Adam Hollier in October 2023 at a launch event for his 2024 Congressional campaign. Photo: Samuel Robinson
Former State sen. Adam Hollier, D-Detroit, talked about why he dropped out of the 13th Congressional District U.S. House race and is running for Michigan Secretary of State in an hour-long interview Wednesday that revealed his views on several hot-button topics.
The interview was part of the Eastside Community Network’s Black Detroit Democracy Podcast hosted by nonprofit executive Donna Givens Davidson and Michigan Chronicle reporter Sam Robinson.
The news Hollier would be dropping his bid to defeat U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar in the 2026 Democratic primary election, which he announced Tuesday, was first reported by Michigan Chronicle last week. He leaves State rep. Donavan McKinney, D-Detroit, and any other yet-to-be announced challengers to defeat Thanedar.
Hollier on Wednesday said that he won’t endorse a candidate running for the seat, adding, “I would be maybe the only person who’s willing to say we do need to have a Black member of Congress.”
“If you’re asking me how I personally feel about Donavan, I supported him every time he’s been on the ballot,” Hollier said. “He’s a good friend of mine, and I wish him the absolute best. If you’re talking about who is the right person in the 13th Congressional District, it is the person that we can get to win, that we as a community can come together and support and I’m hopeful we’ll be able to do that sooner rather than later.”
He said he’s running for Secretary of State to protect the rights of voters and continue expanding Michigan’s elections.
“I’m running because voters time and time again are like, ‘Are we even going to have an election?” Hollier says. “This is not about Donavan, this is not about the 13th. This is about being where the right fight is. Who is going to push back, who is going to exercise the kind of courage and backbone necessary to step up and say to the Trump administration, no we’re not going to do that… As you’ve seen from Jocelyn, a big part of that is representing this state — I think I would be doing a great job.”
Hollier points to his military background when separating himself from election administrators Barb Byrum, the Ingham County Clerk, and deputy secretary of state Aghogho Edevbie, who have also announced campaigns for the position.
“My military service plays a huge role when we start talking about pushing back, being able to speak up on the big fights, but also my ability as a legislator, the relationships I’ve had and the ability to get things done in a bipartisan fashion,” Hollier said. “I have real experience as a legislator, as an administrator in a statewide position, having run the Michigan Veterans Affairs agency and have been in these fights for years.”
Hollier mentioned his efforts to ensure fair maps for Black Detroiters when the state was undergoing its first ever independent redistricting process. As well as his presence at the then-TCF Center when then-President Donald Trump attempted to stop poll workers from counting votes.
The Democratic nominee for Secretary of State will be determined by the state party at its nominating convention next year.
All of the Democratic candidates for Secretary of State, including Hollier, have pledged to increase the state’s transparency. Currently, Michigan is one of two states in the country that does not subject its legislature and governor’s office to public records requests. That means all of the communications happening between lawmakers, whose offices are paid for by public tax dollars, are private.
As a state senator, Hollier was a sponsor on bill packages to do just that, but lawmakers have not been able to pass major transparency reform.
Hollier’s local competition, Edevbie, has said he wouldn’t take corporate PAC money, breaking with Hollier on an issue that has become a litmus test for progressive Democrats.
District 6 council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero recently returned a $5,000 donation from one of Dan Gilbert’s PACs after pledging to supporters not to take money from corporate political action committees. Earlier this year, mayoral candidate Mary Sheffield’s campaign was forced to walk back a line in a campaign email claiming her campaign wasn’t taking corporate PAC money.
Those arguing against taking corporate PAC money say doing so undermines public interests that are in conflict with a corporation’s bottom line.
Hollier hasn’t made any kind of promise, and in the interview Wednesday questioned whether he could support a ballot initiative seeking to force monopolies like DTE and Consumers Energy from donating to political candidates.
Read more: Ballot Proposal Would Ban Political Spending from DTE, Consumers Energy
“I don’t see any value in adding specific cutouts to this group or that group. I think it’s important for us to have very clear and simple rules,” Hollier said. “So, if the goal is to get rid of corporate donations, make it clear.”
Hollier also touched on another difference between himself and his former House competitor McKinney, who has called Israel’s attacks against Palestinians in Gaza a genocide.
“No,” Hollier said when asked whether his position on the issue has changed, and whether he would use the same language.
“I’m a captain in the Army, right? Genocide is a very technical term, right? I think words matter, and how we use words matter. If you’re asking me if I think that a war should be stopped, yes. If you’re asking, ‘Should we be doing more for the Palestinians or children, parents?’ Yes. That does not require using a word that is super loaded and means very different things to very different people.”
When asked what is his personal definition of genocide, Hollier said he doesn’t use one.
“I’m a military officer, we have definitions for these things.”
But when asked what is the definition of genocide for a military officer, Hollier said he’d have to pull it up so he could read it verbatim.
“It is not what is going on in Gaza,” he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry estimates more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack against Israel. Nearly double that number of people in Gaza have been seriously wounded. Sections of the region have also been experiencing a “man-made” famine according to a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a United Nations-backed food initiative.
The organization found that famine has been confirmed in the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City, the site of a major new Israeli offensive.
Hollier received more than $4 million from AIPAC’s United Democracy Project, a pro-Israel group, to support his first run against Thanedar in 2022. Thanedar’s defeat of Hollier marked the most expensive loss in that year of Democratic primary candidates AIPAC supported, which included U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, who defeated former Rep. Andy Levin.
Thanedar has since received financial support from AIPAC after pledging a pro-Israel stance in Congress and walking back his co-sponsorship of a resolution in the state legislature that described Israel as an “apartheid state.”
You can listen to the entire interview here.
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