How will Lawrence win a congressional seat?

The standard political response during the nation’s longest federal government shutdown?

Your standard rhetorical game.

(Insert Democrat here) accused (insert Republican here) of starving Americans to prove a political point.

(Insert Republican here) pinned the entire shutdown on (insert Democrat here) for voting against another continuation budget (insert number here?).

Will Lawrence didn’t play the standard Mad Lib game. Then again, Will Lawrence isn’t your standard political candidate either.

Lawrence’s quest for the 7th Congressional District led him to pop a squat outside of incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett’s Lansing office at the corner of Walnut and Ottawa across the street from the state Capitol starting on Oct. 30.

That’s where he stayed for 36 hours.

Collecting food for the hungry.

Greeting well wishers.

Talking to passers-by.

Sleeping on the lava rocks covering the curb strip at the corner of Walnut and Ottawa.

Dressed in three coats, running off coffee and packaged snacks, Lawrence was doing something, in his mind. If Barrett and the Republicans were fine with a shutdown that let Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients go without their entire monthly allotment, Lawrence figured he’d at least raise some bucks and get some food for the food banks to help those in need.

He raised more than $2,185 – 60 percent to the food bank, 40 percent to the congressional campaign – and boxes and boxes of food. And another $285 in cash just for the food banks.

“If we all do only what we’re supposed to do, then we can guarantee that the downward spiral will continue. That’s what the status quo is now,” Lawrence said. “Any way that we can express the urgency that we feel and the passion that we feel for caring for people who are in need, as people are getting squeezed and becoming poor right before our eyes, we got to do.”

It was all just a gimmick, right? An attention ploy?

Here’s a 35-year-old, hometown, lightly-funded congressional candidate trying to draw himself a headline.

He’ll take whatever he can get.

He’s running against two well-heeled primary opponents with D.C. consultants making it rain all over the country. One is the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. The other is a former U.S. Navy SEAL who carried the “atomic football” for President Barack Obama.

You could easily make those arguments.

But it’s probably more accurate to say that sit-ins or lengthy demonstrations are in Will Lawrence’s universe.

Lawrence is not a candidate who looks and sounds like something straight out of central casting. He’s an activist. He fires people up over high rent, low affordable housing stock and renewable energy.

That’s what he did with MI Rent is Too Damn High, the Mid-Michigan Tenant Resource Center, the Green New Deal Network and the Sunrise Movement.

He’s more comfortable with a megaphone than a microphone.

Since graduating from East Lansing High School in 2008, Lawrence has gravitated toward jobs and opportunities that advance a cause. He’s been a cog in the wheel, trying to solve problems larger than himself.

That’s how he sees himself in this race.

“This is so much bigger than one election,” Lawrence told supporters last week. “I couldn’t stand before you as an organizer, as somebody who spent my life building movements … and tell you that campaigning for me and winning one election is going to solve all our problems, because it obviously is not.”

That’s what drew Sam Inglot to the campaign. For the past 12 years, Inglot advanced progressive causes for Progress Michigan, most recently as its executive director.

This past summer, while transitioning out of that role, Inglot was tapped on the shoulder to run Lawrence’s congressional campaign.

It wasn’t your traditional pick for a campaign manager. Inglot doesn’t come from the political campaign world, per se.

Unlike most people who run a congressional campaign (especially a serious one in a politically competitive district like MI-7), Inglot hasn’t bounced around the country. He’s not a single guy making his career switching horses every two years.

Inglot is a 35-year-old Lansing guy, too, living in the area his entire adult life, now with a wife and young daughter.

Like Lawrence, he’s a true believer. He said he’s tired of the “corporate oligarchs” running the show, Washington, D.C. dictating to mid-Michigan what type of person should represent them.

For Inglot, it’s time for a genuine servant of the people to rise to represent this area.

“I could probably name on one hand the number of people who I’d drop everything for and do something like this for,” Inglot said. “Will is one of those people.”

He’s not the only one feeling inspired. Far from it.

Despite being the last of four Democrats to announce campaigns in this district, Lawrence was the first to turn into the Bureau of Election the signatures needed to qualify for the August 2026 primary ballot.

By law, Lawrence needs to turn in at least 1,000 and no more than 2,000 valid signatures by 4 p.m. on April 21, 2026. He turned in 2,000 on Oct. 28, 2025.

All of the signatures were collected in six weeks by 7th District residents and zero from a paid petition circulator company, according to the campaign. A few circulators were paid if they sacrificed shifts at work or otherwise needed the money to make ends meet.

Otherwise, 90 percent of the names came from volunteers, according to the campaign.

On Nov. 5, a few days after his outdoor food drive, around 60 people milled around Lansing’s Central United Methodist Church’s main gathering space, ready to take the next step with the Lawrence campaign.

“Who here signed a nominating petition to help me get on the ballot?” Lawrence asked the gathering. Every hand shot up.

“Who here has donated to the campaign?” he asked again. At least two-thirds of the hands went up.

“Who here has hosted a house party or a meet and greet or some other opportunity to meet people?” Lawrence asked. A smattering of five or six people raised their hands. Everyone clapped.

The point of the headcount was to lay the foundation for how Lawrence’s congressional campaign was going to work.

