November 18, 2025 • 37 mins
Mallory McMorrow is a state senator representing Michigan’s 8th district and also a candidate for the United States Senate in the 2026 election. Mallory McMorrow currently serves as the Michigan Senate Majority Whip and is the first woman in state history to hold that position. A member of the Democratic Party, McMorrow represents the 8th district and previously represented the 13th district from 2019 to 2023. Prior to running for the Michigan Senate in 2018, McMorrow worked in industrial design for design firms and for companies such as Mattel and Gawker.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the
Thing from iHeart Radio. My guest today is a state
senator representing Michigan's eighth district and is a candidate for
the United States Senate in twenty twenty six. Mallory mcmurrow
currently serves as the Michigan Senate majority whip and as
(00:22):
the first woman in history to hold that position. Perhaps
best known for her viral twenty twenty two Senate speech,
mcmurrow has accomplished a great deal in her short tenure
in office.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
People who are different are not the reason that our
roads are in bad shape after decades of disinvestment, or
that healthcare costs are too high, or that teachers are
leaving the profession. I want every child in this state
to feel seen, heard, and supported, not marginalized and targeted
because they are not straight, white and Christian.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Most notably, she has worked to strengthen Michigan unions and
raise wages. She eliminated the retirement tax on seniors, we
peeled the state's abortion ban, expanded free community college, and
secured investments for public transit and public schools. With all
of this under her belt, as a state senator. I
(01:17):
was curious what McMurrough thinks Michigan voters expect of her
when they return to the polls in twenty twenty six
to cast their ballots for United States Senator.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Voters are voting for sanity, and they are voting for
somebody who cares and who lives what they live. I'm
a mom of a four year old. I am concerned
about her future and making sure that she has everything
she needs, that her water is clean, that her schools
are well funded, and pretty basic basic stuff. Just sanity
(01:51):
and decency.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Right, There's so many things that are common sense that
we're missing right now that are just to protect water.
People think of the environmentalism that is a hallmark of
this country since the seventies. We might not have the
enforcement we want, but we have the laws on the books.
They think that that's radical. You know, do you do
you agree? I mean, I know you're from Michigan.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
No, it's not radical to want clean air and clean water.
I mean watching this administration is going to roll back
regulations on asbestos. These are, to your point, common sense,
basic things so that we can live longer, so we
can enjoy our families longer. It shouldn't be controversial at all.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
You're from Michigan and I've worked with a couple of
groups about Flint related water issues and worked on documentaries
about Flint and what happened there, which was just so
mind blowing because there were people guilty on both sides
of the aisle. Democrats and Republicans are responsible for that.
Is that still an important issue in that community there?
Do you know? Do they still struggle with water issues there?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah? I was in Flint yesterday. We just kicked off
a statewide brewery tour, so we're meeting people and breweries
all across the state. And as you can imagine, clean
water is important for making good beer too, But it's
going to be an entire generation that really struggles. I'm
very good friends with doctor Mona Hanna, who was the
Flint whistleblower. She was the pediatrician who started seeing how
(03:15):
unhealthy kids were in Flint and started raising red flags.
And even if the water is clean now, because we
have accelerated making sure that all of the lines are replaced,
that when you turn on the tap there's clean water
coming out, you can't reverse the damage that has been
done to kids' health, but also community trust is broken
(03:36):
and that is going to take many, many years to
get back.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
You were born in New Jersey, it was, and how
did the Michigan get into your life? How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So? I was born and raised in rural New Jersey,
Central Jersey. I don't know what exit, which is a
terrible joke that I hate anytime anybody asks. I was
there until I went to college, and then I went
to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, which is
about ten minutes from the Michigan border. But I've lived
all over the country. So I lived in New Jersey, Indiana,
(04:05):
Southern California, New York, southern California, and then Michigan's.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Your dad military or something?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
No, I just I'm a millennial. I couldn't get a
job after graduating into the recession. My husband is a
born and raised Michigander. But what brought us back to
Michigan was friends of mine started a road rally around Michigan.
It was a guy who worked for Google and another
guy who started a website called Texts from Last Night
(04:30):
that was a big thing in the early oughts, and
they just had this idea of what if we invited
thirty creative professionals from all across the country to Michigan,
picked up a bunch of cars in Detroit, drove a
thousand miles around the state a different route every year,
brought an up and coming chef with us, and just
showed it off. And that was my vacation every year
(04:50):
for five years. And I fell in love with Michigan
more than any other place I've ever lived, and I
chose to move us back. My husband actually didn't want
to come. He didn't want to be closer. No, I
didn't want to come home, my.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Mad your husband want to live. Let's just get that
on the record. Where did he want to go?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I mean we were building a life between New York
and southern California. He was the editor in chief of
Jelopnik for seven years and then basically the publisher at
Gawker Media. I was the creative director for Gawker Media
at one point in my life.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You were with them for how long?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Just one year? And I swear it took ten years
off of my life, right, But you.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Would know you've had a very varied You graduated from
Notre Dame with a degree in what kind of engineering?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Industrial design? So I was the mix of art and engineering.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
You worked on the hot Wheels cars?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I sure did, Yes, I did.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Can you believe that? I can't believe that?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I was a senior designer over global branding and licensing
for hot Wheels. So there is a hot Wheels car
that has my name on it, and that is my
crowning achievement.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
You have to get a big model that in your
office in Washington. Oh yeah, Now back to politics here.
You know, when I was younger, everybody wanted to go
to Washington. Rather they thought about that. I went to
gw everybody was political. And then as I got older,
I thought, I mean, you know, the Congress is so dysfunctional,
it's so painful, it's so not even unproductive, it's counterproductive.
You go down there and you're in the Senate, presumably
(06:16):
you win. What's the three things you really want to
try to get done?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Initially, I mean so many things. So if I get elected.
When I get elected, I would be one of the
only moms of a young child in the Senate. So
thinking about how many missed opportunities there have been for
working parents. We need universal paid leave in this country.
We need access to universal childcare and clean water. That's
(06:40):
my third thing for Michigan.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
We have to and you're going to go down There
was a mom and what's the legislative agenda you see
is important for you in terms.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Of motherhood basic things. I just want to pose this.
I know you have seven kids, but for most working parents,
the average work day ends at five, but the school
day and it too. And there are so many people
who can't participate in the economy just because we haven't
built an economy for parents. And then you've got people
(07:10):
like Elon Musk out there trying to I guess buy
as many pregnancies as you possibly can, but you wonder
about why is there a declining birth rate and why
aren't millennials starting families. And when I talk to people
in my generation, what I hear is overwhelmingly I've done
everything right and I'm still getting screwed. I went to college,
I tried to get a job. I can't afford to
(07:32):
buy a house, I can't afford to start a family.
None of it adds up. So thinking about even small
things about productivity gains have increased significantly over the last
few decades. Why are we still holding on to very traditional,
outdated ways of working. And then how do we make
sure we have universal paid leave, How do we make
sure we have universal childcare in a way that every
(07:53):
other developed nation in the world has except the United States.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Let's say you want, you're all going to head down
there and live down there together.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Well, it's only an our flight between Michigan and DC,
which is nice. I know that. You know, of the
few parents in the Senate, Chris Murphy has kids, Andy
Kim has kids, they do it different ways. My daughter
so far, she she loves being on a plane a
couple of times.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
But my husband on Delta, they've got great cookies.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Oh of course Detroita's Delta hubs, so she's got to
get the cookies. But no, my husband was working out
of state for about a year and a half, so
in a way she got used to already having a
routine where one of us is home, one of us
is not. We trade off and on, and then you know,
weekends and days off. That's time that she really loves
with us. So we are I think, uniquely prepared for this,
(08:44):
and we'll do whatever's best for her. I mean, that's
the most important thing. Where is she going to have
the best opportunity, where is she going to be happiest.
