Sunrise Movement Co-Founder Becomes the Democrats’ Newest Headache After Deleted Post Wishing Death on Senator Surfaces

William Lawrence built his political career trashing police, borders and the nuclear family online.

Democrats made him their nominee for one of the most critical House seats in the country.

Now one deleted line about what Joe Manchin deserved is threatening to sink his campaign.

Michigan Democrat's Deleted Post Wishing Death on Joe Manchin Just Blew Up His Campaign

William Lawrence co-founded the Sunrise Movement, spent years inside the Democratic Socialists of America, and was arrested in 2013 for chaining himself to pipeline equipment.

Last month he won the Democratic primary for Michigan's 7th Congressional District, a seat Republican Rep. Tom Barrett flipped in 2024 when Elissa Slotkin left to run for Senate.

Bernie Sanders and Rep. Rashida Tlaib backed him over two establishment Democrats, including a former U.S. ambassador.

Then CNN's KFile team went digging through his old social media accounts.

They found hundreds of deleted posts, and one line stopped everyone cold.

Lawrence was furious with then-Sen. Joe Manchin for blocking the Democrats' climate agenda in 2021.

So he posted lyrics on social media that read, "Hurry up and die so that we can get started."

That is not a stray joke buried in a decade-old feed.

That is a 2021 wish for a sitting Democratic senator's death, posted by the man Democrats just made their nominee.

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Deleted Posts Reveal a Wish List Straight Out of the Radical Left

Lawrence did not stop at wishing death on a sitting senator.

His deleted posts called for "a world without police and prisons."

He backed "free and open migration" with no restrictions at the border.

He wanted the federal government to nationalize fossil-fuel companies.

He called for abolishing the United States Senate outright.

He pushed for a "fundamental overhaul" of the Constitution itself.

He described the nuclear family home as "an isolating, individualistic, violent way of organizing society."

In 2020 he told fellow Democrats who disagreed with him to fall in line or "leave the Party," and in 2021 he cheered on a primary challenge against Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

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This is the man Democrats just nominated in a seat that could decide who controls the House.

When the posts surfaced, Lawrence offered the standard damage-control line: "Like many millennials, I have done a lot of thinking out loud on the internet. I have clearly said that I no longer agree with some of the things I wrote in the past. I do not support defunding the police or open borders."

The National Republican Congressional Committee wasn't buying the rebrand.

"Socialist felon William Lawrence is a liberal lunatic who pushes the radical far-left's most extreme policies," the NRCC said. "William Lawrence is unfit to serve in Congress."

A Pattern the Democratic Party Cannot Delete Its Way Out Of

Lawrence is not an isolated case, and that's what should worry Michigan voters most.

Michigan Democrat Abdul el-Sayed, running for Senate in the same state, had his campaign quietly scrub posts mocking fireworks and linking football to slavery before CNN surfaced them.

Wisconsin's Francesca Hong, another self-described democratic socialist, got caught after old posts calling to cancel Thanksgiving surfaced – then lost the governor's nomination in an upset.

New York's Darializa Avila Chevalier, endorsed by socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is fighting the same story right now over deleted posts calling to abolish police, prisons and deportations.

Republican strategist Colin Reed nailed the reason none of this is random.

"At its core, socialism believes that the American experiment is over, and the dream is dead," Reed wrote.

An entire generation of activists built their public identity attacking policing, borders, the Senate and the family – then hit delete the moment they needed general-election votes.

The posts don't disappear because a candidate wants a new resume – they disappear because the old one was never meant to survive contact with actual voters.

Barrett's campaign didn't need opposition research – Lawrence wrote the attack ad himself back in 2021, then quietly erased it and hoped nobody was watching.

Sources:

• Teri Christoph, "'Hurry Up and Die': Dem Running in Critical Swing Seat Has One Heck of a Deleted-Post Problem," RedState, September 4, 2026.
• Elizabeth Elkind, "Sunrise Movement co-founder defeats establishment-backed Dems in pivotal Michigan race," Fox News, August 4, 2026.
• Elizabeth Elkind, "Dem House candidate's 2013 arrest resurfaces in pivotal race for control of Congress," Fox News, August 24, 2026.
• Colin Reed, "Socialist candidates can delete old posts, but they can't erase radicalism," Fox News, August 19, 2026.