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The high-stakes fight between the left-wing and the center-left establishment for the future of the Democratic Party took center stage Tuesday in battleground Michigan.
That’s where moderate Rep. Haley Stevens, who is backed by Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the party establishment, faced off in a fiery Senate nomination debate against former Wayne County Health Department Director Abdul El-Sayed, a far-left candidate endorsed by progressive champions Sen. Bernie Sanders I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
The sharpest exchanges centered on campaign money, outside spending and U.S. policy toward Israel, with El-Sayed repeatedly accusing Stevens of benefiting from millions of dollars in outside spending from pro-Israel and corporate-aligned groups.
“If you want your politics dictated by AIPAC or Chuck Schumer, then I’m not your guy,” El-Sayed said, arguing the Democratic Party would not change if it continued to elect leaders who take money from corporations. Stevens countered by accusing El-Sayed of benefiting from Republican efforts to boost him in the primary. “What my opponent needs to answer is, why is the GOP spending thousands of dollars to prop up his campaign, saying that he will make Mike Rogers the next U.S. senator?” Stevens said.
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The showdown came four weeks before Michigan’s primary, with the winner taking on former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who is on a glide path to the GOP nomination, in the crucial midterm battle to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
The rare open Senate seat is a top Republican target and is a must-hold for the Democrats as they aim to win back the Senate majority from the GOP, which currently controls the chamber with a slim 53-47 margin.
The anti-establishment El-Sayed, who has been sharply critical of Israel, blamed AIPAC’s influence in American politics and accused politicians, like Stevens, of being “bought off by AIPAC” on Tuesday night. “So long as our politicians continue to be bought off by AIPAC do not be surprised when we fight wars that are in their best interest,” El-Sayed said.
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Stevens, meanwhile, sought to flip El-Sayed’s attacks over outside spending back onto him, pressing the progressive candidate to release his tax returns and accusing him of being less than transparent about who was funding his own campaign and career.
“Well, look, transparency is also important, and this is why I have released my tax returns. My opponent, Abdul, he said that transparency is key, but yet he hasn’t released his tax returns,” Stevens said. “Abdoul, you talk about getting money out of politics and putting money in people’s pockets. But who is putting money in yours? What are you hiding?
Stevens, who agreed with El-Sayed on an immediate end to U.S. involvement in Iran, also drew a contrast between herself and her opponent by emphasizing her support for a two-state solution.
“The difference between my opponent and myself on this issue is that I believe in a two-state solution,” Stevens said. “I can say that Israel has a right to peacefully exist alongside the people of Palestine and in Gaza.”
Immigration enforcement also became a flashpoint during the debate, with El-Sayed saying ICE needed to be abolished and accusing Stevens of shifting her tone to be more aggressive towards the agency Tuesday night than she has in the past.
Stevens responded by accusing El-Sayed of using “Republican tactics,” saying a House vote El-Sayed referenced, claiming Stevens “voted to thank ICE and increase their budget,” was a “cynical” move by the GOP to include condemnation for an antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado alongside funding for the federal immigration agency.
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“There was a bill on the House floor to condemn an antisemitic terrorist attack that in Boulder, Colorado, that killed an individual and injured a Holocaust survivor. Instead of bringing us together, Republicans put in a cynical point about thanking ICE,” Stevens said in response to El-Sayed’s claims she is a supporter of ICE. “I am always going to stand up to violence, and I just wish my opponent wouldn’t pursue the cynical approaches of Republicans when we do need to be united.”
On child care, Stevens pointed to expanding grants and paid family leave, while El-Sayed called for making child care “100% free” and paying for it by taxing billionaire wealth. The debate also featured a lengthy exchange on artificial intelligence and data centers. El-Sayed called for stricter federal guardrails, union labor requirements, community benefit agreements and an “FDA for AI’s,” while Stevens said data centers should be forced to pay utility and water bills, so Michigan families are not stuck with higher costs.
Tuesday night’s debate was held two days after progressive state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, once the third major Democrat in the primary, suspended her campaign.
McMorrow, who has seen her national profile expand in recent years and was running as a progressive in an ideological space between El-Sayed and Stevens, suspended her campaign amid faltering poll numbers and fundraising that weren’t keeping pace with her two main rivals.
McMorrow pledged to fully support whichever Democrat wins the primary and will ultimately face-off with Rogers, who is running for the Senate for a second straight cycle after losing in 2024 to now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin by a razor-thin margin.
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Following McMorrow’s exit from the race, Stevens praised her fellow Democrat by calling her an “important voice” for policies that benefit Michigan families. Stevens, who has been backed by millions in super PAC spending, including big bucks from Israel-aligned groups, argued that she is the strongest Democratic candidate to win the primary and defeat Rogers in November.
El-Sayed praised McMorrow for having the “courage” to challenge what he described as a rigged political system, accusing Democratic Party insiders of spending millions to influence the primary. While he did not name specific groups, his remarks appeared to reference corporate PACs and establishment party leaders such as Schumer.
El-Sayed, who, if elected, would make history as the nation’s first Muslim senator, is an epidemiologist who unsuccessfully ran for governor as an insurgent 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 abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and is a vocal critic of Israel amid its war with Hamas — even characterizing Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” against Palestinians. And El-Sayed, who served as a top surrogate on Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, has vowed not to accept PAC donations.
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Schumer and the party establishment view Stevens as more electable than El-Sayed, who has sparked controversy with his past comments. They worry that El-Sayed as the party’s nominee would jeopardize the Democrat-controlled Senate seat by pushing the party too far to the left in a state that President Donald Trump carried two years ago by just over one percentage point.
A victory by El-Sayed over Stevens in next month’s primary would give the far left a major win on a statewide stage, and likely further boost their momentum in the battle for the Democratic Party’s future.
On Tuesday night, Stevens leaned into her congressional record, tenure in the Obama administration’s U.S. Auto Rescue Task Force, her manufacturing background, and bipartisan efforts in Congress, including work on legislation aimed at blocking Chinese cars from undercutting American automakers.
“We can build affordable cars here in Michigan without having the Chinese come in and eat our lunch. Not on my watch,” Stevens said.
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El-Sayed leaned on being a political outsider who refuses corporate and Super PAC donations, while he pointed to his UAW endorsement and argued that Democrats need to be more aggressive in confronting Wall Street and corporate influence across many areas.
“There’s a reason that the UAW has endorsed me in this race,” El-Sayed said, arguing that corporations are “a lot more interested in a quarterly bottom line than they are in the long term sustainability of manufacturing.”
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