And she's building a great life here at home. So
it's a quick flight.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, you do a lot of flying.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Carl Levin, the great Carl Levin was office for six terms,
I believe thirty six years. I was a huge admirer
of his. Describe to me the ramp up to this election.
Now for you, you were doing what before you ran
for office.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So I am a state senator. This is my second term.
We have term limits in Michigan. I would be eligible
for one.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
More, so you will have served eight years when you were.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Done eight years. Yeah, I'm in my seventh year. Carl Levin,
I think, is a great example. He's somebody who went
from Detroit City Council to the United States Senate. Wow,
there's something really incredible about bringing that local knowledge to
Washington in a way where you're not compromised by all
(09:40):
of the kind of pushes and pulls of DC. You're
not trapped in DC for a long time. You are
deeply connected to the roots back home. I am currently
a state Senator. I ran for office for the first
time in twenty eighteen. I googled how to run for
office after the twenty sixteen election, and I came into
the minority. The Senate here in Michigan and had been
(10:00):
controlled by Republicans since nineteen eighty four, and I languished
in the minority. We weren't allowed to pass any legislation.
I started a state pack, I raised millions of dollars.
I helped support a dozen state Senate candidates around the state,
and we helped flip control of the state Senate for
the first time since nineteen eighty four. So I am
now the Senate majority whip. I am the first woman
(10:22):
to ever hold that position in the first Democrat in
forty years, and I believe that makes me uniquely qualified
to take on this campaign because I think Washington needs
to be a hell of a lot more like Michigan
and not the other way around.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Who's your predecessor. Who's leaving office?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Gary Peters is retiring. We now have two cycles in
Michigan in a row. There have been two open Senate
seats in just the last couple of years. Debbie Stabenow
retired last cycle, and then alyssa' Slockin ran for office
in one and this cycle, Gary Peters announced he is
going to retire, and I think that is an incredible
model that our state is leading, where you can work
(11:01):
tirelessly and recognize that as a state we have built
up a really good bench of Democratic candidates and that
you should have a well earned retirement. Gary just has
his first grandchild.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
How many terms did he serve too?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
He was in Congress before that and then the state
legislature and he was the lottery commissioner for a while,
so he's been in and around politics for a good
long time.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
They did twelve years in the Senate.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
But what you're saying that the bench is deep there
with competent Democratic candidates, very deep. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
We have done a lot of work here in Michigan
to grow our ranks and it's time now.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
When you go down there a lot of mature people,
shall we say a lot of older people, You're going
to be like their daughter. They've got daughters your age,
many of them. Do you think you're going to get
some kind of special treatment because you're so young and
your lack of experience in terms of federal politics.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I mean, I'm used to people underestimating me. I ran
in twenty eighteen against my republic An incumbent state senator
who had won previously by sixteen points, and even local
Democrats said, that's cute. You're going to get destroyed. And
there was something really freeing about not necessarily having the
backing of the party and being able to come in
(12:15):
and just say, let's just go for it and try
to run a campaign to really connect with people in
a way that feels different. We had more than five
hundred volunteers and I beat them by four points. That's
a twenty point swing in one cycle. And now I'm
in leadership. You know, I'm responsible for an eighty billion
dollars state budget. I'm on seven committees. I'm the chair
(12:35):
of the Economic and Community Development Committee. I'm the vice
chair of the Oversight Committee. I've proven that I'm a
workhourse and I do really well when people underestimate me.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I still drive American cars.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
What's your favorite?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I got seven kids, so Cadillac Escalate very roomy. Yeah,
I need a lot of room.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
My husband proposed to me with a twenty fourteen Cadillac
CTSV wagon with eight hundred horsepower in a manual transmission.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
You're kidding me?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
You were in that or he gave it to you
as an engaged That was that was that was the
engagement that was engaged to marry me.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
You were in it.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Well, he showed me this car. It was parked on
the street in front of our favorite restaurant, and he
gets down on one knee and he's just looking at
the car. I was so confused as to what happened.
And that was the box for the ring. So it
was the car in the ring. Thank god.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
That's so cool. You love cars. You're a car nut.
What do you drive currently?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I drive a Chevy bolt UV, the slightly larger one.
I commute back and forth to Lansing, so it's one
hundred and seventy miles round trip every three days a week.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
The election is until next year, that's right. You have
a whole year and a half to go. The primary
is in August. You have you to describe your opponent
in the primary.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
This is right now, a four way primary. So it
is myself, Congresswoman Haley Stevens abdul lsa ed who ran
for governor in twenty eighteen against Gretchen Whitmer and Joe Tait,
who was the speaker of the state.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
House and who's your threat?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So we knew coming in that I would likely have
lower name recognition because I am a state legislator. We
got our first internal pulling back that shows that it's
already close to neck and neck. The leading candidate is
Hailey Stevens, member of Congress. She has been on TV
(14:25):
all over Metro Detroit with millions of dollars of ads
the last few cycles. Then Abdul lsa Ed is a
little more well known than I am because he's already
run statewide. But we dug in deeper and of voters
who know both myself and the congresswoman. I'm beating her
by twenty three points, so we feel really good. We
(14:46):
just have to get out and meet everybody, which is
why I announced so early. People are looking for change
and something that feels fresh and outside of Washington and
somebody who's going to fight and is as angry about
this moment as they are.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Michigan State Senator Mallory mcmurrow. If you enjoy conversations about
politics and women running for office in twenty twenty six,
check out my episode with California Representative Katie Porter.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
You know, I think there is an attitude that you know,
sort of people are entitled to have Republican representation.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Here.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
What they're entitled to is good representation, right, people who
listen to them, people who fight for them, people who
are not corrupt, and that can come in your Democratic
or Republican forms.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
To hear my conversation with Katie Porter, go to Here's
the Thing dot org. After the break, Mallory mcmurroe talks
about the safety risk of being a politician and the
public eye and not letting fear win. I'm Alec Baldwin
(16:04):
and you're listening to Here's the Thing. Mallory mcmurrow is
not only a Michigan State senator, she is currently a
candidate in the twenty twenty six mid term election for
the United States Senate. I was curious about how mcmurrow
felt about the prospect of serving in Washington, DC at
such a critical time and what concerns her the most.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I mean, I'm really concerned about just the moment that
we're in. You know, we're talking now only a few
days after the Minnesota Speaker of the House, Melissa Hortman,
was murdered by you know, a man who had made
a list and made a police car and just just
terrifying this moment, that that was very premeditative, very premeditated,
(16:49):
and deep concerns about mental health and so much of
went into that. And my fear is that people see
all of that happening and just check out that they say,
none of this matters. I'm not going to participate. And
my hope is I want to run a very very
(17:09):
different campaign that is aggressive on messaging. I'm very active
on social media. We are doing this brewery tour. We're
looking at you know, can I show up at dirt
track races and just get to know people who don't
talk to politicians? And how do we keep that going
once we went and getting to Washington, And what's.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
That specific thing like in Michigan, for example, Because in
New York, in New York politics and that retail politics
is very specific and very you know, it changes a
little bit, not much. You got to go out to
the outer borroughs and eat the hot dogs and hug
the babies, and it's very very retail and very hands on.
What's it like in Michigan is like when you said
they don't want to meet the politicians of the dirt
(17:47):
track race or they do.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It has become very routine. Michigan is a battleground state.
