The Democratic primary in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District — a Lansing-area swing seat key to Democrats’ hopes for taking back the House — has turned into a three-way battle between two moderate Democrats with national security backgrounds and a far-left activist who has emerged as a contender for the nomination  despite repeated controversies over extremist comments. 

On the campaign trail, Matt Maasdam, a former Navy SEAL, has leaned into his background as a veteran and a military aide to former President Barack Obama who carried the nuclear football. Bridget Brink, a career foreign service officer, is highlighting her service as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2022 to 2025. 

William Lawrence, the progressive backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), is a former organizer with the Sunrise Movement, which bills itself as leading “the climate revolution” but also embraces other left-wing causes. 

Adrian Hemond, a Michigan political strategist, said he expects the race to be close, predicting that the three candidates could all finish within several points of each other. 

He previously told JI that Lawrence holds the progressive lane to himself, which could be an asset if Maasdam and Brink split the moderate vote — but he could lose out on young, progressive-leaning Michigan State University students who won’t return to campus until after the Aug. 4 primary. Lawrence has also struggled with Black and older voters.

The race initially appeared to be a contest between Maasdam and Brink. Lawrence gained momentum and attention by scoring a series of prominent endorsements from Sanders and other progressive leaders.

But Lawrence’s rise hit a stumbling block with the re-emergence of past comments disparaging Black political leadership, which prompted condemnations from Michigan leaders and the Congressional Black Caucus. After those initial revelations, Lawrence subsequently came under fire for past comments disparaging Obama and his administration.

In past comments on the “Hegemonicon” podcast he hosted, first uncovered by Jewish Insider, Lawrence repeatedly argued, for the sake of climate and economic goals, Americans would have to abandon the idea of the American dream and their way of life.

Discussing whether and how ideas of “abundance” or “degrowth” could or should be part of an agenda to fight climate change, Lawrence said on an episode of the podcast release in January 2024, “we’ve experienced the last several years of how that got filtered through the lens of American global competitiveness and geoeconomic dominance and, some of these questions about the role of the American consumer on a global stage and and whether or not we are proposing the continuation of the American consumer way of life and its translation into China and presumably the rest of the globe, is really viable in a climate-changing world.”

“We made that move, and now we need to reckon with the contradictions inherent even in that move,” Lawrence said. “I’m wondering how we can inspire a sense of abundance for people in the United States while, frankly, destroying the American way of life and the negative connotations, and material realities that has come to mean.”

In a statement, Lawrence defended the comments.

“We’ve been told that we would achieve happiness by buying more TVs and taking on a bigger mortgage,” Lawrence said. “Instead, the cost of housing, healthcare, and education is skyrocketing, while Michigan’s land and water is under threat. We need a new version of the American dream in which we can all have economic security while leaving a healthy environment for our kids and grandkids.”

In another episode, released in December 2023, Lawrence said that “there are certain aspects of the American dream that need to die — but maybe that’s another episode,” arguing that most people would not be able to have “the McMansion in the suburbs.”

A senior political advisor close to the Maasdam team said that the endorsements from Sanders and other top progressives catapulted Lawrence toward the front of the field, but the recent revelations of his past comments have stunted that growth.

The advisor said the endorsements from Sanders and others likely earned Lawrence the votes of around a third of the Democratic electorate who will likely vote for the most-left candidate in the race, leaving around two-thirds up for grabs.

Last week, Maasdam picked up an endorsement from Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who subsequently filmed an advertisement supporting him. The freshman senator represented the Lansing-area district before being elected to the Senate.

The advisor close to the Maasdam campaign said that they see the race now largely as a contest between Maasdam and Lawrence, but said they believe Maasdam is well-positioned going into the final weeks of the race and peaking at the right time.

He has been the beneficiary of more than $1.6 million in outside spending by VoteVets, with another outside group, Crush MAGA PAC, spending nearly $1 million to attack Lawrence, and a third group, Michigan Values PAC, spending around $1 million to attack Brink. A nursing union group has spent $400,000 boosting Lawrence.

At the same time, they also acknowledged a real concern that Maasdam and Brink could split the moderate vote, allowing Lawrence to win with a plurality. 

Brink has faced criticism from primary rivals for her service under and praise of President Donald Trump — though she ultimately resigned in protest of the administration’s efforts to pressure Ukraine.

The advisor argued that, compared to Brink, Maasdam has a better resume and background as a fighter, and said Maasdam plans to highlight his links to Obama in the wake of the revelation of Lawrence’s comments disparaging the former president.

Maasdam posted an X video on Monday highlighting his support for and ties to Obama, while calling out Lawrence’s criticism of him.

In spite of their moderate and national security focused backgrounds, neither Maasdam nor Brink appears to have spoken much about Israel policy during the campaign, and neither campaign provided comment to JI on their stances. 

Lawrence has attacked the two for declining to describe the war in Gaza as a genocide, and has made cutting off arms sales to Israel a major plank of his campaign.

All three have been critical of the war with Iran.

President Donald Trump drew two contradictory timelines for the ongoing war in Iran in remarks on Monday, saying that the conflict was both drawing to a close and in its early stages.

In a call with CBS News, Trump said, “The war is very complete, pretty much. [Iran has] no navy, no communications; they’ve got no air force. Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including the manufacturing of drones. … There’s nothing left in a military sense.”  

The war has progressed faster than initially expected, the president added: “We’re very far ahead of schedule.”

Also Monday, the Department of Defense posted on X that “we have only just begun to fight, with a graphic of a missile interceptor and the text: “No Mercy.” 

