Michigan state senator blasts colleague for accusing her of 'grooming and sexualizing children' in fundraising email

• Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow gave an impassioned floor speech on Tuesday.
• She responded to a GOP colleague's claim that she's trying to "groom and sexualize kindergarteners."

As Republican politicians and conservative media personalities have increasingly accused their opponents of being pro-pedophilia, one Michigan lawmaker took to the state senate floor on Tuesday to call out the incendiary rhetoric.

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a first-term Democrat whose district includes several Detroit suburbs, delivered a fiery floor speech in response to Republican State Sen. Lana Theis, who sent out a fundraising email last week that accused McMorrow of being "outraged" that schools "can't groom and sexualize kindergarteners."

On Tuesday, McMorrow attempted to draw a line in the sand over Theis' rhetoric.

—Mallory McMorrow (@MalloryMcMorrow) April 19, 2022

"I didn't expect to wake up yesterday to the news that the senator from the 22nd district had, overnight, accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an email fundraising for herself," McMorrow said.

The Democratic state senator went on to say her Republican colleague sought to "dehumanize and marginalize me" over her opposition to a bill similar to a new Florida law, dubbed by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" legislation, which curtails educators' ability to teach children about gender identity and sexual orientation.

McMorrow argued that Theis' rhetoric had gone too far, but that Democrats need to respond to such ad hominem attacks rather than ignore them.

—Jordyn Hermani (@JordynHermani) April 18, 2022

"So who am I? I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom who knows that the very notion that learning about slavery or redlining or systemic racism somehow means that children are being taught to feel bad or hate themselves because they are white is absolute nonsense," McMorrow added.

Theis is facing a primary challenge from Republican real estate manager Mike Detmer, who former President Donald Trump's endorsed last November.

Theis' office released a statement on Wednesday.

"Sen. McMorrow is not naïve about politics and fundraising," Theis said in the statement emailed to Insider. "I know that because it took her mere minutes to turn her Senate floor speech into a plea for campaign donations. While Sen. McMorrow is on MSNBC preaching to her choir, I'll keep my focus on Michigan parents, who Democrats are seeking to undermine as the primary decision-makers in the education of their children."

McMorrow appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" the day after her floor speech.