(WWJ) — “Just don’t do it.”
That’s the message Michigan Sen. Mallory McMorrow has for the public after a group of pro-Palestine protesters showed up outside U.S. Sen. Gary Peters’ home in Bloomfield Hills on Sunday.
A few dozen protesters stood outside his home in the snow Sunday urging Peters to call for a permanent ceasefire. While there’s already a temporary ceasefire in place, the protesters were calling for more action.
But McMorrow, Senate Majority Whip, says the protesters crossed a line on Sunday.
“Honestly, please don’t protest at people’s homes. I don’t want to see ‘now go to Republicans’ homes.’ Just don’t do it,” she said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“I talk to people who I think would be great elected officials all the time. I encourage them to run. A few years ago, the most common no response would be, ‘I don’t know how you deal with negative comments online.’ Now it’s ‘I don’t want people showing up at my house.’ And I can’t fault them,” her post said.
She said many politicians “know what we’re getting into,” but people “have families, young kids, neighbors.
“This rise in acceptance of going straight to officials’ homes is very unlikely to sway the view of the official living there. But it might terrify their family, or kids, or neighbors,” McMorrow said.
She asserts people often protest outside elected officials’ homes “because they know it’s taboo and violates personal space and safety.”
“That’s the point,” she said. “And I already know it’s keeping a lot of really damn good people - especially younger women and moms - from running for office.”