At a news conference after his CBS News interview, Trump was asked whether the war is “very complete” or “just beginning.” 

“I think you could say both,” the president responded. “It’s the beginning of building a new country. We could call it a tremendous success right now, or we could go further.” 

“And we’re going to go further,” Trump added.

In his interview with CBS, Trump considered further steps, saying that he is “thinking about taking … over” the Strait of Hormuz.

The president later posted on Truth Social: “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”

The Strait of Hormuz is the only passage by sea from the Gulf to the open ocean and a critical chokepoint in the global energy market. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said during a visit to Israel’s National Health Command Center on Monday that “our aspiration is to enable the Iranian people to cast off the yoke of tyranny; ultimately, it is up to them.”

“If we succeed together with the Iranian people, we will bring about a permanent end to the extent that such things exist in the lives of nations,” Netanyahu added. “We will bring about change, and we are already bringing about a massive shift in Israel’s international standing.”

The IDF Home Front Command reported only six missile launches from Iran to Israel in the past 24 hours, a significant slowdown from previous days of the war. 

The IDF continued to strike targets in Iran, including a missile launcher, 10 minutes after it fired at Israel. 

On Monday night, the IAF completed a wave of strikes against six major Iranian military airfields, destroying Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aircraft, including combat helicopters.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reached out to the U.S. to start direct talks with Israel on “permanent arrangements for security and stability on [its] borders.” He called for a “complete truce” ending Israeli military activity, and lamented that Hezbollah — which Beirut had agreed to disarm as one of the terms of its 2024 ceasefire with Israel — “wanted to achieve the fall of the State of Lebanon, under aggression and chaos.”

Israeli strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon continued, with overnight attacks on command centers and the facilities of the Al-Quard Al-Hassan Association, which funds the Iran-backed terrorist group and works with cash, as well as a cell of Hezbollah terrorists approaching IDF soldiers and a structure in which commanders of the elite Radwan Force were said to be gathering.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met with U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis in Jerusalem on Monday. In his readout of the meeting, he noted that Hezbollah joined the war on Iran’s side “against the interest of Lebanon.”

“Over the past week there have been more attacks against Israel from Lebanese territory than from Iran,” Sa’ar said. “Weakening Hezbollah is a mutual interest of both Israel and Lebanon. I also said that Hezbollah initiated an attack against us and no member of the international community is acting to stop it besides us.”

Sa’ar and Hennis also discussed Israel’s decision not to evacuate residents from its northern border towns, in contrast with October 2023, and said that “the deployment of IDF troops in the border area is critical for preventing an invasion of Hezbollah’s ground forces and attacks against Israeli citizens and communities.”

The IDF estimated in recent days that over half a million Lebanese residents evacuated southern Lebanon.

Magen David Adom emergency services reported treating 76 people as a result of Monday’s missile attacks, two of whom were killed and 18 injured by missile debris.

Since the start of Operation Lion’s Roar, there have been 14 fatalities. MDA reported treating 667 people for injuries resulting from missile attacks, 511 of whom were injured making their way to shelter or in traffic accidents when stopping for a missile alert.

Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL and fifth-generation Kentucky farmer, launched his bid on Tuesday to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) after being urged by President Donald Trump to challenge the renegade, anti-Israel congressman in the GOP primary.

Gallrein’s campaign launch comes four days after Trump declared that the Kentucky native was his preferred candidate to take on Massie, whom Trump had soured on over his growing antagonism towards Trump’s agenda. Massie was one of the only congressional Republicans to oppose Trump’s landmark “big, beautiful” spending bill and has worked with Democrats to force a floor vote to release Justice Department documents on Jeffrey Epstein. 

“I’ve dedicated my life to serving my country, and I’m ready to answer the call again. This district is Trump Country,” Gallrein said. “The President doesn’t need obstacles in Congress — he needs backup. I’ll defeat Thomas Massie, stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, and deliver the America First results Kentuckians voted for.”

“Thomas Massie has become one of the biggest roadblocks to President Trump’s America First agenda,” he added. “When Trump fought for historic tax cuts, Massie voted no. When Trump tried to fully fund border security, Massie stood in the way. President Trump endorsed me because Kentuckians deserve a Congressman who will stand with our President, not against him.”

Massie is also a frequent opponent of U.S. support for Israel and legislation to combat antisemitism. The president’s allies recently launched a $1 million ad blitz against Massie, the opening salvo of the Trump-backed effort to unseat the lawmaker, who has swatted down previous primary challenges.

Trump said on Friday in a post on his Truth Social platform that Gallrein was “a true America First Patriot” who would support his Make America Great Again agenda. 

“A Brave Combat Veteran, Ed knows the Wisdom and Courage required to Defend our Country, Support our Military/Veterans, and Ensure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH,” Trump wrote. 

Trump went on to call Massie a “Third Rate Congressman” and a “Weak and Pathetic RINO,” adding that residents of Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District should be served by someone in favor of the president’s agenda given his electoral success there.

“The incredible people of Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District gave us a mandate to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and the person that will help us do that is Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Fifth Generation Kentucky Farmer, Captain Ed Gallrein, a true America First Patriot,” Trump wrote.

Gallrein is a Kentucky native whose family built the state’s largest dairy farm and one of the state’s largest grain farms. He describes himself as a traditional conservative who was inspired by former President Ronald Reagan to enter public service in the 1980s. 

Gallrein ran unsuccessfully in a 2024 GOP primary for a Kentucky state Senate seat, losing narrowly to now-state Sen. Aaron Reed. Trump’s political team also considered recruiting Reed, who is also a former Navy SEAL, to run against Massie but the state lawmaker passed on the race.