LANSING — Democratic congressional hopeful Will Lawrence punched back at President Donald Trump after the Republican accused him of hating families and the American way of life during an address at the GOP's midterm convention in Dallas.

Trump never mentioned Lawrence by name from the stage Sept. 9, but the accusations appeared to hit on social media posts Lawrence made between 2020 and 2022 and the remarks were linked to Lawrence by the National Republican Congressional Campaign.

"One of the Democrats' top congressional candidates is a self-described Marxist who says he hates family households ... and wants to destroy the American way of life," Trump said in Dallas.

From his packed Lansing campaign office Sept. 10, Lawrence accused Trump and his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett of Charlotte, of themselves ruining the American way of life through cuts to health care and a war in Iran that is driving up the cost of living.

"Is your American dream nearer or farther away than it was two years ago?" Lawrence said. "Are the prices lower or are they higher? Is your health care cheaper or is it more expensive? Are your business conditions more stable or more volatile?"

Lawrence, who let his Democratic Socialists of America membership lapse in July, is running against Barrett in mid-Michigan's swing 7th Congressional District, a seat Democrats are hoping to flip to secure another vote in the U.S. House.

Barrett was campaigning door-to-door and didn't see Trump's speech, his campaign spokesman Jason Roe said. He added that it's difficult to keep up with all of Lawrence's "manufactured outrage."

"But when it comes to healthcare reform, Tom has taken a very strong position against he healthcare insurance companies, refusing their campaign contributions and authoring legislation that will rein in their abuses of policyholders," Roe said. In an ad released this week, Barrett said he returned health insurance company contributions and "told them to lower premiums instead."

Lawrence argued Trump and Barrett were breaking up families through actions by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, divisive rhetoric and unaffordable housing and health care costs. He said his campaign must be doing something right if Trump deemed it worthy of an attack from the Dallas stage.

"We will win economic security for our times," Lawrence told a crowd of volunteers at his campaign office. "We will renew the American dream for our children's future."

Trump, in his remarks from on stage, appeared to be referencing a series of since-deleted social media posts in 2021 and 2022 from Lawrence that were critical of the nuclear family. The comments were first reported by CNN on Sept. 4.

One social media post from July 28, 2022 described the "hetero-patriarchal nuclear family" as the "material foundation of wealth accumulation" because wealth is passed down through "the male line to a few heirs."

"Queer families create MATERIAL conditions for solidarity and wealth sharing," Lawrence wrote. "But y'all ain't ready for that convo…"

In another post in 2021, Lawrence said the biggest win of his 20s "was finding a long-term stable co-op house."

"Fuck isolation and the nuclear family domicile," he wrote.

In another post from July 2022, while responding to someone speaking about communal living, Lawrence wrote the nuclear family home "is an isolating, individualistic, violent way of organizing society. I don't want to be part of that."

When asked after the Sept. 10 press conference to specifically respond to his comments on the nuclear family, Lawrence said his comments were in reference to affordable and flexible housing shortages.

"Our lack of affordable housing and our failure to invest in healthcare and education tears families apart," Lawrence said. "People are unable to live with their extended families, with their grandparents and parents, people they love, because the economy forces people apart for the sake of paying the bills.

"Family is everything to me and I hate how people are torn apart in that way," he said.

Lawrence said he holds himself to a higher standard in his language now than he did as a private citizen.

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