How a must-win Michigan Senate race turned messy for Democrats

By Manu Raju, Alison Main, CNN

(CNN) — Sitting in a coffee shop in his hometown of Ann Arbor, Abdul El-Sayed is ready to dispel the notion that he’s unelectable.

The 41-year-old son of Egyptian immigrants whose sharply progressive views align with those of Sen. Bernie Sanders, El-Sayed is seen by many Democrats in Washington as the kind of candidate they fear: someone who wins a primary and loses in November, costing them a shot at the Senate majority.

El-Sayed scoffs at that.

“I think there is this notion that electability is about being the least offensive,” he told CNN. “If that were true, why would Donald Trump have won the presidency twice?”

Whether he’s right could have enormous ramifications for control of the Senate.

Michigan’s open Senate seat is now emerging as a GOP hedge against a potential takeover for Democrats, who need to net four seats to flip the chamber. Losing Michigan would make the Democrats’ task almost impossible, a major reason why a leading Republican outside group just announced plans to pour $45 million into the state – more than any other pickup opportunity – to boost former Rep. Mike Rogers, the likely GOP nominee.

Republicans are hoping that the ultimate Democratic nominee emerging from the August 4 primary emerges battered and cash-strapped, giving Rogers a leg up.

“If he wins this seat, if they are successful in trying to buy this seat, then there is no path at all for Democrats to take control of the US Senate,” said state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, one of the three Democrats vying for the party’s nomination.

Yet Democrats have to resolve their own internal struggles first.

Rep. Haley Stevens, a 42-year-old who represents a district in the Detroit suburbs, is a favorite among many in the party establishment who see her as the most electable. The 39-year-old McMorrow is trying to brand herself as a candidate who can woo both traditional Democrats and progressives hungry for a shakeup of their party’s leadership.

El-Sayed, a former public health official who wrote a book on Medicare for All, is pushing to the left on several key issues.

The thorny questions facing Democratic voters: Should they back a candidate certain to energize their progressive base? Or should they fall in line behind the party establishment and pick someone who might better woo swing voters?

“Anybody committed to shutting down Trump and the MAGA movement,” said Jeff Albright, an undecided Democratic voter in the Detroit suburb of Canton, when asked about his most important issue. “That’s No. 1.”

The splits within the party

The fight so far has revealed huge splits among Michigan Democrats over major issues – on immigration enforcement, health care, support for Israel and the state of their party’s leadership.

El-Sayed has called to abolish US Immigration and Customs Enforcement while Stevens and McMorrow want changes to ICE’s practices instead. El-Sayed has sworn off any corporate PAC money while Stevens continues to accept PAC funding, despite her calls to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling.

While McMorrow now bans corporate donations to her campaign, it’s a shift from her position accepting them when running for state Senate, something she says shows she’s “willing to be someone who evolves” and has now learned how to campaign “differently.”

“We can’t be Republican-light,” McMorrow said in an interview at a brewery in the Detroit suburbs.

El-Sayed attacked McMorrow for “a flip” in positions.

“It’s not just your positions, it’s about whether or not you truly and deeply hold on to them,” El-Sayed said before pointing to Sen. John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has broken with his party and become a villain on the left. “I think so many of us are frustrated by the likes of John Fetterman, a guy who campaigned saying that he was going to take on the swamp, only to become the ogre who lives in the swamp.”

El-Sayed bashed both his Democratic foes for a “lack of courage.”

“It’s just the same lack of courage that Democrats deploy to argue as to why they should be taking money from corporations, or why they should be hedging their bets on clear, obvious policies like abolishing ICE or guaranteeing health care through Medicare for All,” he said. “What you’re seeing in this race right now is that people are sick and tired of the same old Democrats who lack courage.”

McMorrow said a lot of El-Sayed’s campaign is just rhetoric.

“Rhetoric is nice, but results are better,” said McMorrow, who is the state Senate Democratic whip. “Just doing rounds and talking about issues and having rhetoric without knowing how to actually implement those things is not going to shake it up at all. That’s just lobbing bombs from the outside.”

Asked if she thought El-Sayed would get trounced by Republicans in a general election, Stevens instead focused on her own campaign and her economic message, arguing that she’s “the best person or the only person that can beat Mike Rogers.”

How they’d work with their party’s Senate leader also is a flashpoint.

