William Lawrence

William Lawrence (born 1990) is an American politician and activist who co-founded the Sunrise Movement, a climate action organization. A progressive Democrat, he is a member of the Working Families Party and a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America. He is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in Michigan's 7th congressional district in 2026.

Lawrence graduated from Swarthmore College with a bachelor's degree in sociology and anthropology. In 2015, he co-founded the Sunrise Movement to help elect politicians focused on climate policy, protest on behalf of the environmental movement, and support the Green New Deal.

In August 2025, Lawrence announced his candidacy for Michigan's 7th congressional district, winning the Democratic primary in August 2026. He is challenging incumbent Republican Tom Barrett in the general election.

Early life William Lawrence was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1990 and moved to East Lansing, Michigan, at age five when his parents became law professors at Michigan State University. He graduated from East Lansing High School in 2008. After attending Whitman College in Washington for one year, he transferred to Swarthmore College, where he earned a degree in sociology and anthropology. He remained in the Philadelphia area for several years before returning to Lansing around 2016.

Early career Sunrise Movement Lawrence co-founded Sunrise Movement in 2015 alongside Sara Blazevic, Victoria Fernandez, Guido Girgenti, and Varshini Prakash. When officially launched in 2017, the movement's goal was to be a more confrontational environmental movement and utilize civil disobedience and protest, similar to ACT UP and the anti-nuclear movement. Lawrence originally acted as the organization's Development Director, but in 2020 he was the director of strategic partnerships. Sunrise organized a similar event in February 2019, bringing a group of young people to confront Senator Dianne Feinstein in her office.

By November 2019, Lawrence told Inside Philanthropy that the group had grown to 1,140 monthly donors, and had 90 volunteer hubs pop up in six weeks, across 33 states. Despite his prominent role as a cofounder of a large national organization, the Lansing City Pulse said that locally, he is best known for his housing advocacy and tenant organizing.

Political career

2026 Congressional campaign

Lawrence announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Representative in Michigan's 7th congressional district on August 26, 2025. The seat is currently held by Tom Barrett, a Republican.

A progressive, Lawrence has been endorsed by the Working Families Party and National Nurses United. He has also been endorsed by the Michigan Democratic Party Progressive Caucus, Showing Up for Racial Justice, Sunrise Movement, Track AIPAC, and Bernie Sanders.

During the 2025 government shutdown, Lawrence organized a 36-hour sit-in outside incumbent Rep. Barrett's Lansing district office to protest a lapse in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) federal food assistance benefits. Lawrence slept on the sidewalk in several winter coats as it rained while he collected nearly $1,600 plus "boxes and boxes" of food for the food banks. In total, his campaign has collected more than 5,000 meals for families in the district through the Greater Lansing Food Bank. Barrett's staff called the police on him.

Lawrence held a fundraiser for medical debt relief that canceled $100,000 in outstanding medical debt for local residents.

In July 2026, comments from a 2024 podcast in which Lawrence described "the older generation of Black political leadership" as "a pillar, frankly, for establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power" and said that their role “really defangs the white left,” received news coverage. Lawrence said his remarks were “taken out of context,” and added, "The way I made this point was clumsy, and I regret my choice of words."

Policy positions Lawrence said the 2003 Iraq war, which started when he was 13, was a "formative political experience of my life."

Lawrence has said he would invest in affordable housing, quality health care, elder care, and child care. He is an advocate for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal, as well as creating more social housing. He has spoken out against the construction of a new ICE detention processing center in Romulus, Michigan, and ICE administrative offices in Southfield, Michigan.