The most significant battle between the Democratic Party’s warring factions is taking shape in the fight over the U.S. Senate nomination in Michigan — a swing state and crucial seat for Democrats to hold if they are to have a real hope a regaining control of Congress.
This week, the lines became even sharper in a race where the polling has been close.
With the withdrawal of state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who had been struggling for traction in a middle lane, the Aug. 4 primary race has come down to two starkly different contenders: Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official who has the backing and organizational strength of the Democratic Socialists of America and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), and Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate House member around whom Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) and much of the Democratic establishment have rallied.
While candidates aligned with and supported by the far left, and particularly the democratic socialist movement, have won eye-popping victories recently in deeply blue House districts and mayor’s races, the statewide contest in Michigan indicates how much firepower the party’s liberal insurgency has in the heartland.
Democrats are sweating their ability to hold on to a seat being vacated by Sen. Gary Peters, who is retiring from the seat he has held since 2015. The presumed Republican nominee, former congressman Mike Rogers, is regarded as formidable, given that he came within half a percentage point of beating now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D) in 2024. Thanks in part to his lack of a primary opponent, Rogers has amassed a war chest that, according to the latest financial reports in April, had reached $4.2 million.
If Democrats lose Michigan’s seat, their already difficult path to the net gain of four they need to reclaim a Senate majority becomes steeper.
The race could also have implications in 2028. Michigan is likely to hold one of the earliest primaries in the Democratic presidential contest and a general-election battleground that Donald Trump has won twice.
On Tuesday, El-Sayed and Stevens clashed in their first one-on-one debate. Stevens, regarded as an unsteady performer, was more focused and aggressive in her attacks than she has been to date in the campaign.
The congresswoman, in her fourth House term after flipping a district long held by Republicans in 2018, referred to herself repeatedly as “a workhorse,” while suggesting El-Sayed lacks seriousness.
“I am not trying to sell a book or a podcast. I’m the only one on this stage who doesn’t have a talent agent trying to pitch me for paid speeches, and unlike my opponent, I’m not running at the first mic or camera I see,” she said. “Instead, my head is down doing the work for the people of Michigan, who need the work to be done.”
For his part, El-Sayed continued to pound Stevens with claims that she is a tool of corporate interests and the pro-Israel lobby — the latter being a flash point in current Democratic politics, which are riven by disagreements over the war in Gaza.
“If Congresswoman Stevens makes it, or Mike Rogers wins, either way, Israel will win,” El-Sayed said. Referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is spending millions through its super PAC to support Stevens, he added, “AIPAC is perfectly fine with either of my two opponents because they know that they will have a comfortable, reliable vote in the U.S. Senate.”
His answer to almost every policy question was a promise to blow up a political system in which he says corporate and special interests call the shots.
“So long as corporations are buying politicians, we can’t actually enact the solutions because they’re getting the policies that they signed up for when they pay for their politicians,” El-Sayed said.
While there has been much speculation that this is a year in which the influence of the democratic socialist movement is taking hold in the Democratic Party, former Michigan governor James Blanchard, a Stevens supporter, said the voters in his state are angry, not ideological.
“It’s more anti-incumbent than pro-socialism,” Blanchard said in an interview. “They want fighters. They want change, and they think incumbents in Congress have been too complacent.”
Speaking to reporters after the debate, however, Stevens defended her service on Capitol Hill. “I have been doing the work for Michigan when it matters,” she said, “and I’m damn proud of it.”
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