Stevens, who has praised Sen. Chuck Schumer as a “great leader” in the past, wouldn’t say if she stood by those comments when asked by CNN, calling it “inside baseball.”

El-Sayed said Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland should be the next Democratic leader, as he bashed Schumer over his stance of providing aid to Israel.

McMorrow also said it’s time for a change. “We need new leadership,” she said.

“Because if you look at polling, the only thing less popular than Donald Trump is the Democratic Party,” McMorrow said. “That’s rough. So we need to run very different Democrats.”

The Israel divide

There’s perhaps no bigger dividing line in Michigan or national Democratic politics than Israel. There are sizable Arab American and Jewish voter blocs in and around Detroit. Trump flipped Michigan in November 2024 in part by appealing to both Muslims and Jews disaffected by former President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

El-Sayed makes no bones about his views, attacking the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal,” and referring to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza after Hamas’ October 7 attacks as a “genocide.”

Asked if he thinks Israel is as evil as Hamas, El-Sayed said: “Yes. Killing tens of thousands of people makes you pretty damn evil,” he said. “It’s not how evil is this one versus that one: Hamas evil, Israeli government evil. You can say both.”

Stevens has the backing of AIPAC, something El-Sayed says is “disastrous for our politics.”

“We’re running for Senate for Michigan, and as a senator from Michigan, you should be more interested in what’s happening in Michigan than you are interested in what’s happening in Tel Aviv,” El-Sayed said.

Stevens wouldn’t say when asked if she embraced AIPAC’s support.

“I’m campaigning in a grassroots way alongside a ton of engaged Michiganders,” she said when asked about AIPAC, saying voters were asking her about their high energy costs.

Last year, a United Nations inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – an accusation the Israeli government firmly rejects, as does Stevens.

“I don’t agree with that,” Stevens said when asked if it were a genocide.

McMorrow first notably characterized the Israeli military action in Gaza as a “genocide” when pressed on the issue at a campaign event last fall, though she told voters that the definition of the conflict matters less than reaching a “solution.” She also made clear she would not seek the support of AIPAC, as she faced scrutiny for a Drop Site News report saying she had produced a candidate position paper for the pro-Israel group, according to a campaign call with donors. And on Friday, McMorrow posted on X: “I have not, am not, and will not take money from AIPAC.”

Asked by CNN if she believes Netanyahu is a war criminal, McMorrow said: “Watching the devastation, I do believe that war crimes were committed.”

The Piker rallies

Both McMorrow and Stevens criticized El-Sayed for barnstorming college campuses with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who has a history of inflammatory comments, including saying Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel and saying “America deserved 9/11.”

Piker has walked back the remarks about September 11, but Stevens seized upon them.

“That’s not someone I’d be campaigning with,” Stevens said. “Because it’s un-American and we shouldn’t say that America deserved 9/11. This is about winning for Michigan.”

El-Sayed took umbrage at Stevens’ criticism.

“My understanding of America is, it’s a place where we’re willing to have conversations with folks with whom we disagree,” El-Sayed said.

El-Sayed added: “It’s that penchant for cancel culture that I think people hate about Democrats. We sit here from on high and then scold people about who they’re allowed to talk to and who they’re not.”

One Democratic voter in Lansing says she would not vote for El-Sayed if he became the nominee, citing in particular his position on Israel.

“I don’t want somebody who’s going to pander to whatever is the ‘omnicause’ of the day,” said Robin Gillis, a Stevens supporter. “I want someone who is normal about it. I’m a normal Democrat. I want to vote for a normal Democrat.”

Are swing voters ‘mythical’?

Earlier this month at Michigan State University, hundreds of students lined up for a chance to hear from both Piker and El-Sayed, with many college-age voters citing the candidate’s staunchly progressive and anti-Israel views.

Nick Coffin-Callis, a Democratic voter in Lansing, noted El-Sayed’s support for Medicare for All and free childcare as well as his opposition to Israel. Those views, even if they propel him to a primary victory, could give Rogers and his well-funded allies material for attack ads that national Democrats fear.

But when asked if El-Sayed’s ideas would put off swing voters in this purple state, Coffin-Callis demurred in a way that captures the progressive base’s current mood.

“I think these swing voters in the center are mythical creatures,” Coffin-Callis said. “I don’t think they necessarily exist.”

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