QnA with Adam Hollier, running again to unseat Thanedar in Congress
Former state Sen. Adam Hollier is planning another run to unseat U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar. Hollier says collecting valid petition signatures won't be an issue this time.
Adam Hollier is hoping the third time’s the charm.
The Democratic former state senator announced this week he will make his third bid for the U.S. House seat representing Detroit, Downriver and the Grosse Pointes in 2026.
Hollier lost to former state Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit, in 2022, finishing as the runner-up in the Democratic primary. In the 2022 election, nine candidates helped split the vote, which Thanedar won by 3,797 votes. In 2024, fraudulent petition signatures challenged by U.S. Rep. Thanedar ended Hollier’s campaign.
Thanedar went on to defeat City Council member Mary Waters, whose campaign earned the support of Mayor Mike Duggan, but drew the ire of an AIPAC connected group which spent millions on negative mailers against her.
Local Black leaders as well as members of the Congressional Black Caucus have annointed Hollier as the candidate to unseat Thanedar.
His unsuccessful 2024 campaign was supported by former U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, Wayne County executive Warren Evans, Wayne County Commissioner Alisha Bell and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak.
Thanedar is the first non-Black official to hold the seat in nearly 70 years. You can see his entire voting record in Congress here.
The following QnA has been lightly edited for clarity.
Sam: Why are you running again?
Hollier: “If Congressman Thanedar was doing a great job, I wouldn’t be running against him. I am not somebody who runs because I want to see my face in lights or on a billboard or pay actors to be in a commercial saying I did a great job. That’s not who I am. I’m committed to my community and if you look at the work I’ve spent my entire life doing, it’s about serving my neighbors, my community, my constitutuents and this country as a captian in the army, as a volunteer coordinator, as a volunteer firefighter and as a legislator.
I’m doing that work. You’re doing a cleanup? I’m there. When there’s opportunities to serve, I’m like ‘Pick me, pick me!’ Our congressman has not done those things. Instead of hiring people to do the work, he hired actors to say he was doing a great job. He put up a bunch of billboards and a bunch of mailers. That money could have gone toward real people, helping residents get benefits. Real staffers building relationships to get legislation passed, something that he has not done at all.”
Read more from Melissa Nann Burke: Thanedar taps taxpayer funds to reimburse himself for 'mind boggling' advertising blitz
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