08/06/2026
BREAKING 🚨 🏳️🌈 A trans woman just CRUSHED the Democrat who weaponized her deadname to try and kick her off the ballot. She won by 22 points.
Joanna Whaley, 38, took Tuesday's Democratic primary in Michigan's 2nd House District, the Downriver seat covering Allen Park, Lincoln Park and Melvindale, defeating former state Rep. Frank Liberati and Allen Park council member Gary Schlack. She faces Republican Ron Kokinda on November 3, and a win there makes her the first transgender person ever to serve in Michigan's legislature.
In April, Liberati filed a complaint with the Wayne County Clerk claiming Whaley violated state election law by leaving her birth name off her affidavit of identity, pointing to a name-change petition of hers that lapsed in 2023. Whaley had gone back to court and finished the name change, and had those records sealed for her safety as she became more of a public figure. Clerk Cathy Garrett threw the challenge out in May, finding Whaley qualified under Michigan's common-law name provisions.
"It's not going to hold because we have all the proof and documents, and I've got 100 witnesses who know me by Joanna," Whaley said at the time.
Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel said attempts to disqualify candidates for using their legal name "betrays the foundational principles of the Democratic Party." The Legislature's LGBTQ+ Caucus called the challenge meritless and "weaponizing transphobia as an electoral tactic."
The seat has been in the Liberati family since 2015. Frank held it until 2021, then his brother Tullio took it, and Tullio's vote against letting transgender girls play girls' school sports is what pushed Whaley to run in the first place.
Whaley spent nearly two decades as a pastor at an evangelical megachurch that forced her through Christian conversion therapy with four different therapists over 15 years. In 2022, when church leaders learned she was contemplating transitioning, she was forced to quit. She now works as a chaplain in emergency rooms, intensive care units and hospice.
"I did not expect this from Frank Liberati. I expected this from one of the Republicans," she said in April.
After the results came in, Whaley said: "People were ready for change, and they voted for it. We're honored to be part of it."
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