KFile: Swing-seat Democrat deleted posts envisioning ‘a world without police and prisons’

Andrew Roth/Sipa USA/Alamy

William Lawrence, the Democratic nominee in one of the country’s most competitive House races in Michigan, deleted hundreds of old social media posts in which he embraced police and prison abolition, called for nationalizing fossil-fuel companies to end their production, attacked moderate Democrats and argued for a “fundamental overhaul” of the Constitution.

Other deleted posts show Lawrence writing “f**k” the nuclear-family home and calling it an “isolating, individualistic, violent way of organizing society,” envisioning “a world of free and open migration,” and calling to “Abolish the Senate.”

Lawrence even wrote a song inspired by moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s resistance to Democrats’ climate agenda: “Our generation says f**k you for everything,” Lawrence wrote in lyrics he posted in December 2021. “Hurry up and die so that we can get started.”

The deleted posts, most of which have not been previously reported and came under a previous Twitter handle, stretch back years to when Lawrence, now 36, was building his career as a progressive organizer as an original co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, helping propel the Green New Deal into Democratic politics in 2018.

Since winning the Democratic primary in August, he’s now the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, running against incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Barrett, who is seeking to win his first reelection.

Michigan’s 7th is one of the country’s truest House battleground tests: President Donald Trump carried it by less than two points in 2024 and the district was previously represented by now-Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin.

But Lawrence’s past rhetoric may complicate Democrats’ ability to retake the district, especially those deleted posts which include attacks aimed at fellow Democrats from the party’s more moderate wing, including Slotkin.

In January 2020, Lawrence attacked then-Rep. Slotkin, writing that he was “ashamed to be represented” by her and calling her a “supposed Democrat” over her response to President Donald Trump’s decision to order a deadly strike on Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, saying she did not condemn Trump.

Lawrence has since distanced himself from at least some of his earlier positions. He told Semafor last month that his past posts supporting the 2020 “defund the police” movement “are out of step with what I believe now.” Last month, he told CNN’s Manu Raju that he let his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America “lapse” in July.

He told CNN in a further statement he regretted his past comments on Sen. Slotkin and said he did not support defunding the police or open borders.

“Like many millennials, I’ve done my fair share of thinking out loud on the internet. I’ve been clear that I disagree today with some things I posted in the past. I don’t support defunding the police or open borders. I don’t agree with my previous statement about Senator Slotkin, who has been fiercely critical of the Trump administration’s war in Iran and is doing essential work to protect the integrity of the upcoming election. I remain a staunch critic of the political status quo, and the obscene concentration of wealth and power that corrupts our politics and leaves working people unrepresented.

He’s one of a number of progressive candidates this cycle to face scrutiny over a scrubbed social-media history. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, has faced criticism over deleted posts supporting the “defund the police” movement, as well as since-removed YouTube videos in which he suggested football was racist.

Also in Michigan, El-Sayed’s one-time rival for the Democratic Senate nomination Mallory McMorrow suspended her campaign months after CNN reported that she had deleted thousands of old tweets.

In Wisconsin, democratic socialist Francesca Hong lost her gubernatorial primary after her deleted posts uncovered by CNN became a late issue in the race, while in New York City, DSA-backed Darializa Avila Chevalier upset longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat after CNN uncovered a deleted account containing calls to abolish police, prisons and borders and embraces of communism s .

Lawrence’s ideological arguments stretched well beyond Democratic infighting.

In 2021, Lawrence praised the Minneapolis activist group Black Visions, writing that its ‘defund the police’ campaign had brought the country “nearer to a world without police and prisons.”

In August 2022, he argued that remaining fossil-fuel production should be wound down through a “more confrontational” strategy, writing that it “should happen through forced nationalization and that should be our demand.” In October 2021, he pushed for then-President Joe Biden to “promise” to “end the coal industry,” through an executive order.

Later in August 2022, Lawrence summarized his politics as “social democrat in the streets, libertarian socialist in the sheets.”

He repeatedly took aim at the nuclear family home as well.

“F**k isolation and the nuclear family domicile,” Lawrence wrote in 2021 while praising communal living. The following year, he went further, calling the nuclear-family home an “isolating, individualistic, violent way of organizing society.” “I don’t want to be part of that,” he wrote.

Days later, Lawrence argued that the “hetero-patriarchial nuclear family” is a “MATERIAL foundation of wealth accumulation” because inheritance was concentrated through male family lines, while writing that “Queer families create MATERIAL conditions for solidarity and wealth sharing.”