So what happens every election cycle is it's not even
just the candidates who are running, but it's every national
organization and reporter parachutes into Michigan and it's NonStop at
everybody's doorstep and doing all these town halls and showing
up in churches. And then everybody leaves, which I think
(18:11):
magnifies the experience that you described, because it's not only
just the candidates leave, it's that entire apparatus that descended
on Michigan goes away. So for us, I recognize that
right now, fourteen months before the primary election, this is
not the time where people are going to want to
come out to town halls and be lectured about policy.
(18:33):
So we just had our first four stops of our
brewery tour. Over the last two days. We were in
four counties, were driving around and we just invited people, Hey,
I'm not going to lecture you, just come grab a beer,
get to know me, tell me what keeps you up
at night, and we'll ask questions. And we did open
questions and I saw so many people who come out
(18:57):
who would not come to democratic clubs, not come to
town halls. We had families and grandparents. What I loved
about this was because it wasn't rows of chairs that
we usually see at events. People were getting to know
each other and asking why they had come, and people
were having a really good time. And if we can
start to build relationships like that where we do events
(19:20):
that feel very different, but we maintain that relationship not
only throughout the campaign. But that's a promise that I'm
making now, is you elect me, and we are going
to continue to do things like this to maintain a
relationship with you, because Michiganders feel like politics is transactional.
To your point, you show up right around election time,
everybody descends, and then you go away and we never
(19:41):
hear from you.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And that constant invocation by people who say, well, remember
one thing, it'll be a lot worse if my opponent wins.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Right, It can't all just be about fear. People are
walking on eggshells. Hey, people don't want to talk.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
To each other. Well, they were in so much pain.
You're a woman, and you mentioned about that relationship as
a parent is something that's vital. I think to myself
when you send money to a state from the federal government,
which they are all pulling the plug on. Now, when
you send money to a state for parents to help
raise their children, that's a twofer. You're helping two people.
(20:13):
You're helping two constituents. With every doublo, it's meant there
that woman who is the mother, because the mother is
the primary thing. In my book, obviously we have to
focus on families. And I'm a Democrat, I'm a liberal Democrat,
but I'm saying to myself, we got to pump as
much money as possible and to making sure that you
can go to work if you want to, and those
kids are taken care of and you can work, you know, undistracted.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
And that if you want to stay home with your kids,
you can do whatever you want to do. Yeah, you
can't afford it. Well, I also just on that point,
I am probably part of the last generation that has
experienced a time before the Internet. Like I vividly remember
when we got my first home computer. It was a
Gateway two thousand. It took up a whole room. It
was a box cow. It did the boxes cow, and
(20:57):
the internet was a physical place we went and you'd
fight I'm one of four, so I had to fight
my siblings for it, and you got twenty minutes and
then you were trying to download a song and then
your mom picks up a phone and then you're mad
at her. But we have such a responsibility, and this
is again something that as a senator we have to
fix is social media companies and tech companies. The products
(21:18):
are designed to be addictive and you can't disconnect, and
that is not a way to live. And it's not
to say that people shouldn't pay attention to what's going on,
but we have to learn how to reconnect with each
other in real life and step away for a little
bit so we stop hating each other.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
We were talking before about the state senator that was
killed and the horror of the Do you ever fear
for your safety?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I do, I really do. We had a protest here
in Michigan on April thirtieth of twenty twenty, well before
January sixth, and there's a photo that went viral. There
are four men in the gallery with full tactical gear
invests in AR fifteen's and what you don't see in
(22:04):
that photo is right below them was me. And this
is the state where there was the plot to kidnap
and kill Gretchen Witmer, and you know there were also
plans to carry out public executions on the capitol steps.
It is devastating to have to think about, you know.
I also, yes, I'm in this because I want a
(22:25):
better life for my daughter, and I also have to
think through I have to make sure that I'm not
putting her life at risk. But I also know it
is much harder to put your name on a ballot
and be vulnerable and allow people to judge you and
say every horrible thing about you that there is to
say on the internet and lay out a vision for
a future and ask people to trust you with their
(22:46):
vote than it is to threaten violence. I just go
back to we can't let people like this win win,
Let the fear win, you know, let people be pushed out.
And we've seen a exodus of clerks and election workers
and you know, just good people who are trying to
do a good job who didn't sign up for this.
(23:08):
Nobody signed up for this, And we have to get
back to what we said at the top, just sanity
and common sense, where we can disagree with each other
without worrying that somebody's going to take that as a
sign to attack you in a really dangerous way.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
How does the gun issue play in that state. I
would imagine in a state that's very urban and then
very rural and everything in between. Is it a big
pro gun voters there?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I mean, yes, we are. This is a state where
we have hunting break in the legislature. We shut down
for two weeks at the start of hunting season. And
I grew up in you know, a rural small town.
We had guns in my house. This is this was normal.
But this is also a state that has been devastated
by gun violence. We had the Oxford High School shooting
(23:56):
here in Michigan, and there were kids who I met
who had survived that who decided to go to Michigan
State to stay closer to home because they were still traumatized,
only to survive another school shooting a few months later.
I'm somebody. I lost a friend of mine who was
killed in the Virginia Tech shooting. So we have passed
(24:16):
in Michigan, universal background checks, safe storage, We closed the
domestic violence loophole. My first bill ever signed into law
created Michigan's Red Flag law. And I have to tell you.
I mean, we polled for some of the bills that
we passed, and on universal background checks and safe storage,
it was over ninety percent of Republican gun owners supported
(24:40):
this legislation. So there's a real if we can bring
people together to say, to protect the Second Amendment and
your right to own guns and go out hunting and
everything you want to do, we have to pass legislation
that keeps everybody safe. It just in the last two
days alone, we've had a shooting at a church and
then a shooting in royal Oktown, which is part of
(25:00):
my district, right just overnight in a park.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
It's strange to think that in the modern world that's
a factor for people that you're going to get shot
somewhere in public. It is, Yeah, what do you think
you need to say to Republicans to embrace you, because
it would be helpful if you could get a few
of their votes too. Well.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I wouldn't be in office if Republicans didn't vote for me.
I mean, I flipped a Republican district. There are universal
values that we all share, and at the end of
the day, you want to know that government works for you.
It has to be functional. It has to be saying
we have to acknowledge that some programs don't work, and
we do require oversight. We have to be fiscally responsible,
(25:38):
and we just got to get out of chaos. One
of my closest friends and colleagues is a guy named
Senator John Demouse. He's a conservative Republican from northern Michigan.
He and I are working on legislation to effectively modernize
our state's economy so that we support more agriculture and
small businesses and tourism and startups are not so uniquely
(26:02):
tied to the auto industry. He's also somebody who he
used to work for a commercial production company, so he's
talked about Michigan having film tax credits in a way
that we don't before. So how do we expand our economy?
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And what do you think about as a person who's
in the entertainment business, tell me what you think about
tax credits for the film industry.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
I think like Michigan does way too often. We didn't
allow it enough time to succeed. I have become pretty
good friends with Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson, who they
created Detroiters, and now there's I think you should leave
and Sam was on VEEP and they did a virtual
fundraiser for me a couple of years ago. It was
(26:42):
a Detroiter's reunion, which people here really loved, and they said,
very candidly, you know, we sold this show to Comedy
Central when the film credits still existed, and we couldn't
make it today just because no more film credits. We
change of administration. It was something under Governor Granholm, who
was a Democrat. She passed it and then Rick Snyder, Republican,
(27:04):
came in and eliminated them, and we saw, you know,
an industry was starting to grow and it just collapsed.
