Dana Nessel has served as Attorney General of Michigan since 2018. She won a close race against her Republican opponent that year, and, as a demonstration of how well she has done her job, she expanded her winning margin in a much less favourable electoral environment in 2022. In winning these elections, she became the first LGBQT+ person and first Jewish person to serve in this position.
After leaving law school, Dana Nessel first worked as an assistant prosecutor in Wayne County for eleven years. As the primary attorney in over 1500 cases, she prosecuted a variety of serious crimes including homicides, child abuse, sex crimes and drug crimes.
She left the prosecutors office in 2005 to open her own firm, where she handled cases that included family law, civil rights actions, tort litigation and acting as a criminal defense attorney. The vast scope of her work served to give her the breadth of experience necessary to manage the Attorney General’s Department in Michigan.
As Attorney General in 2020, she launched a Hate Crimes Unit after increases in hate crimes across the state. The quotes below are from this linked Detroit Free Press article. www.freep.com/...
Speaking inside the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn two days after the New Zealand attack that killed 50 Muslim worshippers, Nessel said that she created a hate crimes unit to deal with what she called the "dark cloud" of growing bigotry causing "fear here in America and here in Michigan."
A Michigan civil rights attorney, Nabih Ayad, spoke about the increase in anti-Muslim hate during the introduction of the office.
"They need to send a strong message that the law will protect all people regardless of religion, race, or creed," said Nabih Ayad, a Detroit civil rights attorney and founder of the Arab American Civil Rights League in Dearborn. "We need to keep an eye out on these hate groups. ... It's unacceptable."
AG Nessel stated that her motivation to attack hate crimes, the office would not only prosecute hate crimes but track incidents of hate across the state, was informed by her own and her families’ history.
"I can't help but think of my own family and our roots," Nessel told the Muslim crowd in the Dearborn mosque. "My grandparents fled Europe because they wished to be free from those who wished to punish them and who wished to exterminate them except for no other reason than they ... just worshipped differently from the majority. America ... is the land of freedom, freedom to be who we are, and to worship any way we like .. .or not to worship at all."
In addition, AG Nessel established a Conviction Integrity Unit, the unit investigates credible claims of innocence and rectifies wrongful convictions, an Elder Abuse Task Force, a Consumer Protection Division and a crackdown on fraud, with a focus on robocalls.
One of the reasons I chose to highlight Dana Nessel, beyond her obvious skills and integrity, is to highlight that making speeches against Trump, making appearances at Town Halls, creating legislation to outlaw his corruption and authoritarianism, aren’t the only ways to push back against him.
From the moment Trump took office, Democratic Attorney Generals including Dana Nessel have launched lawsuit after lawsuit against the illegal and unconstitutional acts being committed daily by this administration.
So, what has Dana Nessel been doing to fight against Trump? Let’s look.
She has joined a coalition of groups fighting against Trump’s attack on the First Amendment. She and 19 other Attorney General’s filed an Amicus Brief to block what they called the Trump Administration’s ideological deportation policy.
Trump’s administration blocked the release of funds via the Department of Education under Covid-19 era legislation. By law, these funds were to continue through to 2026. She filed suit against the Administration, noting that the money they are refusing to disburse is used to keep classrooms warm and ventilated.
She filed a lawsuit to reverse Trump’s reckless termination of tens of thousands of federal employees.
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Today, I joined a coalition of 20 other attorneys general in suing the Trump administration to protect libraries and museums, highlighting the critical role these community resources play in children's education in and out of the classroom.
— Dana Nessel (@dananessel.bsky.social) 2025-04-05T02:22:08.449Z
Finally, Trump and the Republican’s attempts to damage the credibility of elections was met with a rebuke from Michigan’s Attorney General.
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The Constitution explicitly grants states the authority to set the time, place, and manner of their own elections.
No President has the power to rewrite state election laws by decree, nor to change the laws passed by Congress for federal elections.
— Dana Nessel (@dananessel.bsky.social) 2025-04-06T15:16:22.896Z
She has further been very vocal of her criticisms of Elon Musk.
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MI AG here 👋. I specifically oppose:
▪️Hiring contractors who lack proper security vetting;
▪️Giving them access to American’s most personal financial & health information, &
▪️Allowing them to download that data into unsecured servers that are likely to be hacked, for a start.
— Dana Nessel (@dananessel.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T19:47:36.629Z
And, while using legal avenues to stop or at least slow down Trump’s assault on the constitution, she has not forgotten that getting out and speaking to constituents is a core component of any fight.
Dana Nessel’s philosophy behind her fight against the Trump Administration is based on a very simple concept. “Appeasement is not a workable strategy with a fascist.”
From the interview linked to in the BlueSky post:
“I think it’s understandable to have people who want to be able to break bread with the president. And, in theory, there would be nothing wrong with that under, really, any other presidency; to have people of the opposing party or even to have people of the same party who are either in support of the president or, you know, want to negotiate as you as you normally would for the benefit of the people that you serve. But this is not a normal presidency and if we’ve learned nothing from just these last several weeks, it’s that there’s no law that Trump will not break. There’s no constitutional right upon which he will not trample. There’s no depth to which he will not sink. And he wraps himself in the flag, but he’s really the least patriotic person I’ve ever seen and he cares nothing for America’s global reputation or the health, safety and welfare of the American people. And he has broken norm after norm after norm, and he seems to be, you know, a dictator. He doesn’t want to be president. He’s not interested in being president. He wants to be king. And he’s shown us that time and time again.
From the start of the Trump’s presidency, Dana Nessel recognized the threat to the country was real. Trump cannot be treated like any other president, he can’t be negotiated with, he can’t be appeased, he can’t be treated with any level of normalcy. She understands the threat the country faces and is using every lever under her control to fight back.
As I have said, it is important for readers of this site to know that the vast majority of Democrats are committed to fighting back against Trump. Too often, the focus is on damning the party when it needs to be on how to use resources and the people to best fight against him. Diaries from readers and from the Front Page are often click bait designed to foment rage that does nothing to help this fight. It’s easy to tear down, it’s easy to give in to anger and despair. But that is not what is needed now.
Americans need to join with those engaged in the fight against Trump. Their actions need to be highlighted, their work recorded, and their courage supported. It is for this reason that I chose to amplify the vast majority of Democrats, especially those that are unheralded and less well known, who like Dana Nessel are meeting the moment with strength and resolve every day.
If you want even more information on how Democrats are attacking this illegal and corrupt administration, go seek out Janesaunt’s diaries “Dems Dems and More Dems”, which is published three times a week, and lpeacocks Thursday diaries on the Congressional Black Caucus.
T2 has also just begun a series called the Rainbow Roundup, where focus is placed on LGBTQ lawmakers and journalists. And Billboteach has one focusing on Hispanic elected Democrats.
You can gain easy access to all these diaries by following the Democratic Party Spotlight Group.
My diaries will be appear Monday and Friday.
