DETROIT — Donavan McKinney, a state lawmaker from Detroit, is kicking off a campaign for Congress on Monday, aiming to knock out two-term U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar.

McKinney, first elected in 2022, starts out with the backing of the progressive group Justice Democrats and the endorsements of 14 current and former state lawmakers, many of them representing parts of Thanedar’s district that covers a swath of Detroit, the Grosse Pointes and Downriver communities.

Wayne County Commissioners Alex Garza and Allen Wilson also are endorsing McKinney, his campaign said.

“Our district needs a fighter. At the end of the day, what's really going on in D.C. is impacting negatively the lives of all of our communities, and people are looking to us, elected officials, for leadership, for guidance. They're looking for us to fight,” McKinney said in an interview.

“I represent currently one of the poorest House districts in the state, and I'm running in the 13th Congressional to represent one of the poorest congressional districts in the country. And what I hear every single day from our residents is that they not only want a fighter ― they want some relief to their day-to-day economics.”

He plans to kick off his campaign with supporters Monday night at SAY Detroit Play at Lipke Community Center in Detroit.

For McKinney, 32, it isn’t his first time running against Thanedar, who defeated McKinney in a eight-way state House primary in 2020, with McKinney finishing second with 20.4% to Thanedar’s 35%.

McKinney was elected to represent the 14th state House District the next cycle in 2022, covering northeast Detroit and south Warren. He is the second Democrat to launch a challenge to Thanedar in recent weeks, following former state Sen. Adam Hollier of Detroit.

McKinney said he has had conversations with the Congressional Black Caucus, which is keen on replacing the self-funding Thanedar, an immigrant from India, with a candidate who would restore Black representation for Detroit in Congress. Thanedar’s election in 2022 marked the first time the majority-Black city didn’t have a Black lawmaker representing it in Congress since 1955.

Thanedar, a former state lawmaker, has defended his record, saying his office resolved more than 2,800 constituent problems, recovered $3 million for constituents and delivered "world class constituent communication, including a record 11 in-person town halls." He's proven a formidable Democratic primary opponent, willing to sink millions of his personal fortune into his campaigns.

McKinney, a father of two children ages 1 and 3, plans to focus his campaign on economic security, environmental “racism” and education, he said, claiming that “those dictators in D.C. are trying to dismantle public school education.”

“Environmental issues, especially with our air quality here, is near and dear in my heart, and it impacts a lot of people, especially in our congressional district, because of the plants and suppliers we live next to,” said McKinney, noting he was diagnosed with asthma at age 7.

McKinney attended Detroit Public Schools and graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He served as a legislative director in the Michigan House of Representatives, worked for the Wayne County Community College District and was political director for the largest health care union in the state, SEIU Healthcare Michigan, during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

In 2020, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed McKinney to serve on the state’s first Environment Justice Council. He said he helped with her $2 million Water Restart Grant Program and her statewide Water Reconnection Executive Order during the pandemic.

McKinney said he’s building a coalition of labor, environmental and other advocacy groups to “really take out” a millionaire who self-funded campaigns and takes corporate money.

“We're not doing any of that. We're not taking corporate money at all, so this is going to be a big movement and an opportunity for individuals to support us all across the country,” he said.

“This is not about moderate versus progressive. This is about people who can get in office, who can actually lead and deliver tangible results. And that's what I have been doing as a state rep … I'll have an open-door policy. Anybody can come talk to me, and we'll figure this out together.”

McKinney backs Medicare For All, criminal justice reform, and expressed limited support for tariffs if they’re appropriate and “thoughtful,” but not Trump’s approach to taxing ally Canada.

McKinney said he “cannot in good conscience” support additional security aid or weapons for Israel, saying there’s “blood on all sides of this, pain on all sides.”

“Women and children are dying every single day over there, and as a Congress member, I would have a vote on if we should send aid or military support over there. And, to be honest, I cannot in good conscience support it because of the situations we're dealing with here,” McKinney said.

“In our district, in our state and here in our region, people are suffering everywhere. But my main focus will always be my district, because these are the people that elected me and send me to D.C., and I have to fight like hell for them every single day. And for those who don't, they should not be in office.”

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