McMorrow Faces Scrutiny Over Old Social Media Posts Critical of Michigan
State Sen. Mallory McMorrow’s U.S. Senate campaign faces new challenges as old posts show her criticizing Michigan while apparently voting in California.
DETROIT, MICHIGAN — Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow faces criticism from political opponents after CNN published an investigative report revealing old social media posts in which she disparaged Michigan and appeared to vote in California while living in the Great Lakes state.
The posts, which were deleted but recovered through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, show McMorrow complaining about moving from California to Michigan and expressing negative views about the Midwest. The revelations come as McMorrow campaigns for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, where she is one of three candidates seeking the party’s nod.
Residency Questions Surface
According to CNN’s KFile investigation, several posts described McMorrow as a California resident until July 2016, contradicting claims in her 2025 autobiography that she was a Michigan resident as of 2014. The network found that McMorrow was only registered to vote in Michigan starting in 2016.
The archived posts show McMorrow published content referring to voting in California’s 2016 primary and describing herself as a constituent of Democratic California U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu. She also indicated she voted in person in 2014 in a Los Angeles area district while she was a resident there.
Critical Comments About Michigan Weather
Among the most damaging posts were disparaging comments about Michigan and “Middle America” following President Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory. In one deleted post, McMorrow expressed regret about leaving California even as she was establishing roots in Michigan.
“Yesterday it was nearly 50 and now the sky is just sh**ting ice on everything,” McMorrow wrote in one post. “I don’t like you, Michigan.”
Another post showed McMorrow wishing she had never left California, while simultaneously complaining about Michigan’s weather conditions.
Apparent Double Standard Emerges
The controversy deepened when CNN uncovered a 2024 post in which McMorrow appeared to criticize another voter for the same behavior she had engaged in years earlier. In that post, McMorrow chastised someone for living in California while being registered to vote elsewhere.
“So you moved for work and live in California but are registered somewhere you no longer live?” McMorrow wrote. “That’s illegal.”
The revelation of this post, alongside her own previous voting practices, has provided ammunition for McMorrow’s political opponents in the competitive Democratic primary race.
The situation represents a familiar challenge in modern politics, where elected officials seeking higher office often find themselves confronting old social media activity that may conflict with their current political positions or biographical narratives.
McMorrow, who represents Royal Oak in the state Senate, has built her political profile partly on her Michigan roots and advocacy for the state’s interests. The surfaced posts potentially undermine that narrative as she seeks to convince Democratic voters that she should represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate.
The controversy highlights the ongoing challenges candidates face in the digital age, where deleted social media content can be preserved and resurface years later during campaigns. Political opposition research increasingly relies on archived web content to scrutinize candidates’ past statements and positions.
