14 | AUGUST 12 • 2021
Council president. He fought
redlining, and tangled with
HUD, the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban
Development over its reluc-
tance to demolish dilapidated
homes.
Most importantly, he later
said, his battles with Mayors
Roman Gribbs and mainly
Coleman Young “would
prove to be a valuable training
ground for later tussles — and
sometimes battles” with pres-
idents when he got to the U.S.
Senate.
The year after Carl Levin
left City Council, U.S. Sen.
Robert Griffin, a Republican
from Traverse City, decided
not to run for reelection,
missed a lot of votes and then
changed his mind.
Levin thought — correctly
— that would make Griffin
vulnerable, and it did. He
got into the Senate race, ran
a smart but underfunded
campaign and managed to
become the only Democrat to
defeat a GOP incumbent that
year.
He would go on to nar-
rowly win reelection six years
later, bucking the 1984 Reagan
landslide in the state, and
then go on to win four more
terms by progressively larger
margins. Unlike many incum-
bents, he was always willing to
publicly debate his opponents.
In the U.S. Senate, a body
notorious for huge egos and
show horses, Carl Levin was a
workhorse — and the voters
knew it.
ELECTED SIX TIMES
By the last time he ran in
2008, he was the closest thing
to a universally admired
politician one can imagine in
these deeply polarized times.
He won his sixth term with
an astonishing 63% and more
than 3 million votes — a
Michigan record.
Another man known for
his integrity, the late U.S. Sen.
John McCain, an Arizona
Republican, once said that
Levin “is the model of serious
purpose, principle and per-
sonal decency, whose example
senator and staff. He was one
of the most challenging sena-
tors to work for and one of the
most rewarding. Challenging,
because you had better know
your business in detail, since
he surely did. Rewarding,
because he had authentic
relationships with staff, treated
them with deep respect and
was loyal to them.
Family Ties
Uncle Carl was above all a
family man. No matter the
pressing business he faced as
a senator, he always centered
Aunt Barbara, my cousins Kate,
Laura and Erica and their fami-
lies, devoted time to them and
so obviously cherished them.
And the way he loved and
treated his family radiated out
and served as a model for how
he treated colleagues, staff,
constituents, soldiers and the
world.
My dad and Uncle Carl never
merged their identities no mat-
ter how often and humorously
they were confused for each
other, but they embarked on
all manner of adventure. They
drove cabs and worked at
auto plants in Detroit, shared a
room from kindergarten to law
school and were the key advis-
er on every campaign from
City Council to state Senate to
Congress.
They competed fiercely in
innumerable squash matches
and one-on-one basketball
games, each always insisting
he alone was at fault for any
collision or foul. They had each
other’s back always, talked
almost daily, deferred to each
other in their areas of exper-
tise and bragged on the oth-
er’s leadership.
In my childhood, we had
extended family dinners every
Sunday rotating between our
house, Carl and Barbara’s
house, our late Aunt Hannah
and Uncle Bill’s house, and
my Grandma Bess’ apartment.
Whatever house we happened
to be at on a given Sunday,
it was equally full of recipes
and cooking, play and sport
and silliness, and endless pol-
itics — planning, strategizing,
debating the issues of the day.
Indeed, this paradigmatic
brotherhood arose from and
symbolized a larger sense that
everything started with family.
From my earliest memory to
this moment, perhaps above
all, he has defined with my
dad how close two brothers,
two siblings, two people can
be. In the end, these two
Jewish boys from Detroit,
these grandsons of immi-
grants each served 36 years
in Congress, 32 of them
together, becoming by far the
longest co-serving siblings in
the 232-year history of this
place. As heartbroken as we
are in this moment, I feel so
grateful to have experienced
this love and legacy.”
THE UNCLE CARL I KNEW continued from page 13
THE PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE
SEN. CARL LEVIN
LIFETIME OF SERVICE continued from page 13
Carl Levin in his Detroit City
Council days, circa 1970
Kate Levin Markel passes the microphone to her
father, Carl Levin, who was honored with the
Leonard N. Simons History Award in 2015.
COURTESY WSU PRESS
ELAYNE GROSS