Nessel To Skip MDP Convention, Says She Doesn’t Feel Safe

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/30/2026) Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday she will not attend the Michigan Democratic Party’s August nominating convention because she does not feel safe or welcomed amid what she described as growing antisemitism within her own party.

“I don’t feel safe going,” Nessel said during an antisemitism roundtable hosted by her office. “I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. And I don’t want to get booed off the stage.”

Nessel said she recently complained to the MDP chair about an unnamed member of the party’s state central and rules committees who she said has called both her and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) “neo-Nazis.” She questioned why that person would be accepted at the convention when she does not feel comfortable attending.

“I will speak as a member of the Democratic Party here in Michigan that something’s got to change,” Nessel said. “This cannot continue.”

Nessel said antisemitism had long been associated with far-right organizations, but she is now seeing it on the political left and within the Democratic Party in ways she had not experienced before. She said the threats she has received as attorney general have been “almost exclusively antisemitic” and too numerous to count.

At any given time, she said, two or three people are incarcerated, jailed, on probation or otherwise under supervision for threatening her or her family.

In response to Nessel, MDP spokesperson Derrick Honeyman said, "The Michigan Democratic Party is committed to ensuring party-hosted events are safe and secure environments for all attendees. We reject antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hateful conduct. We are working diligently with stakeholders, elected officials, and party membership to prepare for our August convention and look forward to welcoming Michigan Democrats to the Lansing Center on August 29."

Thursday’s roundtable included representatives of the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish parents, a Michigan State University student and Rabbi Ariana Gordon of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield.

ADL Michigan Regional Director Elyssa Schmier said 156 antisemitic incidents were recorded in Michigan during 2025, down from 252 in 2024 but still the state’s third-highest annual total on record. Reports increased from 159 during the first half of 2025 to 190 during the same period this year, she said.

Participants described antisemitism in schools, on college campuses and at houses of worship. Brighton parent Jennifer Stewart said two boys yelled “Jew” and “gas chamber” at her 11-year-old son before confronting him at his locker. Gordon recounted evacuating Temple Israel during the March 12 attack while her 2-year-old son remained elsewhere inside the building.

Nessel urged her successor to preserve the Department of Attorney General’s Hate Crimes and Domestic Terrorism Unit, which accepts complaints directly from residents, investigates cases with department special agents and prosecutes cases when evidence supports charges.

Schmier called for Michigan to create an antisemitism task force and a state-level nonprofit security grant program for houses of worship and other organizations. No new state initiative was announced at the roundtable.

Nessel also blamed social media for accelerating misinformation and hardening political divisions. People are not able to have conversations on sensitive subjects before they can meet in person. Before someone knows another person's setting, they opine as if they're an expert, she noted.

“Social media is the devil,” Nessel said. “Not just on this issue, but on a variety of issues, it is the worst thing that has ever happened to humanity. And please quote me on that.”

WILX-10 recorded the roundtable, which is available below. A transcript is available here.