William Lawrence (activist)
American activist (born 1990)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Lawrence (born 1990) is an American activist best known for co-founding the Sunrise Movement, an organization that advocates political action on climate change. He is a candidate for the 2026 Democratic nominee for the House of Representatives in Michigan's 7th congressional district.
William Lawrence | |
|---|---|
Lawrence in 2026 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1990 (age 35) East Lansing, Michigan, U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Dinah |
| Education | Swarthmore College (BA) |
| Website | Campaign website |
Early life
William Lawrence was born and raised in East Lansing, Michigan. His parents were constitutional law professors at Michigan State University.[1][2] He graduated from East Lansing High School in 2008 and later earned a degree from Swarthmore College in sociology and anthropology.[3]
At Swarthmore, Lawrence was involved in campaigns to convince the college to divest from fossil fuels, echoing student activity during the anti-Apartheid movement in the United States.[4] After graduation, he founded a nonprofit, the Fossil Fuel Divestment Student Network, and invited Varshini Prakash to join. The rest of the group of activists who would later found the Sunrise Movement met at a 2015 march to the White House. In the summer of 2016, Lawrence and about a dozen others trained at Momentum, an organization that teaches community organizing.[4][5]
Early career
Sunrise Movement
Lawrence co-founded Sunrise Movement in 2015 alongside Sara Blazevic, Victoria Fernandez, Guido Girgenti, and Varshini Prakash.[6] 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.[4] The group also organized to elect politicians who would be strong supporters of renewable energy in the 2018 midterm elections, both in the Democratic primaries and the general election. Their goals on climate policy developed into the environmental program known as the Green New Deal.[7][8][4] Lawrence originally acted as the organization's Development Director, but in 2020 he was the director of strategic partnerships.[9]
In 2018, together with Justice Democrats and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Lawrence and a group of other Sunrise members organized a sit-in in the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.[9] 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.[9]
"We believe at our core that the only successful social movements in American history are powered by the unpaid effort of tens of thousands of people, and we've always strived to build an organization that wasn't asking how many staff can we hire, but how many people can we engage as volunteers."
— William Lawrence, in 2019[9]
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Lawrence left the Sunrise Movement in 2020, after in total, spending over 12 years working to address climate change.[10][2]
Housing advocacy
In 2020, Lawrence founded the Mid-Michigan Tenant Resource Center and became focused on housing advocacy in Michigan as a coordinator for the Michigan Rent Is Too Damn High coalition, a tenant union.[10][11] 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.[12]
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.[10]
A progressive, Lawrence has been endorsed by the Working Families Party and National Nurses United.[2][13][14] He has also been endorsed by the Michigan Democratic Party Progressive Caucus,[15] Showing Up for Racial Justice,[16] Sunrise Movement,[17] Track AIPAC,[18] and Bernie Sanders.[19]
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.[2][20][21]
Lawrence held a fundraiser for medical debt relief that canceled $100,000 in outstanding medical debt for local residents.[2]
At a March 2026 No Kings protest, Lawrence addressed crowd and said that President Trump was never held accountable for his role in the January 6 attacks, and that made him more emboldened during his second term. "He should be impeached, he should be prosecuted and he should be barred from office and in prison for his crimes against humanity and the Constitution."[22]
Policy positions
Lawrence said the 2003 Iraq war, which started when he was 13, was a "formative political experience of my life."[23]
Lawrence has said he would invest in affordable housing, quality health care, elder care, and child care.[10][11] He has also sharply criticized the United States' involvement in the 2026 Iran war and support for Israel in the Gaza war, which he has called a genocide.[11][12][24][2] 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.[2]
Lawrence has criticized the growing push to bring large data centers to Michigan, saying "It's hollow economic development. The number of long-term jobs created are relatively few, and the impacts to our air and water are not fully understood." Instead, he argued the state should focus on policies that support small businesses and strengthen local communities.[2]
Personal life
Lawrence lives in Lansing with his wife Dinah.[10] He is a member of the Working Families Party and the Democratic Socialists of America.[2][13]