McMorrow Submits 30,000 Petition Signatures

MICHIGAN – Today, Mallory McMorrow joined dozens of campaign volunteers to formally submit 30,000 nomination petition signatures to secure her name on the ballot in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race. McMorrow was the first candidate to submit all 30,000 signatures – double the required number and the maximum allowed by law.

Since the campaign launched a year ago, McMorrow volunteers have collected more than 30,000 petition signatures, growing momentum for her candidacy and building a grassroots movement across the state. Without using a single paid canvasser, McMorrow volunteers collected signatures in every single one of Michigan’s 83 counties, and exceeded the required geographic threshold of 100 signatures from seven of Michigan’s thirteen congressional districts.

In front of the Richard H. Austin Building, McMorrow highlighted the thousands of hours volunteers dedicated to collecting signatures and building momentum for this campaign – and the impact that volunteers have had throughout her successful campaigns to flip tough districts across the state.

“I'm incredibly proud of the campaign that we've built up, where we have a volunteer army, where we didn't have to rely on paid canvassers, where we have run a campaign where we have outraised just about everybody without taking a dime of corporate PAC donations,” said McMorrow.

Monica Quintana, a nurse practitioner who volunteers with McMorrow’s campaign introduced her at the event.

“The reason why Mallory resonated with me is that I saw her come across my feed on social media where she stood up for SNAP benefits while I was reading [about] the denial of senior citizens that I take care of,” said Quintana. “I believe in Mallory because she truly cares about the people. She is focused on strengthening our schools, lowering the cost of living and making healthcare more affordable – issues that matter to me deeply as a nurse practitioner, because that impacts the wellbeing of our communities. She leads with compassion, courage and commitment to bringing people together to solve problems.”

An excerpt of McMorrow's remarks is below:

“This is a huge day for all of us here. 30,000 signatures that were collected. And I just, I wanted to just thank all the volunteers. Round of applause for all of you. Because this was an effort entirely led by volunteers. We did this without a single paid canvasser, with people showing up. The requirements by law is to get 100 signatures from at least seven of the congressional districts to get on the ballot, to collect 15,000 signatures overall. Now, we collected over 30,000 ballot signatures. We are turning in 30,000. And yeah, because we are competitive, not only did we meet the congressional requirements, we got signatures from all 83 counties in Michigan. I’m really moved, and I'm really humbled. [...] It has been so moving to meet people like Monica, to meet people like Devon, to meet people like everybody standing behind me and with me, who pour their heart and soul into this. Carl – you knew I was going to call Carl out. 

“Carl had never canvassed until, not even this campaign, but on an effort that I ran with my state PAC to help state legislators. Carl came out, out of nowhere and decided he was going to step out of his comfort zone and start canvassing. Carl showed up at every single canvas kickoff after that, when nobody was paying attention, where we didn't have press gaggles because nobody cared about what we were doing in the state legislature. But we did, because we knew that that was how we could make change. 

“When I first ran for state senate in 2018 I ran in a district against a Republican incumbent who had won his district by 16 points. And even some of the local Democratic Party leaders told me I had no business running in that race, and that we had no chance. But there were so many volunteers who believed that we could be better and that we deserved better. And we came together, and we knocked thousands of doors, and we hosted a ton of events, and we swung that district 20 points in a single cycle, beating a Republican incumbent to get into office.

“Then, with the help of people like Carl and so many people who have helped me on my efforts over the last few years, we helped flip control of the entire state senate for the first time since 1984. And then, with the help of so many volunteers, we kept the pressure on, and we recognized that as Democrats, it's not enough just to get power. It's not it feels good to win, but winning alone is not enough.

“People are hurting right now, and people need us right now, and people want to see their lives be better right now. So we became the first state in 60 years to repeal ‘right to work.’ We restored prevailing wage, we passed sweeping gun violence prevention measures. We made school more affordable. We passed a universal pre K program, saving families ten to fifteen thousand dollars a year. We invested in our health care. We made it easier for our kids to have after school programs, because our kids are not waste, fraud and abuse, no matter what anybody in that building behind us says about them. [...]

“So I go into thinking about, hopefully the first six years in the Senate, recognizing we have our work cut out for us, but that I have a blueprint of knowing how to win, knowing how to build power, and then knowing how to build real relationships and coalitions. So we actually make people's lives better.”

View video from the event here.

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