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