First, he said he’s in the race to win.

Second, he knows he’s not going to win going dollar for dollar with the presumed frontrunners: Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink.

Third, his campaign is built on a community movement, a message of “real representation” that takes “political control away from the establishment and puts it back in the hands of the people.”

It’s like how Zohran Mamdani won in New York City.

Lawrence is looking for an army of volunteers to personally share his message. Lawrence wants the army of a few hundred people to show up at 100,000 doorsteps between now and Aug. 5 as opposed to blanketing WLNS and WILX airwaves with 30-second spots in June and July.

“This is the bar that we’re going to reach for,” Lawrence told the gathering. “It’s not going to happen overnight . . . but this is a race to win now, because we don’t have time to waste.”

He wasn’t asking them to stuff envelopes or stick fliers into storm door handles. He wants ambassadors. He wants people willing to talk to friends and neighbors about why electing a Lansing area guy, with progressive activism running through his veins, is the way to go.

Meanwhile, he’s vowing to raise $1 million and take 100 canvassing shifts over the next nine months to make this happen. He’s not going to shy away from his platform.

It’s not an overly sanitized list of vague ideas work-grouped to reach a specific demographic.

Oh, no. This is a bible of progressive ideas, front and back.

 – Make housing affordable with a federal tenant bill of rights to level the playing field between tenants and “price-gouging” landlords.

 – Medicare for All, removing the profit motive from health insurers.

 – End homelessness with a “Housing First” plan by pushing for more affordable housing

 – “Ending the ICE occupation of American cities and streets”

 – Creating a “minimum wealth tax rate”

The other dozen platform positions are on his website, but you get the idea.

“There are consultants in D.C. who say that the way to win an election like this is not to talk to voters,” Lawrence told the gathering. “That’s how some of my opponents in the Democratic primary are campaigning. The consultants say, ‘Voters are like goldfish. They have short-term memories.’

“They say, ‘All that matters is how many TV ads you can show them and how many mailers you can send them in the last four weeks of the election, so don’t bother talking to them for next year. Every minute you spend talking to a voter is a minute you’re not calling donors who do not even live in the district.’

“Is there any wonder that it feels like we are not represented in D.C.?” Lawrence said. “It feels like our representatives represent D.C. to us and tell us all of the things that are impossible and why our fundamental needs are unreasonable.

“Well, I refuse to campaign that way. The job is to represent the people of this district, and if I’m not talking to the voters, I will be less qualified to represent you.”

Lawrence had every person in the church out of their seat with his 20-minute speech. One table was signing up ambassadors. Another table was signing up leaders for other roles. Both were swarmed.

The canvassing training kicked off with folks like Rick Giennapp of Brighton signing up.

“It’s time to let a new generation take over, let them decide what they want it to look like,” Gienapp said.

Ingham County Commissioner Bob Peña was there, too.

“I like his freshness. He’s not doing anything for any party members. He’s just representing the people,” Peña said.

Among those leading the charge in recruiting volunteers was Curt Hamilton of rural Livingston County, where Democrats are few and far between.

Hamilton said he likes the other two Democrats in the race as well, but likes Lawrence’s seemingly unscripted passion for the issues.

“I feel like Will’s connection with people will resonate in our areas where we’re ignored,” he said.

What Lawrence is attempting to do in winning a nationally competitive seat that brought in $40 million in TV and video spending is difficult. Some would say it’s impossible.

In 2023, former state Rep. Leslie Love, now a political consultant, made a long-shot bid for the U.S. Senate, hoping her personal and political connections would get the ball rolling on an organic campaign.

She dropped out three months before the filing deadline.

“Congressional races aren’t what they used to be,” Love said. “They are a money game. You have to pay to get into Congress. You could see greater voter turnout if that person has a reputation for moving mass crowds, but it’s very unlikely. Money talks on the congressional level.”

Someone who knows a little something about Lansing-area politics is Randy Hannon, former Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero’s right-hand man for years. He’s now with Bellwether Public Relations.

“Lawrence has a slim-to-none chance of winning the Dem primary against Maasdam and Bridget Brinks, both of whom will have boatloads of cash,” he said. “Lawrence will struggle to raise and spend enough money to elevate his name ID to a competitive level.”

But that’s not a unanimous belief.

Outside of being a Michigan State University trustee, Dennis Denno has helped successful, primarily urban, candidates behind the scenes.

He said there’s no question that if Lawrence’s opponents split “traditional” Democratic voters and he can coalesce progressive voters, Lawrence has a path to win the primary.

“Running true grassroots campaigns requires a lot of work and a lot of time, but if done right, they can be extremely powerful,” he said. “And if Lawrence’s progressive message is about lowering costs, fair wages and affordable housing, he will be in a strong position to win the general.

“But if his progressive message leans on progressive social issues, he will be a dead man walking.”

MoReno Taylor, chief executive officer of the Taylor MADE Consulting Group, shared a similar analysis.

“There’s definitely a path to victory for candidates who authentically engage with the people of the district, address the issues and concerns important to them, and who voters believe will actually represent the working class,” Taylor said.

“Strategically, this is probably not the best time to be aligning yourself with D.C., even for the financial benefit.”