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Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), a Detroit-area congresswoman since 2015, on Tuesday night became the 25th congressional Democrat to announce retirement ahead of the 2022 midterms.
Lawrence represents the Wolverine State’s 14th Congressional District, which borders the 13th District, represented by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Prior to Lawrence’s announcement, some political observers speculated that Lawrence and Tlaib could swap districts, following the redistricting that dropped the state to 13 seats and altered the makeups of both of their constituencies.
Now, it’s Tlaib’s choice. Will Tlaib run in Lawrence’s district, or stick with her current, albeit redrawn, district? State Rep. Shri Thanedar, who has self-funded prior campaigns — including an unsuccessful run for governor in 2018 — announced in November that he was forming an exploratory campaign to challenge Tlaib in her current district. More below.
Smith + Smith. Ben Smith, the Politico veteran who served as editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed for nearly a decade, announced he will step down as media columnist for The New York Times to found a new global news company with Justin Smith, who is leaving Bloomberg Media.
The project is still in its beginning stages, with no name for the company or details about where it will be located having been announced.
The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg joked that readers should “pat yourself on the back at having survived Ben’s media column days without him writing about you.”
mapping matters
Lawrence retirement opens options for Tlaib

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) conducts a news conference at the House Triangle to introduce a financial relief bill for federal workers affected by the partial government shutdown on Thursday, January 17, 2019.
With news of the retirement of Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI) breaking Tuesday night, predictions immediately shifted over the future of the two Detroit-area congressional districts, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Staying home? Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) lives in the newly drawn 13th Congressional District, which includes most of Detroit and some more conservative-leaning southern suburbs. Lawrence was redrawn into the 12th District. Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, could potentially run in the 12th CD, which includes Dearborn — home to the largest Arab-American population in the U.S. — as well as other parts of the Detroit suburbs and metro area, some of which Tlaib currently represents. According to a Tuesday evening report from The Arab American News, citing an anonymous source, Tlaib is planning to run in the 12th District.
Costly choices: State Rep. Shri Thanedar, who has self-funded prior campaigns announced late last year that he planned to spend $5 million to run in the 13th District, setting up a potentially costly fight for Tlaib should she choose to remain in the district. Tlaib’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the subject earlier Tuesday.
Poor fit? Ed Sarpolus, a longtime Michigan political strategist, told JI that Tlaib may lack a “natural base” in the 13th District. But Tlaib might face similar hurdles in the 12th District as she would in the 13th, Corwin Smidt, a professor of political science at Michigan State University, noted. The western portion of the 12th District also includes more suburban Democrats, many of whom are less aligned with Tlaib on cultural issues. “I would not put them as the natural constituency of Rashida Tlaib,” he said.
Casting call: Given Lawrence’s retirement — she is the only Black lawmaker in Michigan’s congressional delegation — state Democrats will also likely seek to recruit a Black candidate to run in one or both of the 12th and 13th Districts, local experts noted. Lawrence seemed to express support for such an effort in her retirement announcement video released Tuesday evening, saying, “As we have a new redistricting map, a new generation of leaders will step up. We need to make sure our elected officials in Michigan and across the country look like our communities. It is not lost on me that I am currently the only Black member of the Michigan congressional delegation.”