{"id":8154,"date":"2026-08-02T11:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T11:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8154"},"modified":"2026-08-02T11:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T11:07:12","slug":"the-fight-for-michigan-how-a-marquee-senate-primary-became-the-democrats-latest-proxy-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8154","title":{"rendered":"The fight for Michigan: How a marquee Senate primary became the Democrats\u2019 latest proxy war"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Chuck Schumer isn\u2019t much for subtlety. When the Senate Democratic leader called retiring Sen. Gary Peters into his office in late June, Schumer went right to discussing the primary to succeed Peters in his home state of Michigan.\n <\/p>

Read more \u2018We are knifing each other\u2019: Trump and Thune showdown splinters GOP unity ahead of midterms<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Schumer believed Abdul El-Sayed\u2019s poll numbers had fallen from recent heights, suggesting there was a chance to beat the former Wayne County health director. He didn\u2019t want El-Sayed, who is running hard from the Bernie Sanders and anti-Israel wings of the party, as the Democratic nominee both for ideological reasons and fears he would lose the November election to former Rep. Mike Rogers.\n <\/p>\n

\n The three-way Democratic race was a mess, Schumer told Peters, and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow was clearly not going to win.\n <\/p>\n

\n He never said it outright, but Peters walked away thinking his mission was to get McMorrow to drop out and give Rep. Haley Stevens a one-on-one matchup against El-Sayed.\n <\/p>\n

\n Tuesday\u2019s Michigan Senate primary has become a bitter, microcosmic referendum on many of the fights Democrats are having nationally. With McMorrow now out of the race, Stevens has talked up her experience working for former President Barack Obama and a need to drill down on manufacturing and other Michigan issues, all while being kept afloat by more than $50 million in outside spending. El-Sayed has built his campaign around promoting Medicare for All but also targeting the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other outside interests that have tried to stop him.\n <\/p>\n

\n However it ends, the fight in a purple state that is almost always central to which party wins the White House \u2014 and which both Republicans and Democrats believe could help decide the Senate majority this year \u2014 has become the greatest showcase yet of a party split into bitter factions and an establishment struggling to lead it.\n <\/p>\n

\n Committed supporters of El-Sayed and Stevens can\u2019t stand each other. Backers of each candidate across the country have treated the race as if it\u2019s an existential crisis.\n <\/p>\n

\n With just a few dozen hours left until the results come in, no one on either campaign is quite sure where the race stands, other than the very real possibility of Democrats wounding themselves for November no matter who wins.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere are a lot of very strong, intense feelings right now, and we have to bring people together because we have to remember what the November election is about. It is about winning the House and the Senate, so we cannot lose the Senate seat,\u201d said Rep. Debbie Dingell, one of the few Michigan Democrats who have not taken sides in the Senate primary.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cNobody can like the kind of brutality, the ugliness that we have seen,\u201d she said. \u201cThat makes it harder to come together. But we have no choice.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A push to get behind Stevens\n<\/h2>\n
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\"Rep.<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nRep. Haley Stevens, center, hosts a campaign event with former House Majority Whip Congressman Jim Clyburn, right, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, left, in Detroit, Michigan, on July 24, 2026.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Bill Pugliano\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Schumer\u2019s first choice to succeed Peters was term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer \u2014 he always prefers candidates who\u2019ve won statewide previously \u2014 but she shut him down completely.\n <\/p>\n

\n For months, Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York had made their unofficial backing of Stevens clear, inviting her to donor events and directing other support her way. Gillibrand even went so far as suggesting to several donors, ominously, that McMorrow had been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America \u2013 even though McMorrow isn\u2019t.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSenator Gillibrand is proud that Democrats are in a strong position to defeat Mike Rogers and continue our 30-year record of holding this seat,\u201d her spokesman, James Singer, told CNN when asked about those moves.\n <\/p>\n

\n Between managing Senate Democrats in Washington and an array of other complicated races, Schumer\u2019s attention went elsewhere for much of the spring. His concerns never faded, though, and his gut check with Peters left him sure that the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which had been working to boost El-Sayed, was onto something about his weakness.\n <\/p>\n

