Episode for August 26, 2025
I don’t have a news segment today because I was up late hosting our subscriber hangout and have to leave early to get on the road for a college visit with my daughter
Watch this conversation over at the YouTubes
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Today’s guest is Michigan State Senator Mallory Mcmorrow.
Mallory has joined me a few times before and I really enjoyed this conversation
Check out her Campaign Website and tell your friends in Michigan
Meet Mallory McMorrow
Mallory was raised with the small-town values she lives by today. Her front door was never locked, and kids from the neighborhood were always welcome to grab a snack, stay for dinner, or spend the night. Her mother worked full time, raised four kids and cared for her grandmother, who moved in when she was stricken with multiple sclerosis. The definition of hard work and selfless service, Mallory’s mom still found time to bring the community together for an annual town-wide yard sale and take Mallory and her siblings to volunteer at the local soup kitchen.
Following in her mother’s footsteps, at 12 years old, Mallory got her first job serving coffee at BINGO night at the local volunteer firehouse. By 16, she was a manager at a local family-run grocery store. She worked as a bartender and in various jobs on campus as she earned her degree from the University of Notre Dame, where she was nicknamed “car girl” by her classmates and in her senior year won an international car design competition. But when she graduated in the middle of the Great Recession of 2008 with no healthcare, no job prospects, and student loans coming due, Mallory went from designing cars to spending a few nights sleeping in the backseat of one as she tried to land on her feet.
Refusing to give up, Mallory became an industrial designer, creative director, and small business owner, working on concepts for everything from cars to Hot Wheels to documentary films to commercials, live events, and branding for local businesses. She never planned to enter the political arena, but fed up after the 2016 election – and driven by a belief that politics should be about service, not self-interest – she googled, “how to run for office.” Through sheer determination, she inspired hundreds of local volunteers to help her swing a Republican-held state Senate seat by 20 points, flipping a district that included Mitt Romney’s home town.
When a right-wing state senator baselessly referred to Mallory as a “groomer” in a fundraising email, she took to the floor of the Michigan state Senate and, in a now-viral speech, she memorably declared that, “we will not let hate win.” The speech showcased her courage and moral clarity, leading James Carville to say “I’d show this tape as an instructional video,” and the New York Times to label her “one of the Democratic Party’s most promising young talents.”
She used her newfound platform to help flip control of the Michigan Senate for the first time in 40 years, then she got to work: strengthening unions and raising wages, getting rid of the retirement tax on seniors, expanding civil rights, repealing the state’s 1931 abortion ban, banning child marriage, tackling gun violence, expanding affordable housing, feeding kids in schools, and so much more.
Mallory will bring that same determination to deliver for Michigan families to the U.S. Senate.
She and her husband Ray were married in Detroit’s Eastern Market. Along with their young daughter and rescue dog, they’re proud to call Royal Oak home.
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