His critiques extended to America’s political and economic order more broadly.

On Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2020, Lawrence thanked indigenous writers and organizers who he said helped him “imagine a world beyond the nation-state and capitalism.”

“May the 21st century begin an indigenous millennium,” he wrote.

In another post, Lawrence declared: “Racial capitalism is the problem. Empire is the problem.”

And in 2021 he urged readers to “envision a world of free and open migration,” answering his own question — “You mean, ANYBODY can move ANYWHERE??” — with an emphatic: “Yes!”

Many of Lawrence’s now deleted posts were also attacks aimed at more moderate members of the Democratic Party.

Following the 2020 election, when Democratic then-Rep. Abigail Spanberger criticized “defund the police” and socialist rhetoric, Lawrence dismissed her comments as a “tantrum” and warned that “timid Dems” could “leave the Party” if they could not accept the activist left.

In another intra-party fight over President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, Lawrence warned that if the bill failed to pass the House, he urged progressives to go “scorched earth” on conservative Democrats and the “absolute rubes throughout the party who believed them.”

Months later, responding to a moderate account, he wrote, “You f**king morons,” for questioning why Republicans overturned Roe. v. Wade before the 2022 midterm elections.

Lawrence also questioned whether Democrats should seek broad governing majorities at all if it meant sacrificing their values.

He wrote that it was “better to be a minority party that stands for something than a majority party that can’t govern,” arguing that it was sometimes necessary “to divide in order to unite a stronger and more coherent force.” In another post, he declared: “It’s time for the Dem civil war to rage.”

Andrew Roth/Sipa USA/Alamy

威廉·劳伦斯是密歇根州竞争最激烈的众议院选举之一的民主党候选人，他删除了数百条旧的社交媒体帖子，这些帖子支持废除警察和监狱，呼吁将化石燃料公司国有化以停止其生产，攻击温和派民主党人，并主张对宪法进行“根本性改革”。

其他被删除的帖子显示，劳伦斯写道“去他妈的”核心家庭，称其为“一种孤立的、个人主义的、暴力的社会组织方式”，设想“一个自由开放的移民世界”，并呼吁“废除参议院”。

劳伦斯甚至创作了一首歌，灵感来自温和派民主党参议员乔·曼钦对民主党气候议程的抵制：“我们这一代人对一切都说‘去你的’，”劳伦斯在2021年12月发布的歌词中写道。“快点去死吧，这样我们才能开始行动。”

被删除的帖子大多此前未被报道，且发布于劳伦斯之前的推特账号下。这些帖子可以追溯到几年前，当时现年 36 岁的劳伦斯正作为“日出运动”的联合创始人之一，努力成为一名进步组织者，并于 2018 年帮助推动了“绿色新政”进入民主党政治领域。

自 8 月份赢得民主党初选以来，他现在是密歇根州第七国会选区的民主党候选人，与寻求连任的现任共和党众议员汤姆·巴雷特展开竞争。

密歇根州第 7 选区是美国众议院真正的战场之一：唐纳德·特朗普总统在 2024 年以不到两个百分点的优势赢得了该选区，而该选区此前由现任民主党参议员埃莉萨·斯洛特金代表。

但劳伦斯过去的言论可能会使民主党人重新夺回该选区的能力变得复杂，尤其是那些被删除的帖子，其中包含针对民主党温和派同僚（包括斯洛特金）的攻击。

2020 年 1 月，劳伦斯攻击了当时的众议员斯洛特金，他写道，他“为能被她代表而感到羞耻”，并称她为“所谓的民主党人”，因为她对唐纳德·特朗普总统下令对伊朗将军卡西姆·苏莱曼尼进行致命打击的决定没有谴责特朗普。

劳伦斯此后至少在某些方面与他之前的立场划清了界限。他上个月告诉Semafor，他过去支持2020年“取消警察经费”运动的言论“与我现在的想法不符”。上个月，他告诉CNN的马努·拉朱，他已于7月“失效”了自己在美国民主社会主义者协会的会员资格。

他在随后的声明中告诉 CNN，他对自己过去对参议员斯洛特金的评论感到后悔，并表示他不支持削减警察经费或开放边境。

“和许多千禧一代一样，我经常在网上发表自己的看法。我曾明确表示，我今天不同意我过去发表的一些言论。我不支持削减警察经费或开放边境。我也不认同我之前对斯洛特金参议员的评价，她一直强烈批评特朗普政府对伊朗的战争，并且正在为维护即将到来的选举的公正性做出重要贡献。我仍然坚定地批评当前的政治现状，以及腐蚀我们政治、使劳动人民失去代表的财富和权力的过度集中。”