And there are a lot of young people, especially who
may not love cars the way that I love cars
and don't necessarily want to work in the auto industry,
but they want to make movies. And we have to
diversify our economy and forst stale like cars. I mean,
we have everything. We have every location. We have Detroit,
(27:26):
we have outdoors, we have ranches, we have farms, We've
got you know, urban suburban environments. We have every location
you could possibly want to shoot anything in. We just
need to allow it industry to grow. They got rid
of it here because the Republicans framed it as as
handouts to Hollywood elites and completely missed you know, the
local crew, the local talent, the people, high paying jobs
(27:47):
for the local crew, high paying jobs. You know, we
have had a really strong advertising industry related to the
automotive industry because it's all right here, so we have
advertising agencies, but that business has declined, and we do
have a lot of young people who want to get
into production and media and content and telling stories and
have nowhere to go and ultimately leave the state.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Are you hopeful, if not counting on the Senate flipping
next year in time for your arrival.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
It would be so nice if it did. That would
make things a lot easier. I am under no fallse
ilution that that is a likely outcome. I feel much
more confident that the House flips and that the Senate,
just given the map, stays under Republican control, although narrow,
which is why a part of my pitch is that
I've already done this on the state level. I got elected,
(28:36):
I came into the minority, I built up a political
operation to support other candidates to help us take back power,
and I can do the same thing in the United States.
Senate Gary Peters, our retiring senator, was the chair of
the d SC last cycle. So that's shoes that I
am hoping to fill.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Michigan State Senate whip Mallory mcmurrow. If you're enjoying this conversation,
tell a friend and be sure to follow Here's the
Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get
your podcasts. When we come back, mcmurroe talks about her
concerns for Michigan's auto industry in the wake of Trump's
tariff policies. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's
(29:31):
the Thing. As Malorie mcmurroe continues her campaign for the
United States Senate, I wanted to hear more about what
she hopes to accomplish for her Michigan constituents if elected
to serve in Washington.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
So Michigan is the canary in the coal mine when
we hit the recession, because we are so tied to
the auto industry. We went down first, we went down hardest,
and it took us longer than any other state to recover.
Thinking about the tariff policy right now, what a lot
of people don't realize is that a car may cross
(30:06):
the border between Michigan and Canada two dozen times as
it is being assembled and manufactured. And if you've got
a tariff being hit on that vehicle, your Cadillac two
dozen times before it finally gets assembled, that car is
now ten thousand dollars more expensive. So getting to a
place where we are reforming our economic policy so it's strategic,
(30:28):
gets thoughtful. This is also a state who was really
badly hurt by NATO and globalization. But the answer from
this administration to put reciprocal tariffs on absolutely everything. We're
not about to grow bananas in Michigan. But getting back
to a place, you know, again, for us, for our economy,
it's about sanity. It's about bringing experts to the table,
(30:50):
having a voice at the table, and putting forward policy
that is not ready fire aim where you just throw
everything at the wall and see what sticks and see
what the backlash is. And we need that. You know,
Michigan is currently one of the oldest states in the country.
We have more people getting ready to retire than we
have young people coming into the workforce. So that's going
(31:10):
to be a big focus of mine, is how do
we need to position our state, which is an affordable
place to live, which is home of eighty five percent
of the nation's fresh water in the Great Lakes.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Wow, a lot of stewardship involved in states like that
with that water body, isn't it true?
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Absolutely, we are starting to see people move to Michigan
as effectively climate refugees. People who can't get a homeowner's
policy in California or Florida are now coming to Michigan.
So that is devastating just as a reality for the country,
but it's an opportunity for Michigan, and from my stance,
the next US Senator for Michigan has to help our
(31:48):
state be prepared to accept people when they come here.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
There are a lot of is it Minnesota or Michigan.
What is the one that has the huge population of
Vietnamese refugees or is it Cambodian refugeuse I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
The Minnesota has hired. We have a very diverse state.
We have a lot of Indian American immigrants.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Patty to India like neighbor of Pakistan India Oka. Yes, correctly,
I apologize as I'm listening now, I'm so high, I'm
so hyper vigilant now every time I'm talking to something.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
That's the walking on eggshells thing.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah, exactly exactly. I called somebody an actress the other
day and they were glad to me, like, don't you
call her an actress? She's the actor like you, there's
an actor now, no actress. I'm like, oh god, okay,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please don't cancel me.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We gotta stop.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Can I just say, like, as a party, we need
to stop canceling everybody. We need we need to build
a tent welcome people in. If you accidentally say the
wrong thing.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I mean you yourself have been the victim of that, correct.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
I was, yeah, And because life is like an episode
of TV, I was sexually harassed by a colleague during
sexual harassment training.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
No, seriously, he did he did it?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Yeah, it was a guy. I detail it, go into
detail in my book about it, and I wasn't going
to say anything. But then months later he did the
same thing to a young reporter and I knew I
could speak up, but we were taking a break from
sexual harassment training and I walked over and I introduced
myself and he said, who did you beat? And I
told him who My opponent was and at this point
(33:17):
he was holding my hand. He put his other hand
around my body, basically on my ass, and looked me
up and down and said, I can see why.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Okay, well, so I'm going to send you a suit
of armor. You can wear it to Washington, could go
to serve the Senate every day. Is that your daughter,
by the way in the background.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah, she just got home from school, a babysitter Hauser.
So there was a little voice, she's upstairs sown.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Now. You just had a curiosity because I am a
I lapsed and I come back, and I lapsed and
I come back sometimes I'm back strong. I'm a Catholic
and you were raised a Catholic? Sure was Is that
why you went to Notre Dame? Did you want to
go to a Catholic college.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
I didn't want to go to a Catholic college. Truly.
We had a falling out with our church, if you will.
So my parents got divorced when I was seven.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
And I read them about what they said about your mom.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Yeah, and my mom taught CCD, so you know, she
was doing everything. She volunteered at the church. I was
in the choir and it got to a place where
there were a number of other things that went wrong,
and the community that my mom was looking for was
very clearly not there in my church. So we left
and I ended up at Notre Dame because there was
(34:27):
a service aspect of Catholicism and the ethos of the
school that I really liked. I liked that all of
our projects and our work were grounded in giving back
to the community. And it was much more chill to
go to Mass in your pajamas in the dorm. It
felt a little more welcoming than the church usually.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Is so interesting how those people are emissaries for the
faith itself and they just don't understand that role. They
really don't. I mean, I had priests, you know. I remember
one time I said to this priest that other philosophies
have anything they hold, any truths for you or any
meaning to you. And he goes and he had that
classic long Island accent. He's from the Island. Oh, yes,
(35:08):
of course, he said, yes, of course, he said. Sometimes
I think I think the Buddhists have something to say,
the Hindus, the Jews, everything, I think everyone has cut
some contribution. He goes, Sometimes I just think that the
Catholics have the best real estate to hang out in.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Oh well, that the accent. By the way, my dad
is from Long Island, so my grandma is from Hicksville.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
No Billy Joelsh, Billy Joel's from here.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
So exactly. So my grandma still lives in Long Island,
and she would watch every single Michigan Senate session. She
would stream it, and then she would call me on
Fridays to debrief, and in the same accent, she would go, Mallory,
those people talk way too much. That other senator. He
never has anything good to say, and you never get
(35:55):
to ask any questions. And he needs to let you
talk a little more, you know. Can you tell him that.
I'm like, Okay, you.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Have a great New York accents. It's great. You should
come here and run. You'll pass. You would pass. Best
of luck with the primary. We need tough women. We
need more tough women. If you talk about the issues
and you keep jabbing with that, you got a good
shot at winning. You're very, very talented.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
My thanks to Michigan State Senator Mallory mcmurrow. You can
learn more about her campaign at mcmurrow from Michigan dot Com.
This episode was recorded at CDM Studios in New York City.