\n Also urged on by his wife, Peters undertook the mission in his typical soft-sell way. McMorrow called him, enraged, after a Wall Street Journal story published on June 26 included a mention that he thought she needed to consider dropping out. They didn\u2019t speak again before she gave him a heads up on July 5 that she was about to suspend her campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter, deciding with advisers that she didn\u2019t want to be painted as a spoiler if she wanted to run for another office in the future.\n <\/p>\n

\n Stevens couldn\u2019t believe her luck but couldn\u2019t figure out what to do, according to two people familiar with the matter. Intermediaries kept telling her to give McMorrow space to make her decision, so much so that when McMorrow posted her video, Stevens decided not to call her.\n <\/p>\n

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\"Michigan<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nMichigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow listens to questions from the media during the Michigan Democratic Party State Endorsement Convention in Detroit, on April 19, 2026.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Jose Juarez\/AP<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n For months, she\u2019d been fixated on McMorrow as blowing the race for her. Only when a Politico reporter reached out to her campaign about what was being made out as a snub did Stevens text her. While El-Sayed in his own call to McMorrow asked for her support, Stevens never did.\n <\/p>\n

\n Stevens also didn\u2019t ask Peters for his support the first time they spoke after McMorrow\u2019s exit, despite being urged to, according to two people. A second call had to be arranged for that, but even before Peters said yes, he had already stepped up his efforts, talking to donors and other Michigan officials about potentially jumping in for her.\n <\/p>\n

\n After McMorrow\u2019s exit from the race, Peters chatted with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who had endorsed McMorrow. The two senators are friendly, and Peters said while he liked El-Sayed, he\u2019d been convinced that Stevens was the one with the better chance of winning in the fall.\n <\/p>\n

\n According to three people familiar with their conversation, both senators shared their concerns about Stevens\u2019 struggles as a candidate. He asked if she was thinking of endorsing. She asked if he was thinking of endorsing. They both said maybe.\n <\/p>\n

\n A week later, Peters made his Stevens endorsement official. A week after that, Warren went with El-Sayed, though she had previously declined to after meeting with him in Washington last year.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Stevens campaign tries to stick it to \u2018em\n<\/h2>\n
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\"Rep.<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nRep. Haley Stevens hugs a supporter at a canvass launch in Okemos, Michigan, on July 29, 2026.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Bill Pugliano\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n For months, Stevens\u2019 campaign had been counting on their prime voters being the kinds of women and African Americans, especially people without college degrees, who wouldn\u2019t tune into the campaign until closer to the election. Her advisers believed that showcasing her quirkiness, her particular accent and her connections to Obama would be exactly what would appeal to the voters they needed.\n <\/p>\n

\n Instead, Stevens trudged through months of mostly small crowds and awkward moments clipped and quickly shared online. The staff was demoralized, and the candidate, despite deleting X from her phone, sometimes struggled to keep up her own determination when friends texted her the worst bits.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cUp until that point, the campaign was in a very defensive posture. It was very hard to \u2018let Haley be Haley,\u2019 because the internet was going to dunk on her, and there was no one to defend her,\u201d said one person involved with the campaign. \u201cShe got all the downside of being the establishment candidate and none of the upside.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n How Stevens\u2019 most famous comment emerged surprised them all. A C-SPAN camera happened to show up at an otherwise unremarkable campaign event \u2013 and a Republican-linked account posted 18 seconds of it, in particular her promise that she would campaign with \u201ca little bit of \u2018stick it to \u2018em,\u2019 because that\u2019s the Michigan way.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n That clip has 3.4 million views on X. It drew a wave of sympathetic attention from fans who saw her delivery as folksy. Her campaign manager rushed an order of \u201cStick It To \u2018Em\u201d yard signs that became hugely popular. A follow-up interview in the halls of the US Capitol with TMZ \u2013 in which she keeps talking about the moment even as an aide tries to pull her away \u2013 was widely shared.\n <\/p>