他是本届选举周期中众多因社交媒体历史记录被清除而受到审查的进步派候选人之一。密歇根州民主党参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德（Abdul El-Sayed）曾因删除支持“取消警察经费”运动的帖子以及后来被删除的YouTube视频而受到批评，他在视频中暗示橄榄球运动带有种族歧视色彩。

同样在密歇根州，埃尔-赛义德曾经的民主党参议员候选人竞争对手马洛里·麦克莫罗在 CNN 报道她删除了数千条旧推文数月后，暂停了她的竞选活动。

在威斯康星州，民主社会主义者弗朗西斯卡·洪在州长初选中落败，此前 CNN 曝光了她删除的帖子，这些帖子成为竞选后期的一个问题；而在纽约市，由美国民主社会主义者协会支持的达里亚利扎·阿维拉·谢瓦利埃在 CNN 曝光了一个已删除的账户后，击败了长期担任众议员的阿德里亚诺·埃斯帕伊拉特，该账户包含呼吁废除警察、监狱和边境以及拥抱共产主义的言论。

劳伦斯的意识形态论点远远超出了民主党内部的斗争。

2021 年，劳伦斯赞扬了明尼阿波利斯活动组织“黑人愿景”，他写道，该组织的“取消警察经费”运动使美国“更接近一个没有警察和监狱的世界”。

2022年8月，他认为剩余的化石燃料生产应该通过“更具对抗性”的策略逐步停止，并写道“这应该通过强制国有化来实现，这应该是我们的诉求”。2021年10月，他敦促时任总统乔·拜登通过行政命令“承诺”结束煤炭行业。

2022 年 8 月下旬，劳伦斯将自己的政治立场总结为“街头是社会民主主义者，床上是自由意志社会主义者”。

他还多次将矛头指向核心家庭。

“去他妈的隔离和核心家庭模式，”劳伦斯在2021年赞扬集体生活时写道。第二年，他的言论更加激烈，称核心家庭模式是“一种孤立、个人主义、充满暴力的社会组织方式”。他写道：“我不想成为其中的一部分。”

几天后，劳伦斯认为“异性恋父权制核心家庭”是“财富积累的物质基础”，因为继承权集中在男性家族血统中；同时他写道，“酷儿家庭为团结和财富共享创造了物质条件”。

他的批评范围更广，涵盖了美国的政治和经济秩序。

在 2020 年的国际原住民日，劳伦斯感谢了原住民作家和组织者，他说他们帮助他“想象了一个超越民族国家和资本主义的世界”。

“愿21世纪开启一个本土千年，”他写道。

劳伦斯在另一篇帖子中宣称：“种族资本主义才是问题所在。帝国主义才是问题所在。”

2021年，他敦促读者“设想一个自由开放的移民世界”，并用一个斩钉截铁的回答回答了他自己提出的问题——“你的意思是，任何人都可以搬到任何地方？？”——“是的！”

劳伦斯许多已被删除的帖子也都是针对民主党内较为温和的成员的攻击。

2020 年大选后，当时民主党众议员阿比盖尔·斯潘伯格批评了“取消警察经费”和社会主义言论，劳伦斯驳斥了她的言论，称其为“发脾气”，并警告说，如果“胆怯的民主党人”不能接受激进的左翼，他们可能会“离开党”。

在另一场围绕拜登总统“重建更美好未来”议程的党内斗争中，劳伦斯警告说，如果该法案未能获得众议院通过，他敦促进步人士对保守派民主党人和“党内所有相信他们的彻头彻尾的傻瓜”进行“焦土式”的打击。

几个月后，他回复一位温和派人士的评论时写道：“你们这些白痴！”因为该人士质疑共和党为何在 2022 年中期选举前推翻了罗诉韦德案。

劳伦斯还质疑，如果这意味着牺牲他们的价值观，民主党人是否应该寻求获得广泛的执政多数席位。

他写道，“与其做一个无法执政的多数党，不如做一个有立场的少数党”，并认为有时“为了团结一支更强大、更团结的力量，分裂是必要的”。在另一篇文章中，他宣称：“民主党内战该爆发了。”