Rep. Shri Thanedar made himself one of the loudest Democrats demanding the impeachment of President Trump.
Detroit voters just gave him an answer he will not be able to withdraw.
State Rep. Donavan McKinney defeated the two-term incumbent in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District Democratic primary Tuesday, ending Thanedar’s run in one of the safest blue seats in the country.
And the Democrat who tried to attack Trump from the left was replaced by a challenger backed by the Democratic Socialists of America and some of the most powerful progressives in Washington.
The Associated Press confirmed McKinney’s victory in the heavily Democratic, Detroit-anchored district.
McKinney made restoring Black representation to Detroit a central argument of his campaign. When Thanedar first won the seat in 2022, Detroit was left without a Black member of Congress for the first time since the early 1950s.
That argument carried real force in a majority-Black district. So did the challenger’s pitch that Thanedar had become detached from the community he represented.
Thanedar had survived crowded Democratic fields before, first winning the seat in 2022 and holding it in 2024. This time, voters faced a far clearer choice between the incumbent and a challenger who had spent more than a year organizing against him.
Because Republicans face a steep climb in this district, the Democratic primary was also the decisive political test. Thanedar did not lose to a conservative backlash. He lost inside his own party, in the city at the center of his congressional district.
McKinney was still driving that message home in the final hours before polls closed.
This is the movement. This is the fight. pic.twitter.com/LZQ1GsVcoh
— Donavan McKinney (@DonavanMI13) August 4, 2026
This was no quiet backbench primary.
An Associated Press election preview documented the progressive coalition that assembled behind McKinney before voting began.
His endorsers included Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, along with several progressive members of the House.
Metro Detroit DSA endorsed McKinney too, putting organized socialists on the same side as Sanders, Tlaib and the progressive groups that have spent this primary season hunting vulnerable Democratic incumbents.
McKinney, a state representative, had a local record and a ready-made contrast. He campaigned as a working-class Detroiter who understood the district’s daily pressures, while his allies painted Thanedar as a wealthy self-funder who appeared only when election season demanded it.
The coalition was broad, disciplined and aimed at one target. Thanedar had endorsements from party leaders, but McKinney had the activists and elected officials who could move votes in Detroit.
The left organized. Thanedar tried political theater.
In April 2025, Thanedar introduced seven articles of impeachment against Trump, accusing the president of offenses ranging from abuse of trade powers to creating an unlawful office for Elon Musk.
The official text of House Resolution 353 shows Thanedar as the sponsor and lays out the impeachment case he attempted to launch.
Thanedar introduced the measure on April 28, 2025, and referred it to the House Judiciary Committee. Its seven articles accused Trump of obstruction of justice, usurping Congress’s spending power, abusing trade powers, violating First Amendment rights, creating an unlawful office through DOGE, bribery and corruption, and tyranny.
The congressional record shows that Thanedar notified the House on May 13 that he intended to offer the measure as a privileged resolution. That maneuver could have forced the chamber to confront it on the floor.
It never became the anti-Trump rallying point Thanedar appeared to expect. The resolution remained at the introduced stage.
What are your thoughts?
His own party wanted no part of the stunt.
Thanedar later abandoned his effort to force a House vote after failing to win support from Democratic leadership. What was supposed to raise his national profile instead exposed how isolated he was, even among lawmakers who oppose Trump.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries eventually endorsed Thanedar’s reelection campaign anyway. Detroit voters were less impressed.
Thanedar entered Congress as a wealthy businessman who could pour his own money into a crowded race. He leaves after discovering that personal wealth, leadership endorsements and nonstop anti-Trump positioning do not guarantee loyalty from primary voters.
McKinney now moves toward the November general election with a major advantage. The district is overwhelmingly Democratic, making Tuesday’s primary the contest most likely to determine Detroit’s next member of Congress.
Republicans should not mistake the result for a move toward the center.
It was the opposite.
Thanedar tried to prove his anti-Trump credentials with an impeachment push. Democratic voters tossed him aside for a candidate backed by Sanders, Tlaib and the organized socialist left.
Impeachment theater could not save him. It only became one more line in the obituary of his congressional career.
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!