Were produced by Kathleen Brusso, Zach MacNeice, and Victoria De Martin.
Our engineer is Frank Imperial. Our social media manager is
(36:44):
Danielle Gingrich. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's the Thing is brought
to you by iHeart Radio one
This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the
Thing from iHeart Radio. My guest today is a state
senator representing Michigan's eighth district and is a candidate for
the United States Senate in twenty twenty six. Mallory mcmurrow
currently serves as the Michigan Senate majority whip and as
(00:22):
the first woman in history to hold that position. Perhaps
best known for her viral twenty twenty two Senate speech,
mcmurrow has accomplished a great deal in her short tenure
in office.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
People who are different are not the reason that our
roads are in bad shape after decades of disinvestment, or
that healthcare costs are too high, or that teachers are
leaving the profession. I want every child in this state
to feel seen, heard, and supported, not marginalized and targeted
because they are not straight, white and Christian.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Most notably, she has worked to strengthen Michigan unions and
raise wages. She eliminated the retirement tax on seniors, we
peeled the state's abortion ban, expanded free community college, and
secured investments for public transit and public schools. With all
of this under her belt, as a state senator. I
(01:17):
was curious what McMurrough thinks Michigan voters expect of her
when they return to the polls in twenty twenty six
to cast their ballots for United States Senator.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Voters are voting for sanity, and they are voting for
somebody who cares and who lives what they live. I'm
a mom of a four year old. I am concerned
about her future and making sure that she has everything
she needs, that her water is clean, that her schools
are well funded, and pretty basic basic stuff. Just sanity
(01:51):
and decency.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Right, There's so many things that are common sense that
we're missing right now that are just to protect water.
People think of the environmentalism that is a hallmark of
this country since the seventies. We might not have the
enforcement we want, but we have the laws on the books.
They think that that's radical. You know, do you do
you agree? I mean, I know you're from Michigan.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
No, it's not radical to want clean air and clean water.
I mean watching this administration is going to roll back
regulations on asbestos. These are, to your point, common sense,
basic things so that we can live longer, so we
can enjoy our families longer. It shouldn't be controversial at all.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
You're from Michigan and I've worked with a couple of
groups about Flint related water issues and worked on documentaries
about Flint and what happened there, which was just so
mind blowing because there were people guilty on both sides
of the aisle. Democrats and Republicans are responsible for that.
Is that still an important issue in that community there?
Do you know? Do they still struggle with water issues there?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah? I was in Flint yesterday. We just kicked off
a statewide brewery tour, so we're meeting people and breweries
all across the state. And as you can imagine, clean
water is important for making good beer too, But it's
going to be an entire generation that really struggles. I'm
very good friends with doctor Mona Hanna, who was the
Flint whistleblower. She was the pediatrician who started seeing how
(03:15):
unhealthy kids were in Flint and started raising red flags.
And even if the water is clean now, because we
have accelerated making sure that all of the lines are replaced,
that when you turn on the tap there's clean water
coming out, you can't reverse the damage that has been
done to kids' health, but also community trust is broken
(03:36):
and that is going to take many, many years to
get back.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
You were born in New Jersey, it was, and how
did the Michigan get into your life? How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So? I was born and raised in rural New Jersey,
Central Jersey. I don't know what exit, which is a
terrible joke that I hate anytime anybody asks. I was
there until I went to college, and then I went
to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, which is
about ten minutes from the Michigan border. But I've lived
all over the country. So I lived in New Jersey, Indiana,
(04:05):
Southern California, New York, southern California, and then Michigan's.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Your dad military or something?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
No, I just I'm a millennial. I couldn't get a
job after graduating into the recession. My husband is a
born and raised Michigander. But what brought us back to
Michigan was friends of mine started a road rally around Michigan.
It was a guy who worked for Google and another
guy who started a website called Texts from Last Night
(04:30):
that was a big thing in the early oughts, and
they just had this idea of what if we invited
thirty creative professionals from all across the country to Michigan,
picked up a bunch of cars in Detroit, drove a
thousand miles around the state a different route every year,
brought an up and coming chef with us, and just
showed it off. And that was my vacation every year
(04:50):
for five years. And I fell in love with Michigan
more than any other place I've ever lived, and I
chose to move us back. My husband actually didn't want
to come. He didn't want to be closer. No, I
didn't want to come home, my.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Mad your husband want to live. Let's just get that
on the record. Where did he want to go?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I mean we were building a life between New York
and southern California. He was the editor in chief of
Jelopnik for seven years and then basically the publisher at
Gawker Media. I was the creative director for Gawker Media
at one point in my life.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You were with them for how long?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Just one year? And I swear it took ten years
off of my life, right, But you.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Would know you've had a very varied You graduated from
Notre Dame with a degree in what kind of engineering?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Industrial design? So I was the mix of art and engineering.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
You worked on the hot Wheels cars?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I sure did, Yes, I did.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Can you believe that? I can't believe that?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I was a senior designer over global branding and licensing
for hot Wheels. So there is a hot Wheels car
that has my name on it, and that is my
crowning achievement.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
You have to get a big model that in your
office in Washington. Oh yeah, Now back to politics here.
You know, when I was younger, everybody wanted to go
to Washington. Rather they thought about that. I went to
gw everybody was political. And then as I got older,
I thought, I mean, you know, the Congress is so dysfunctional,
it's so painful, it's so not even unproductive, it's counterproductive.
You go down there and you're in the Senate, presumably
(06:16):
you win. What's the three things you really want to
try to get done?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Initially, I mean so many things. So if I get elected.
When I get elected, I would be one of the
only moms of a young child in the Senate. So
thinking about how many missed opportunities there have been for
working parents. We need universal paid leave in this country.
We need access to universal childcare and clean water. That's
(06:40):
my third thing for Michigan.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
We have to and you're going to go down There
was a mom and what's the legislative agenda you see
is important for you in terms.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Of motherhood basic things. I just want to pose this.
I know you have seven kids, but for most working parents,
the average work day ends at five, but the school
day and it too. And there are so many people
who can't participate in the economy just because we haven't
built an economy for parents. And then you've got people
(07:10):
like Elon Musk out there trying to I guess buy
as many pregnancies as you possibly can, but you wonder
about why is there a declining birth rate and why
aren't millennials starting families. And when I talk to people
in my generation, what I hear is overwhelmingly I've done
everything right and I'm still getting screwed. I went to college,
I tried to get a job. I can't afford to
(07:32):
buy a house, I can't afford to start a family.
None of it adds up. So thinking about even small
things about productivity gains have increased significantly over the last
few decades. Why are we still holding on to very traditional,
outdated ways of working. And then how do we make
sure we have universal paid leave, How do we make
sure we have universal childcare in a way that every
(07:53):
other developed nation in the world has except the United States.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Let's say you want, you're all going to head down
there and live down there together.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Well, it's only an our flight between Michigan and DC,
which is nice. I know that. You know, of the
few parents in the Senate, Chris Murphy has kids, Andy
Kim has kids, they do it different ways. My daughter
so far, she she loves being on a plane a
couple of times.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
But my husband on Delta, they've got great cookies.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Oh of course Detroita's Delta hubs, so she's got to
get the cookies. But no, my husband was working out
of state for about a year and a half, so
in a way she got used to already having a
routine where one of us is home, one of us
is not. We trade off and on, and then you know,
weekends and days off. That's time that she really loves
with us. So we are I think, uniquely prepared for this,
(08:44):
and we'll do whatever's best for her. I mean, that's
the most important thing. Where is she going to have
the best opportunity, where is she going to be happiest.
