Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at a Get Out the Vote rally in Ypsilanti for Michigan Supreme Court candidates, Justice Kyra Bolden Harris and U of M Law Professor Kimberly Thomas. Oct. 30, 2024. Photo by Jon King.
Story updated at 11:02 a.m.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder keynoted a get out the vote rally Wednesday night in Ypsilanti, telling the crowd this was an “existential presidential election,” with nothing less than “democracy at stake.”
The event, held at the Community Family Life Center, was in support of the Democratic-nominated Michigan Supreme Court (MSC) candidates, Justice Kyra Harris Bolden and University of Michigan law professor Kimberly Ann Thomas, but became a rousing exhortation to “not leave a single vote on the table,” and for Democrats and progressives to do everything in their power to get people to the polls and elect Vice President Kamala Harris.
Holder, who served for six years as President Barack Obama’s AG, began his talk by relating the threat he felt former President Donald Trump posed if given another term in the White House, pointing to last Sunday’s Madison Square Garden rally, which has been widely condemned for speakers insulting African Americans and Latinos, especially Puerto Ricans, calling Harris the “antichrist” while also mocking her race.
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“Google and see what happened in Madison Square Garden,” said Holder. “The filth, the misogyny, the racism, and all the things that happened there that define who that guy is. It’s a clear choice.”
But Holder said the clear choice extended all the way across the ballot, including the two races for Michigan Supreme Court: a four-year term being contested by Bolden and GOP-nominated Branch County Circuit Court Judge Patrick William O’Grady, and an eight-year term sought by Thomas and state Rep. Andrew Fink (R-Adams Twp.), who was nominated by the Republican Party.
Although races for the state’s highest court appear on the nonpartisan ballot — and are not included in straight-ticket voting — the Democratic and Republican parties nominate candidates at their respective conventions in August.
Control of the Michigan Supreme Court is on the line this election. Democratic-nominated justices currently enjoy a 4-3 majority, but that could flip to a 4-3 GOP-nominated advantage if Fink and O’Grady win. If Thomas and Bolden are elected, Democratic-nominated justices would have a 5-2 majority.
“The Michigan Supreme Court is extremely important. We all focus on what happens with the United States Supreme Court and the disaster that has become,” said Holder. “But the reality is, in terms of worker rights, reproductive rights, the protection of voting rights, these are the kinds of cases that they will be facing without any kind of involvement by the United States Supreme Court.”
However, Holder said a second Trump term, with the potential to appoint additional right-wing justices, could imperil rights established at the state level.
“So you put things in law, you put things in the [state] constitution, and you think, ‘We’re good.’ No. It doesn’t work that way,” he said. “These folks on the other side will come up with ways in which they’ll find lawyers. They’ll come up with devious ways to file lawsuits, and they’ll work their way up to the courts. And if the [U.S.] Supreme Court looks different than it does or it could look, you can end up with decisions that are inconsistent with the desires of the people.”
Also raising the alarm was U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), who said Holder’s presence spoke to the dangers of a second Trump term.
“He wouldn’t be in Michigan if it wasn’t so important what’s at stake,” said Dingell. “He is here because he cares about what’s going to happen at the top of the ticket, but he also knows that the issues he’s working on every single day and that he cares about are in the hands of supreme courts, federal and state. And that’s why we’re all gathered here tonight to talk about these K2s,” said Dingell, turning to Kyra Bolden and Kimberly Thomas. “I’m going to start calling you two, I came up with this earlier in the day when I was with Kimberly at Michigan, and I’m like, it’s the K2s.”
While that drew approving laughter from the audience, Dingell got serious about what next Tuesday’s election represents.
“Our future is at stake. The state of democracy is at stake next Tuesday. And we have got to make sure we turn out the votes. Nobody can stay home. In 2016, most of you in the room, you heard me say it, that Hillary Clinton could lose and would lose and you all thought I was crazy. I might be crazy but Donald Trump won this state by 10,600 votes — two votes per precinct,” she said.
Dingell said that while Democrats in Michigan, in reaction to Trump’s presidency, have steadily increased their vote margin, it was not a time to let down that momentum, and urged people to talk with neighbors, friends, and family members so as not to be deceived as to who would really represent their interests.
“I go to Kroger every Sunday and people come and talk to me and they’re worried about the cost of eggs and they’re worried about how they can fill the grocery cart. But really, do we think Donald Trump gives a sh-t about how much anybody is paying for a dozen eggs? They’re not. So he doesn’t. He wants to give his billionaire friends a tax cut. We’ve got to talk to people. We’ve got to talk turkey,” Dingell said.
Dingell and Holder bookended presentations from Thomas and Bolden, who each took time to briefly introduce themselves and why they hoped to earn their votes for the state’s highest court.
Thomas, who is the director and co-founder of U of M’s Juvenile Justice Clinic and teaches in the Civil-Criminal Litigation Clinic, said her experience as a lawyer for 25 years, litigating at all levels of the state court system, positioned her to help the Michigan Supreme Court stay abreast of the issues affecting residents, regardless of income or social status.
“When I look around this room at our local judges who are doing amazing work, who do we want to partner with them on the state level? Who do we want to lift up voices about excellent innovations in our local courts? Who do we want to promote transparency and access to justice across our state?,” asked Thomas. “So the people don’t think they get justice by geography, so the people don’t think they’re going to receive justice based on how much money they have, so that they think that they have a state court system that’s going to serve them. And so that role is so important and I’m really eager to do that work with our local court system.”
Bolden, who lost an initial run for the Supreme Court in 2022, spoke of that experience, coming just three months after giving birth to her daughter, as not a particularly pleasant one.
“It’s not fun to lose a race, but I was instantly uplifted because I saw that over 1.3 million Michiganders bubbled in my name without the benefit of a party designation and without the benefit of an incumbency designation. And so I was instantly uplifted. But what I noticed later was that there was a one million vote drop off. This is where it gets to the nonpartisan section of the program,” said Bolden. “That means people that were voting, people that cared about who represented them did not vote for the third branch of government in the nonpartisan section of the ballot.”
Bolden, who was later appointed to the court by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, said Michiganders could not afford to not have a voice in who represents them in the courtrooms.
“We can’t afford to miss the opportunity to vote for who’s going to sit on the highest court in the state of Michigan. We can’t afford it. We’re too justice-impacted in our communities to sit on the sidelines,” she said.
That point, of making sure to vote all sections of the ballot, was Holder’s closing message.
“They are spectacular candidates and will be spectacular justices,” he said of Bolden and Thomas. “If we don’t talk to people about the nonpartisan part of the ballot and sometimes, I guess, you have to flip it over and sometimes you don’t have to flip it over, but you’ve got to find where those bubbles are, find their names and fill them in, whatever it takes. That can really change in a fundamental way what the Michigan Supreme Court looks like and what this state looks like.”
This story was updated to correct the full name of Justice Bolden.
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