Michigan Democrat William Lawrence, the party's nominee against Republican Representative Tom Barrett in the state's hotly contested 7th Congressional District, has deleted hundreds of old social media posts that embraced far-left positions including abolishing the police and prisons, opening America's borders and scrapping the Senate. A CNN KFile investigation uncovered the posts, many written from an old X account dating back to 2020 when Lawrence was working as a progressive organiser, raising questions about his record ahead of one of the most closely watched races in the country.

Among the resurfaced posts, Lawrence praised a Minneapolis activist group's campaign to defund the police, called for "forced nationalisation" of fossil-fuel firms, and endorsed "free and open migration". He also attacked fellow Democrats, branding Elissa Slotkin a "supposed Democrat" and telling older party members to "hurry up and die" over disagreements on climate policy. Lawrence, 36, says he no longer holds some of these views, telling the Daily Mail he does not support defunding the police or open borders, while remaining critical of the "political status quo".