by
Mallory McMorrow on CNN on Sunday
Democratic State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who is running for U.S. Senate, appeared on CNN Sunday morning, defending the deletion of 6,000 old tweets that recently resurfaced, including some that have generated controversy.
Speaking to CNN's Manu Raju on "Inside Politics Sunday," she addressed the issues, including a 2016 tweet that boasted of voting absentee in the 2016 California primary when she wrote in her 2025 autobiography that she "permanently moved" to Michigan in 2014. Raju noted that legally people must vote in the state they reside in.
"We decided to move to Michigan in 2014 in Southern California," McMorrow explained. "My then-boyfriend, now husband, was working in Michigan. Like a lot of Millennials, moving takes time; it was a two-year process to finally settle in Michigan, and I registered to vote in Michigan in August of 2016 and voted in the general election in November."
She went on to say that they still had a place in Southern California and it wasn't a clean move. "I wish we could have just up and moved in one fell swoop, but that's not the case."
When pressed about writing in her book that the move was permanent in 2014, she said: "I could have worded it a little differently."
Raju also mentioned a January 2017 tweet and asked: "So do you stand by that sentiment the real parts of America can learn from coastal elites?"
"I think we all need to understand each other better," McMorrow said. "Trump has succeeded in weaponizing us against each other, convincing us that we are each other's enemies. I've lived all over the country. I've met a lot of different people, and I stand by that. Was it the most eloquent tweet I've ever tweeted? no."
"I've tweeted thousands of times. There is a level of authenticity and just grappling in the wake of the 2016 election of how somebody like Donald Trump could have been elected, and what I thought was, we are not each other's enemies."
She denied that she has disdain for some Americans who voted for Trump.
"I don't. Was it the most eloquent thing I’ve ever written? Absolutely not. But I would argue most people aren't particularly elegant on Twitter or Facebook."
She also was asked about a tweet in which she said "cars are dead."
She explained that was part of a broader “conversation with a number of automotive journalists bemoaning the way that tech CEOs were talking about eliminating cars with autonomous vehicles and ride-share programs.”
“That was me thinking about a dark future where there are no cars and at a moment where Big Tech is taking over everything,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens on CNN
Before the McMorrow interview, Raju aired a recorded interview with U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, who is also running as a Democrat for U.S. Senate, and has been critical of the tweets.
“I thought it was a little tacky," Stevens said. "And I think that it dovetails from things that we saw Mallory McMorrow say last year, saying that Michigan relies too much on manufacturing and that manufacturing workers, union workers, should look at beekeeping and artisanal wine making. It strikes me as very out of touch to what our state is all about."
Stevens said the tweets could be used by Republicans in the general election campaign if McMorrow wins the primary.
McMorrow responded to Stevens's remarks:
"I think the bigger liability is somebody who's been so concerned that one day they might run for office, that everything about them is manufactured; and if that is what you're looking for, there are two other opponents in this race who fit that bill."
"I am not somebody who wanted to be in office, wanted to be in Congress when I was in diapers. I started my career as a car designer, and then I worked in a very different career and wasn't thinking about it."
"I tweeted normal things like a normal person, and people are desperate for authenticity, so that is what we need in November."
Raju asked why she deleted the thousands of tweets after she decided to run.
"Do you think they were going to be too problematic for you in this election?"
"I didn't," she said. "This was a decision to delete everything prior to 2020. One of my opponents, Abdul El-Sayed, did the same, deleting some of his more controversial views on completely defunding the police. It's cleaning up social media."
