Donavan D. McKinneyDonavan D. McKinney

Having survived 13 evictions as a child, Donavan knows the heavy toll of housing insecurity. In Congress, he will fight for federal tenant protections, affordable housing construction, and resources to prevent families from being displaced by predatory landlords.

Donavan McKinney is a lifelong Detroiter and father fighting for clean air, clean water, and environmental justice. As a State Representative, he has taken on corporate polluters and fought for communities harmed by pollution.

He’s a new generation of leadership ready to stand up to Trump, challenge billionaire interests, and fight for working families across Detroit and beyond.

For Representative McKinney, working to end gun violence is deeply personal. In high school, he attended 14 funerals for friends and family lost to gun violence.

Bernie Sanders endorsed. Progressive change candidate.

Donavan McKinney is a lifelong Detroiter, proud husband to the love of his life, Shaunté, and devoted father of two young children. He grew up poor in northeast Detroit and was raised by his mother and grandmother, who taught him the importance of community, leadership, and service. He is a proud product of Detroit Public Schools, and proud to be the first in the family that raised him to become a
college graduate (Go Blue!).

As a current State Representative for this district, his firsthand experience living with the problems many in his community face has led Donavan to fight for solutions in Lansing as big as those crises — and he's committed to continuing to push for bold, progressive policies in DC. Growing up in the shadow of Detroit's smokestacks and factories, Donavan developed an asthmatic cough he still has today — a cough his mother, grandmother, and brother have too, and a cough he's committed to preventing in his own two young children. In January 2020, two years before his election to the State House, Rep. McKinney made history with his appointment to Michigan's first Environment Justice Council by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, where he has advocated for water accessibility and affordability, and was instrumental in Gov. Whitmer's $2 million Water Restart Grant Program and her statewide Water Reconnection Executive Order during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the State House, Rep. McKinney has fought hard for his district. MI House District 11 is the poorest district in the state, with a median household income of less than $20,000. His priorities while in office include ensuring families have access to clean air and water, ensuring every child in Michigan receives a quality public education, bringing justice to the criminal justice system, promoting a robust and quality public transit system, and expanding the rights of unions and workers. He has worked to lower costs and increase affordability for the people of his district, such as through his efforts in the State House to advocate for free pre-K for all children in Michigan and to reduce Michiganders' utility bills. He has also led on efforts to transform the criminal legal system, such as in legislation he co-introduced to prohibit police officers tampering with body-camera evidence, to limit the use of no-knock warrants, and to revoke an officer's license if they use excessive force that results in a Michigander's death or serious bodily injury.

Since being elected, he has helped win more than $10 million in community violence intervention programs to Detroit and other areas, leading to the creation of Michigan's first-in-the-nation statewide CVI program, as well as helping secure millions of dollars for community rec centers and public schools, and helping fund over $600 million to replace lead pipesin Detroit and its suburbs. Because no parent should have to worry about their children's drinking water poisoning them, he is committed to elevating the voices of voters, helping lead the introduction of a slate of bills in the State House that would ban monopoly utility corporations and government contractors from making political donations. He is proud to be building a, big-tent coalition of community members in Detroit and its surrounding suburbs, from the Pointes to Southgate, Detroit, Romulus, and beyond.

Endorsed by Justice Dems, PAL PAC, Sunrise.

Lifelong Detroiter Donavan McKinney’s first-hand experience living the problems faced by his community has made him committed to push for bold, progressive policy in DC. In response to military strikes on Iran, he said, “We don’t want another endless war abroad that costs human lives and our tax dollars. This doesn’t make us safer. Congress must put an end to this escalation with War Powers. Fund Medicaid not war.”

The new candidate AAPAC hopes to send to the U.S. House is Democrat Donavan McKinney in the 13th Congressional District, who defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar in August. AAPAC praised the progressive candidate’s commitment to the environment, public education, healthcare for all, affordable housing and public transportation.

Donavan McKinney, a lifelong Detroiter and proud product of Detroit Public Schools, currently serves in the Michigan House of Representatives for the 11th District. He is running to represent Michigan's 13th Congressional District in the U.S. House.

As a state representative, McKinney has racked up a number of accomplishments, from solving over 4,300 constituent cases, to securing $45 million in funding for projects in every part of the district. He also won $600 million in federal funds to replace lead pipes in Detroit and surrounding suburbs. Before his time in the state legislature, he worked as an organizer for SEIU Healthcare Michigan.

McKinney has said his top priorities in Congress will be lowering costs and improving healthcare for working families, expanding economic opportunity, and investing in local neighborhoods that have long been overlooked. He is also committed to putting the needs of everyday people ahead of billionaires and corporate profits.

McKinney has been endorsed by the following progressive partner organizations: American Federation of Teachers - Michigan, Michigan Education Association, Michigan AFL-CIO, Sierra Club Independent Action, Michigan United Action, Detroit Action, Clean Water Action.

McKinney’s opponent in this race is Republican T.P. Nykoriak who in 2016 was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison for stealing $70,000 in U.S. savings bonds from a church.

Donovan McKinney is the most progressive choice in this race.