And she's building a great life here at home. So
it's a quick flight.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, you do a lot of flying.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Carl Levin, the great Carl Levin was office for six terms,
I believe thirty six years. I was a huge admirer
of his. Describe to me the ramp up to this election.
Now for you, you were doing what before you ran
for office.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So I am a state senator. This is my second term.
We have term limits in Michigan. I would be eligible
for one.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
More, so you will have served eight years when you were.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Done eight years. Yeah, I'm in my seventh year. Carl Levin,
I think, is a great example. He's somebody who went
from Detroit City Council to the United States Senate. Wow,
there's something really incredible about bringing that local knowledge to
Washington in a way where you're not compromised by all
(09:40):
of the kind of pushes and pulls of DC. You're
not trapped in DC for a long time. You are
deeply connected to the roots back home. I am currently
a state Senator. I ran for office for the first
time in twenty eighteen. I googled how to run for
office after the twenty sixteen election, and I came into
the minority. The Senate here in Michigan and had been
(10:00):
controlled by Republicans since nineteen eighty four, and I languished
in the minority. We weren't allowed to pass any legislation.
I started a state pack, I raised millions of dollars.
I helped support a dozen state Senate candidates around the state,
and we helped flip control of the state Senate for
the first time since nineteen eighty four. So I am
now the Senate majority whip. I am the first woman
(10:22):
to ever hold that position in the first Democrat in
forty years, and I believe that makes me uniquely qualified
to take on this campaign because I think Washington needs
to be a hell of a lot more like Michigan
and not the other way around.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Who's your predecessor. Who's leaving office?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Gary Peters is retiring. We now have two cycles in
Michigan in a row. There have been two open Senate
seats in just the last couple of years. Debbie Stabenow
retired last cycle, and then alyssa' Slockin ran for office
in one and this cycle, Gary Peters announced he is
going to retire, and I think that is an incredible
model that our state is leading, where you can work
(11:01):
tirelessly and recognize that as a state we have built
up a really good bench of Democratic candidates and that
you should have a well earned retirement. Gary just has
his first grandchild.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
How many terms did he serve too?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
He was in Congress before that and then the state
legislature and he was the lottery commissioner for a while,
so he's been in and around politics for a good
long time.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
They did twelve years in the Senate.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
But what you're saying that the bench is deep there
with competent Democratic candidates, very deep. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
We have done a lot of work here in Michigan
to grow our ranks and it's time now.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
When you go down there a lot of mature people,
shall we say a lot of older people, You're going
to be like their daughter. They've got daughters your age,
many of them. Do you think you're going to get
some kind of special treatment because you're so young and
your lack of experience in terms of federal politics.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I mean, I'm used to people underestimating me. I ran
in twenty eighteen against my republic An incumbent state senator
who had won previously by sixteen points, and even local
Democrats said, that's cute. You're going to get destroyed. And
there was something really freeing about not necessarily having the
backing of the party and being able to come in
(12:15):
and just say, let's just go for it and try
to run a campaign to really connect with people in
a way that feels different. We had more than five
hundred volunteers and I beat them by four points. That's
a twenty point swing in one cycle. And now I'm
in leadership. You know, I'm responsible for an eighty billion
dollars state budget. I'm on seven committees. I'm the chair
(12:35):
of the Economic and Community Development Committee. I'm the vice
chair of the Oversight Committee. I've proven that I'm a
workhourse and I do really well when people underestimate me.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I still drive American cars.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
What's your favorite?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I got seven kids, so Cadillac Escalate very roomy. Yeah,
I need a lot of room.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
My husband proposed to me with a twenty fourteen Cadillac
CTSV wagon with eight hundred horsepower in a manual transmission.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
You're kidding me?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
You were in that or he gave it to you
as an engaged That was that was that was the
engagement that was engaged to marry me.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
You were in it.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Well, he showed me this car. It was parked on
the street in front of our favorite restaurant, and he
gets down on one knee and he's just looking at
the car. I was so confused as to what happened.
And that was the box for the ring. So it
was the car in the ring. Thank god.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
That's so cool. You love cars. You're a car nut.
What do you drive currently?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I drive a Chevy bolt UV, the slightly larger one.
I commute back and forth to Lansing, so it's one
hundred and seventy miles round trip every three days a week.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
The election is until next year, that's right. You have
a whole year and a half to go. The primary
is in August. You have you to describe your opponent
in the primary.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
This is right now, a four way primary. So it
is myself, Congresswoman Haley Stevens abdul lsa ed who ran
for governor in twenty eighteen against Gretchen Whitmer and Joe Tait,
who was the speaker of the state.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
House and who's your threat?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So we knew coming in that I would likely have
lower name recognition because I am a state legislator. We
got our first internal pulling back that shows that it's
already close to neck and neck. The leading candidate is
Hailey Stevens, member of Congress. She has been on TV
(14:25):
all over Metro Detroit with millions of dollars of ads
the last few cycles. Then Abdul lsa Ed is a
little more well known than I am because he's already
run statewide. But we dug in deeper and of voters
who know both myself and the congresswoman. I'm beating her
by twenty three points, so we feel really good. We
(14:46):
just have to get out and meet everybody, which is
why I announced so early. People are looking for change
and something that feels fresh and outside of Washington and
somebody who's going to fight and is as angry about
this moment as they are.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Michigan State Senator Mallory mcmurrow. If you enjoy conversations about
politics and women running for office in twenty twenty six,
check out my episode with California Representative Katie Porter.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
You know, I think there is an attitude that you know,
sort of people are entitled to have Republican representation.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Here.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
What they're entitled to is good representation, right, people who
listen to them, people who fight for them, people who
are not corrupt, and that can come in your Democratic
or Republican forms.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
To hear my conversation with Katie Porter, go to Here's
the Thing dot org. After the break, Mallory mcmurroe talks
about the safety risk of being a politician and the
public eye and not letting fear win. I'm Alec Baldwin
(16:04):
and you're listening to Here's the Thing. Mallory mcmurrow is
not only a Michigan State senator, she is currently a
candidate in the twenty twenty six mid term election for
the United States Senate. I was curious about how mcmurrow
felt about the prospect of serving in Washington, DC at
such a critical time and what concerns her the most.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I mean, I'm really concerned about just the moment that
we're in. You know, we're talking now only a few
days after the Minnesota Speaker of the House, Melissa Hortman,
was murdered by you know, a man who had made
a list and made a police car and just just
terrifying this moment, that that was very premeditative, very premeditated,
(16:49):
and deep concerns about mental health and so much of
went into that. And my fear is that people see
all of that happening and just check out that they say,
none of this matters. I'm not going to participate. And
my hope is I want to run a very very
(17:09):
different campaign that is aggressive on messaging. I'm very active
on social media. We are doing this brewery tour. We're
looking at you know, can I show up at dirt
track races and just get to know people who don't
talk to politicians? And how do we keep that going
once we went and getting to Washington, And what's.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
That specific thing like in Michigan, for example, Because in
New York, in New York politics and that retail politics
is very specific and very you know, it changes a
little bit, not much. You got to go out to
the outer borroughs and eat the hot dogs and hug
the babies, and it's very very retail and very hands on.
What's it like in Michigan is like when you said
they don't want to meet the politicians of the dirt
(17:47):
track race or they do.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It has become very routine. Michigan is a battleground state.
So what happens every election cycle is it's not even
just the candidates who are running, but it's every national
organization and reporter parachutes into Michigan and it's NonStop at
everybody's doorstep and doing all these town halls and showing
up in churches. And then everybody leaves, which I think
(18:11):
magnifies the experience that you described, because it's not only
just the candidates leave, it's that entire apparatus that descended
on Michigan goes away. So for us, I recognize that
right now, fourteen months before the primary election, this is
not the time where people are going to want to
come out to town halls and be lectured about policy.
