Michigan Democratic Senate primary divides party along ideological lines
Hugh Hewitt analyzes Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, highlighting the ideological divide between moderate Haley Stevens and progressive Abdul El-Sayed. Polls show a split in voter demographics, with Stevens leading among black voters and El-Sayed favored by white and college-educated voters.
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Progressive leaders Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will take to the battlegrounds in Michigan this weekend to endorse Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left candidate they are backing in the crucial Democratic Senate primary.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez will make three campaign stops along with El-Sayed, the former Wayne County health department director who is vying for the party nomination against Rep. Haley Stevens, a more moderate lawmaker backed by longtime Senate Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and the establishment.
After victories by far-left and socialist candidates over more moderate rivals in deep-blue congressional districts in New York and Colorado last month captured national attention, Michigan is now the latest battleground in a high-stakes fight between the left and the center-left establishment over the future of the Democratic Party.
“Here you see two opposing forces in the Democratic Party. Both candidates offer very different visions of what the party and the country should look like,” Democratic Party veteran Joe Caiazzo told Fox News Digital. “The stakes are monumentally high because Democrats are going to have to take this seat in November.”
State polls pose challenges for far left as Schumer-backed candidate soars
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., endorses Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed after speaking at Mumford High School on May 3, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. (Sarah Rice/Getty Images)
The winner of the Aug. 4 Democratic primary will face former Republican Mike Rogers, who is on track for the GOP nomination, in a key Senate midterm showdown to succeed in retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
The rare open Senate seat is a top goal for Republicans in the midterm elections, and a must-have for Democrats as they seek to retake the Senate majority from the GOP, which currently controls the chamber by a slim 53-47 margin.
The Michigan showdown turned into a two-way race a couple of weeks ago after progressive state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, once the third major Democrat in the primary, suspended her campaign.
McMorrow, who expanded her national profile in recent years and ran as a progressive in the ideological space between El-Sayed and Stevens, dropped out of the race after failing to keep pace with her two main rivals.
Earlier this week, Stevens held a seven-point lead over El-Sayed in a Detroit News/WDIV poll taken after McMorrow dropped out and after last week’s debate between the two candidates.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S CIVIL WAR IS IN THE PRIMARY STAGE OF DEBATE
Michigan U.S. Senatorial candidate Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., speaks to the media after the debate at the WoodTV studio on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (AP Photo/Kristen Norman)
El-Sayed, who if elected would make history as the country’s first Muslim senator, is an epidemiologist who unsuccessfully ran for governor as a rebel candidate in 2018. He has made support for Medicare for All a major component of his campaign.
The far-left candidate has also called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and has been a vocal critic of Israel during its war with Hamas – even characterizing Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip as “genocide” against Palestinians. And El-Sayed, who was a top confidant in Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, has vowed not to accept PAC donations.
Schumer and the party establishment view Stevens as a more worthy candidate than El-Sayed, who has courted controversy with past comments. They worry that El-Sayed, as the party’s nominee, would jeopardize the Democratic-controlled Senate seat by moving the party too far to the left in the position President Donald Trump held two years ago by just over one percentage point.
Earlier this week, Peters, who has so far remained neutral in the race to succeed him, endorsed Stevens.
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Senator Gary Peters of Michigan is interviewed by Fox News Digital at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 19, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
The initial showdowns became explosive.
“If you want your policies dictated by AIPAC or Chuck Schumer, then I’m not your guy,” El-Sayed said during last week’s debate, arguing that the Democratic Party won’t change if it continues to elect leaders who take money from corporations.
Stevens responded by accusing El-Sayed of benefiting from Republican efforts to support him in the primary. “My opponent needs to answer, why is the Republican Party spending thousands of dollars to support his campaign saying he will make Mike Rogers the next U.S. Senator?” said Stevens.
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Retiring Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., has abandoned his neutrality in the crucial Michigan Democratic Senate primary by endorsing U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (pictured left) as party leaders rally to prevent progressive challenger Abdul El-Sayed (pictured right) from winning the nomination. (AP Photo/Kristen Norman)
The primary battle is also costly, with outside groups spending big to fill the campaign with advertising.
The largest spender is Project United Democracy, a political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The group says it has spent nearly $15 million supporting Stevens and opposing El-Sayed.
“This race is not between Abdul and Haley Stevens. This is Abdul’s fight against AIPAC,” Sanders said in a social media post. “A billionaire-funded Super PAC should not determine American elections or foreign policy. Let’s support Abdul.”
El-Sayed’s victory over Stevens in the primary would give the far left a major victory on the state stage and further boost its momentum in the fight for the future of the Democratic Party.
Former Rep. Mike Rogers, seen in an interview with Fox News Digital, is on track for the 2026 Republican Senate nomination in Michigan. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)
But Matt Bennett, co-leader of Third Way, a leading center-left Democratic organization, cautioned against focusing too much on the results in Michigan, pointing to other factors in the race.
“I don’t think that even if El-Sayed wins, it means the national party will move sharply to the left, because the left will insist if that happens,” he told Fox News Digital. “Part of it is peculiar. Michigan has a huge Arab American population. The issue of Israel is more resonant here than in other places. And candidates matter.”
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Caiazzo, a veteran of Sanders’ two presidential campaigns, also urged caution.
“I think it’s really important for Democrats not to view these primaries as some kind of change of direction within the party. Every election takes place under different circumstances,” he said.
Paul Steinhauser covers the national election campaign from coast to coast for Fox News