2021, McMorrow co-sponsored the reintroduction of Senate Resolution 60, introduced by Senator Jeremy Moss, which proposed declaring June as Pride Month in Michigan. The resolution was adopted. [12]
In April 2022, Republican State Senator Lana Theis claimed in a campaign fundraising email that McMorrow wanted to "groom and sexualize kindergartners" and teach that "8-year-olds are responsible for slavery" [13] [14] On April 19, 2022, McMorrow took to the senate floor to defend herself against Theis's accusations, stating: "I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom who knows that the very notion that learning about slavery or redlining or systemic racism somehow means that children are being taught to feel bad or hate themselves because they are white is absolute nonsense." [13] Neither Theis nor the Michigan Republican Party apologized for their accusations, and Theis did not respond to McMorrow's speech on the senate floor. [13] McMorrow's speech, which she uploaded to social media platforms, received over one million views just a few hours after it was posted. [13]
During redistricting following the 2020 United States census, prior to the 2022 elections, Michigan's independent redistricting commission merged McMorrow's district with the district represented by fellow Democrat Marshall Bullock. [15] In the primary election held August 2, 2022, McMorrow defeated Bullock for the Democratic Party's nomination for the 8th District. [16] McMorrow defeated Republican Brandon Ronald Simpson in the November general election. [17] On November 17, 2022, McMorrow announced that she would serve as Senate Majority Whip in 102nd Senate session.
On August 19, 2024, McMorrow delivered a speech at the Democratic National Convention and brought out a giant copy of the roughly 900-page Project 2025. It became one of the Democratic Party's most consistent tools against the campaign of Donald Trump and she said, "They went ahead and wrote down all the extreme things that Trump wants to do in the next four years". She gave her support to Kamala Harris for president. [18] McMorrow's debut book, Hate Won't Win: Find Your Power and Leave This Place Better Than We Found It, was published by Hachette Book Group on March 25, 2025. [19] [20]
In April 2025, McMorrow announced that she would run in the Democratic primary to replace United States Senator Gary Peters, who had announced he would not stand for re-election in 2026. [21]
Political positions
Often labeled a progressive, McMorrow instead calls herself a pragmatist. She has said that she would not have won her district if she aligned with far-left politics. [22]
Abortion
In July 2022, McMorrow said that abortion restrictions due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade would have prevented her from getting her IUD removed in an emergency procedure due to the need for dilation and curettage. She said without the D&C procedure she could have had permanent damage to her reproductive system, making her unable to get pregnant again, or it could have gotten infected and resulted in her death. [23]
Democratic Party leadership
While expressing respect for Democratic Party leaders, McMorrow privately wrote to Joe Biden in July 2024 urging him to step down from the ticket and has expressed the need for new leadership in the party, saying in an interview published in March 2025 that "it is time to have new leadership who can build up the muscle to respond to the moment." [24]
Economic Policy
As chairwoman of the Senate Economic and Community Development Committee, McMorrow pushed for more community investments in regional transit and childcare to supplement the state's traditional reliance on incentives for big companies for economic development. [22]
Israel-Palestine
McMorrow reached out to pro-Israel Democratic groups to emphasize her support for Israel during her candidacy for the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan and condemned alleged harassment and antisemitism of pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses at the University of Michigan. [25] When asked about the role of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in the Senate election she responded "two things can be true simultaneously... that Hamas started a violent war, and that war needs to end." McMorrow expressed support for a two-state solution, for the return of hostages, and for providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, saying that peace has been a hallmark of the Democratic Party policy for decades. [26]
In April 2025, she declined to say whether she would vote for further security aid for Israel without conditions, wanting to see the legislation first. [27] According to Jewish Insider , McMorrow returned policy papers to atleast one Democratic pro-Israel group by April 2025 underscoring her support for Israel's security. [28]
In July 2025, amid widespread reports of starvation in Gaza and rapidly deteriorating conditions subsequent to Israel’s blockade of food aid in March 2025 [29] [30] , McMorrow spoke out to say the United States has to stop providing Netanyahu offensive weapons as leverage until the resumption of humanitarian aid, demand Hamas to release all of the hostages and disarm, and lastly that the parties must negotiate a permanent ceasefire that they adhere to. [31] [32] McMorrow supports sending defensive arms to Israel, including funding for the Iron Dome to protect Israeli civilians, conditioning further sale of offensive arms as leverage for resuming humanitarian aid, describing hearing at campaign events "people not wanting their tax dollars to create a humanitarian crisis" and characterizing Israel's actions as being the fault of Netanyahu's policies. [32] McMorrow has publicly asked AIPAC to stay out of the 2026 U.S. Senate Democratic primary in Michigan, in favor of Haley Stevens and has said that she's been in contact with AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups. McMorrow said the groups have been "receptive" to her positions on Israel adding that "they understand the shifting dynamics not only in Michigan but around the country and the world, people are very attuned to the deep influence PACs have that outweighs the influence of people and voters." [33]