(18:33):
So we just had our first four stops of our
brewery tour. Over the last two days. We were in
four counties, were driving around and we just invited people, Hey,
I'm not going to lecture you, just come grab a beer,
get to know me, tell me what keeps you up
at night, and we'll ask questions. And we did open
questions and I saw so many people who come out
(18:57):
who would not come to democratic clubs, not come to
town halls. We had families and grandparents. What I loved
about this was because it wasn't rows of chairs that
we usually see at events. People were getting to know
each other and asking why they had come, and people
were having a really good time. And if we can
start to build relationships like that where we do events
(19:20):
that feel very different, but we maintain that relationship not
only throughout the campaign. But that's a promise that I'm
making now, is you elect me, and we are going
to continue to do things like this to maintain a
relationship with you, because Michiganders feel like politics is transactional.
To your point, you show up right around election time,
everybody descends, and then you go away and we never
(19:41):
hear from you.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And that constant invocation by people who say, well, remember
one thing, it'll be a lot worse if my opponent wins.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Right, It can't all just be about fear. People are
walking on eggshells. Hey, people don't want to talk.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
To each other. Well, they were in so much pain.
You're a woman, and you mentioned about that relationship as
a parent is something that's vital. I think to myself
when you send money to a state from the federal government,
which they are all pulling the plug on. Now, when
you send money to a state for parents to help
raise their children, that's a twofer. You're helping two people.
(20:13):
You're helping two constituents. With every doublo, it's meant there
that woman who is the mother, because the mother is
the primary thing. In my book, obviously we have to
focus on families. And I'm a Democrat, I'm a liberal Democrat,
but I'm saying to myself, we got to pump as
much money as possible and to making sure that you
can go to work if you want to, and those
kids are taken care of and you can work, you know, undistracted.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
And that if you want to stay home with your kids,
you can do whatever you want to do. Yeah, you
can't afford it. Well, I also just on that point,
I am probably part of the last generation that has
experienced a time before the Internet. Like I vividly remember
when we got my first home computer. It was a
Gateway two thousand. It took up a whole room. It
was a box cow. It did the boxes cow, and
(20:57):
the internet was a physical place we went and you'd
fight I'm one of four, so I had to fight
my siblings for it, and you got twenty minutes and
then you were trying to download a song and then
your mom picks up a phone and then you're mad
at her. But we have such a responsibility, and this
is again something that as a senator we have to
fix is social media companies and tech companies. The products
(21:18):
are designed to be addictive and you can't disconnect, and
that is not a way to live. And it's not
to say that people shouldn't pay attention to what's going on,
but we have to learn how to reconnect with each
other in real life and step away for a little
bit so we stop hating each other.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
We were talking before about the state senator that was
killed and the horror of the Do you ever fear
for your safety?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I do, I really do. We had a protest here
in Michigan on April thirtieth of twenty twenty, well before
January sixth, and there's a photo that went viral. There
are four men in the gallery with full tactical gear
invests in AR fifteen's and what you don't see in
(22:04):
that photo is right below them was me. And this
is the state where there was the plot to kidnap
and kill Gretchen Witmer, and you know there were also
plans to carry out public executions on the capitol steps.
It is devastating to have to think about, you know.
I also, yes, I'm in this because I want a
(22:25):
better life for my daughter, and I also have to
think through I have to make sure that I'm not
putting her life at risk. But I also know it
is much harder to put your name on a ballot
and be vulnerable and allow people to judge you and
say every horrible thing about you that there is to
say on the internet and lay out a vision for
a future and ask people to trust you with their
(22:46):
vote than it is to threaten violence. I just go
back to we can't let people like this win win,
Let the fear win, you know, let people be pushed out.
And we've seen a exodus of clerks and election workers
and you know, just good people who are trying to
do a good job who didn't sign up for this.
(23:08):
Nobody signed up for this, And we have to get
back to what we said at the top, just sanity
and common sense, where we can disagree with each other
without worrying that somebody's going to take that as a
sign to attack you in a really dangerous way.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
How does the gun issue play in that state. I
would imagine in a state that's very urban and then
very rural and everything in between. Is it a big
pro gun voters there?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I mean, yes, we are. This is a state where
we have hunting break in the legislature. We shut down
for two weeks at the start of hunting season. And
I grew up in you know, a rural small town.
We had guns in my house. This is this was normal.
But this is also a state that has been devastated
by gun violence. We had the Oxford High School shooting
(23:56):
here in Michigan, and there were kids who I met
who had survived that who decided to go to Michigan
State to stay closer to home because they were still traumatized,
only to survive another school shooting a few months later.
I'm somebody. I lost a friend of mine who was
killed in the Virginia Tech shooting. So we have passed
(24:16):
in Michigan, universal background checks, safe storage, We closed the
domestic violence loophole. My first bill ever signed into law
created Michigan's Red Flag law. And I have to tell you.
I mean, we polled for some of the bills that
we passed, and on universal background checks and safe storage,
it was over ninety percent of Republican gun owners supported
(24:40):
this legislation. So there's a real if we can bring
people together to say, to protect the Second Amendment and
your right to own guns and go out hunting and
everything you want to do, we have to pass legislation
that keeps everybody safe. It just in the last two
days alone, we've had a shooting at a church and
then a shooting in royal Oktown, which is part of
(25:00):
my district, right just overnight in a park.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
It's strange to think that in the modern world that's
a factor for people that you're going to get shot
somewhere in public. It is, Yeah, what do you think
you need to say to Republicans to embrace you, because
it would be helpful if you could get a few
of their votes too. Well.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I wouldn't be in office if Republicans didn't vote for me.
I mean, I flipped a Republican district. There are universal
values that we all share, and at the end of
the day, you want to know that government works for you.
It has to be functional. It has to be saying
we have to acknowledge that some programs don't work, and
we do require oversight. We have to be fiscally responsible,
(25:38):
and we just got to get out of chaos. One
of my closest friends and colleagues is a guy named
Senator John Demouse. He's a conservative Republican from northern Michigan.
He and I are working on legislation to effectively modernize
our state's economy so that we support more agriculture and
small businesses and tourism and startups are not so uniquely
(26:02):
tied to the auto industry. He's also somebody who he
used to work for a commercial production company, so he's
talked about Michigan having film tax credits in a way
that we don't before. So how do we expand our economy?
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And what do you think about as a person who's
in the entertainment business, tell me what you think about
tax credits for the film industry.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
I think like Michigan does way too often. We didn't
allow it enough time to succeed. I have become pretty
good friends with Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson, who they
created Detroiters, and now there's I think you should leave
and Sam was on VEEP and they did a virtual
fundraiser for me a couple of years ago. It was
(26:42):
a Detroiter's reunion, which people here really loved, and they said,
very candidly, you know, we sold this show to Comedy
Central when the film credits still existed, and we couldn't
make it today just because no more film credits. We
change of administration. It was something under Governor Granholm, who
was a Democrat. She passed it and then Rick Snyder, Republican,
(27:04):
came in and eliminated them, and we saw, you know,
an industry was starting to grow and it just collapsed.
