Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful Mallory McMorrow is facing scrutiny after approximately 6,000 social media posts, which she had deleted after launching her campaign, were recovered through archived records. A CNN KFile investigation utilized the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to surface the extensive collection of posts, which touch on issues ranging from McMorrow’s residency history to her views on national politics and the U.S. Supreme Court. The revelations come as McMorrow campaigns as a centrist option in a crucial Senate race.
"I was like, I would not be able to control myself. That would be bad. There would be beers thrown in people’s faces." — Mallory McMorrow, Michigan Democratic Senate Candidate
The controversy surrounding McMorrow's residency is particularly prominent among the recovered posts. In her 2025 autobiography, McMorrow stated she "relocated permanently" to Michigan in 2014. However, the archived posts suggest a more complex timeline. A CNN review found posts from as late as July 2016 where McMorrow described herself as a California resident, referenced voting in California’s June 2016 Democratic primary, and identified herself as a constituent of California Democratic Representative Ted Lieu. Public records confirm she did not register to vote in Michigan until August 2016. This timeline contrasts with her own public statements in 2024, where she condemned a voter for casting a ballot in a state where they no longer lived, characterizing the act as “illegal.”
Mallory McMorrow's campaign quickly addressed the residency questions. Spokesperson Hannah Lindow stated that the California-to-Michigan transition was "a process" that was not fully complete until mid-2016. Lindow clarified that McMorrow remained registered in California during that period and voted by mail in the June primary, characterizing 2014 as the beginning of the move rather than its conclusion. Lindow also described the removed posts generally as “normal tweets by a normal person,” pointing to McMorrow’s legislative record in the state on issues such as wages, universal pre-kindergarten, school meal programs, and gun legislation. The campaign declined to specify which individual positions McMorrow currently holds from the content of the deleted posts.
Beyond the residency issue, the recovered posts reveal a range of McMorrow’s past opinions. In November 2016, following President Donald Trump’s election victory, McMorrow wrote that one of her “first reactions” was “I wish I never left California,” although she followed this by expressing a desire to buy a home in Detroit after a week in the city. A December 2016 post detailed a dream McMorrow had where the U.S. "amicably broke off into The Ring (coasts + Can + Mex + parts Mich/Tex) and Middle America," with "The Ring" nominating Barack Obama as Prime Minister and offering $1,000 and six months to choose a side.
Other posts show McMorrow comparing President Trump and his supporters to Nazis, expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and declaring “Cars are dead” — a statement that could be seen as notable for a candidate seeking to represent Michigan, a state deeply tied to the automotive industry. A 2014 post also indicated McMorrow's pride in her alma mater, Notre Dame, for offering a "White Privilege seminar."
McMorrow’s comments regarding members of the U.S. Supreme Court had already drawn attention prior to the surfacing of these deleted posts. During a public discussion about the Court, she questioned the utility of engaging with the justices. “Is there any sense in dealing with the Supreme Court, writing them, calling them?” she reportedly said. “I blame them for a lot. I don’t know what to do about that, you know. I call, but I just don’t know if it’s a waste of time.” She then recounted learning that Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a fellow Notre Dame alumna, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh had been seen together at a tailgate. McMorrow remarked, “I was like, I would not be able to control myself. That would be bad. There would be beers thrown in people’s faces.”
The Michigan Senate race is considered one of the most consequential in the country, potentially determining control of the chamber. It is one of only two seats currently held by Democrats in states that President Trump carried in 2024, with Georgia holding the other. McMorrow is competing against Representative Haley Stevens and progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic primary scheduled for August. The newly surfaced posts complicate McMorrow's campaign strategy of positioning herself as a centrist choice to voters.