And there are a lot of young people, especially who
may not love cars the way that I love cars
and don't necessarily want to work in the auto industry,
but they want to make movies. And we have to
diversify our economy and forst stale like cars. I mean,
we have everything. We have every location. We have Detroit,
(27:26):
we have outdoors, we have ranches, we have farms, We've
got you know, urban suburban environments. We have every location
you could possibly want to shoot anything in. We just
need to allow it industry to grow. They got rid
of it here because the Republicans framed it as as
handouts to Hollywood elites and completely missed you know, the
local crew, the local talent, the people, high paying jobs
(27:47):
for the local crew, high paying jobs. You know, we
have had a really strong advertising industry related to the
automotive industry because it's all right here, so we have
advertising agencies, but that business has declined, and we do
have a lot of young people who want to get
into production and media and content and telling stories and
have nowhere to go and ultimately leave the state.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Are you hopeful, if not counting on the Senate flipping
next year in time for your arrival.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
It would be so nice if it did. That would
make things a lot easier. I am under no fallse
ilution that that is a likely outcome. I feel much
more confident that the House flips and that the Senate,
just given the map, stays under Republican control, although narrow,
which is why a part of my pitch is that
I've already done this on the state level. I got elected,
(28:36):
I came into the minority, I built up a political
operation to support other candidates to help us take back power,
and I can do the same thing in the United States.
Senate Gary Peters, our retiring senator, was the chair of
the d SC last cycle. So that's shoes that I
am hoping to fill.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Michigan State Senate whip Mallory mcmurrow. If you're enjoying this conversation,
tell a friend and be sure to follow Here's the
Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get
your podcasts. When we come back, mcmurroe talks about her
concerns for Michigan's auto industry in the wake of Trump's
tariff policies. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's
(29:31):
the Thing. As Malorie mcmurroe continues her campaign for the
United States Senate, I wanted to hear more about what
she hopes to accomplish for her Michigan constituents if elected
to serve in Washington.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
So Michigan is the canary in the coal mine when
we hit the recession, because we are so tied to
the auto industry. We went down first, we went down hardest,
and it took us longer than any other state to recover.
Thinking about the tariff policy right now, what a lot
of people don't realize is that a car may cross
(30:06):
the border between Michigan and Canada two dozen times as
it is being assembled and manufactured. And if you've got
a tariff being hit on that vehicle, your Cadillac two
dozen times before it finally gets assembled, that car is
now ten thousand dollars more expensive. So getting to a
place where we are reforming our economic policy so it's strategic,
(30:28):
gets thoughtful. This is also a state who was really
badly hurt by NATO and globalization. But the answer from
this administration to put reciprocal tariffs on absolutely everything. We're
not about to grow bananas in Michigan. But getting back
to a place, you know, again, for us, for our economy,
it's about sanity. It's about bringing experts to the table,
(30:50):
having a voice at the table, and putting forward policy
that is not ready fire aim where you just throw
everything at the wall and see what sticks and see
what the backlash is. And we need that. You know,
Michigan is currently one of the oldest states in the country.
We have more people getting ready to retire than we
have young people coming into the workforce. So that's going
(31:10):
to be a big focus of mine, is how do
we need to position our state, which is an affordable
place to live, which is home of eighty five percent
of the nation's fresh water in the Great Lakes.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Wow, a lot of stewardship involved in states like that
with that water body, isn't it true?
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Absolutely, we are starting to see people move to Michigan
as effectively climate refugees. People who can't get a homeowner's
policy in California or Florida are now coming to Michigan.
So that is devastating just as a reality for the country,
but it's an opportunity for Michigan, and from my stance,
the next US Senator for Michigan has to help our
(31:48):
state be prepared to accept people when they come here.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
There are a lot of is it Minnesota or Michigan.
What is the one that has the huge population of
Vietnamese refugees or is it Cambodian refugeuse I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
The Minnesota has hired. We have a very diverse state.
We have a lot of Indian American immigrants.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Patty to India like neighbor of Pakistan India Oka. Yes, correctly,
I apologize as I'm listening now, I'm so high, I'm
so hyper vigilant now every time I'm talking to something.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
That's the walking on eggshells thing.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah, exactly exactly. I called somebody an actress the other
day and they were glad to me, like, don't you
call her an actress? She's the actor like you, there's
an actor now, no actress. I'm like, oh god, okay,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please don't cancel me.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We gotta stop.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Can I just say, like, as a party, we need
to stop canceling everybody. We need we need to build
a tent welcome people in. If you accidentally say the
wrong thing.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I mean you yourself have been the victim of that, correct.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
I was, yeah, And because life is like an episode
of TV, I was sexually harassed by a colleague during
sexual harassment training.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
No, seriously, he did he did it?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Yeah, it was a guy. I detail it, go into
detail in my book about it, and I wasn't going
to say anything. But then months later he did the
same thing to a young reporter and I knew I
could speak up, but we were taking a break from
sexual harassment training and I walked over and I introduced
myself and he said, who did you beat? And I
told him who My opponent was and at this point
(33:17):
he was holding my hand. He put his other hand
around my body, basically on my ass, and looked me
up and down and said, I can see why.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Okay, well, so I'm going to send you a suit
of armor. You can wear it to Washington, could go
to serve the Senate every day. Is that your daughter,
by the way in the background.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah, she just got home from school, a babysitter Hauser.
So there was a little voice, she's upstairs sown.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Now. You just had a curiosity because I am a
I lapsed and I come back, and I lapsed and
I come back sometimes I'm back strong. I'm a Catholic
and you were raised a Catholic? Sure was Is that
why you went to Notre Dame? Did you want to
go to a Catholic college.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
I didn't want to go to a Catholic college. Truly.
We had a falling out with our church, if you will.
So my parents got divorced when I was seven.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
And I read them about what they said about your mom.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Yeah, and my mom taught CCD, so you know, she
was doing everything. She volunteered at the church. I was
in the choir and it got to a place where
there were a number of other things that went wrong,
and the community that my mom was looking for was
very clearly not there in my church. So we left
and I ended up at Notre Dame because there was
(34:27):
a service aspect of Catholicism and the ethos of the
school that I really liked. I liked that all of
our projects and our work were grounded in giving back
to the community. And it was much more chill to
go to Mass in your pajamas in the dorm. It
felt a little more welcoming than the church usually.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Is so interesting how those people are emissaries for the
faith itself and they just don't understand that role. They
really don't. I mean, I had priests, you know. I remember
one time I said to this priest that other philosophies
have anything they hold, any truths for you or any
meaning to you. And he goes and he had that
classic long Island accent. He's from the Island. Oh, yes,
(35:08):
of course, he said, yes, of course, he said. Sometimes
I think I think the Buddhists have something to say,
the Hindus, the Jews, everything, I think everyone has cut
some contribution. He goes, Sometimes I just think that the
Catholics have the best real estate to hang out in.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Oh well, that the accent. By the way, my dad
is from Long Island, so my grandma is from Hicksville.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
No Billy Joelsh, Billy Joel's from here.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
So exactly. So my grandma still lives in Long Island,
and she would watch every single Michigan Senate session. She
would stream it, and then she would call me on
Fridays to debrief, and in the same accent, she would go, Mallory,
those people talk way too much. That other senator. He
never has anything good to say, and you never get
(35:55):
to ask any questions. And he needs to let you
talk a little more, you know. Can you tell him that.
I'm like, Okay, you.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Have a great New York accents. It's great. You should
come here and run. You'll pass. You would pass. Best
of luck with the primary. We need tough women. We
need more tough women. If you talk about the issues
and you keep jabbing with that, you got a good
shot at winning. You're very, very talented.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
My thanks to Michigan State Senator Mallory mcmurrow. You can
learn more about her campaign at mcmurrow from Michigan dot Com.
This episode was recorded at CDM Studios in New York City.
Were produced by Kathleen Brusso, Zach MacNeice, and Victoria De Martin.
Our engineer is Frank Imperial. Our social media manager is
(36:44):
Danielle Gingrich. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's the Thing is brought
to you by iHeart Radio one
Host
Alec Baldwin
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