Read more Acting director of national intelligence says leadership transition will begin Monday after Trump talks<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Those moments of getting better attention online became known internally as \u201cJustice for Poochie,\u201d a reference to a widely mocked 2025 video in which Stevens described a dog she had been scared of as a child.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Whitmer was going through her own difficult weeks of being blasted by unions and Democrats in the legislature for a series of vetoes. Peters and others were urging her to jump on with Stevens. Even after beating El-Sayed in her own primary in 2018, she felt she barely knew him, though she heard the buzz among some of her staff about him. She knew Stevens.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf Gretchen Whitmer bowed to pressure, she would be running for Senate herself,\u201d said one person familiar with the governor.\n <\/p>\n

\n Whitmer wasn\u2019t sure how much of a difference her endorsement would make, despite Peters and others trying to push her along. She sat with polls that suggested she could sway still-undecided voters by attaching to Stevens her same results-minded sensibility.\n <\/p>\n

\n Surprising even some on her staff, Whitmer jumped in, endorsing Stevens just over a week before the primary.\n <\/p>\n

\n Elissa Slotkin was also elected as a first-time candidate to the House as part of the same Michigan wave as Stevens in 2018. She narrowly beat Rogers in 2024. She has gotten heavily involved in the primary for her former House seat to the point of paying for polls for her preferred candidate.\n <\/p>\n

\n For now, Slotkin is on the sidelines in the Senate race. Even as she\u2019s tried to whip up chatter about a potential 2028 presidential run by throwing down on the direction of the Democratic Party, Slotkin has insisted she has to stay neutral via a statement of principle that applies almost exclusively to this year\u2019s race.\n <\/p>\n

\n The result: Slotkin has become an object of derision and anger herself. Both El-Sayed and Stevens supporters tell CNN they\u2019re not at all convinced Slotkin can be the unifying figure she keeps saying she wants to be once the dust settles. Instead, the exasperation is feeding a variety of conspiracy theories that she also is out to make the Democrats lose.\n <\/p>\n

\n Through an aide, Slotkin declined to comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bernie Sanders coaches El-Sayed\n<\/h2>\n
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\"Rep.<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Abdul El-Sayed and Sen. Bernie Sanders greet the crowd after El-Sayed spoke at a rally in Detroit, Michigan, on July 18, 2026.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Sarah Rice\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n El-Sayed has made some on his staff uncomfortable at points with both the substance of his attacks on Stevens and the feared political fallout. But emboldened by his belief that victory is at hand, he has kept going, suggesting to supporters that his campaign was walking \u201cthe exact same path\u201d as movements like the push for LGBT rights or ending Jim Crow.\n <\/p>\n

\n As McMorrow and Stevens fought over voters they wanted to be their base, El-Sayed solidified and purposely kept speaking to his.\n <\/p>\n

\n He campaigned with Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is far more sparing than her mentor in whom she endorses.\n <\/p>\n

\n An admonition from Sanders last year while campaigning in Kalamazoo stuck: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to tell them you\u2019re a doctor. Talk about being a doctor,\u201d the senator said, according to two people familiar with his comment. (El-Sayed graduated from medical school but pivoted to a career in public health instead of completing a residency or practicing medicine.)\n <\/p>\n

\n Sanders meant not just stressing El-Sayed\u2019s own medical experience but showcasing a fuller personality so that he wouldn\u2019t be dismissed as an ultra-leftist or an outsider with his Arab heritage and name.\n <\/p>\n

\n Even before he was back in Michigan two weeks ago for a series of rallies he successfully urged Ocasio-Cortez to join him for, Sanders was chipping in with more advice, including \u201cDon\u2019t shy away from talking about Gaza,\u201d since AIPAC\u2019s allies would spend millions against him anyway.\n <\/p>\n

\n The afternoon after McMorrow dropped out, El-Sayed got more bad news when sexual assault allegations were published about Graham Platner, running a parallel insurgent campaign for Senate in Maine with the same consulting firm helping both.\n <\/p>\n

\n It wasn\u2019t just that Platner\u2019s implosion prompted another round of questions about what wasn\u2019t known about El-Sayed \u2014 accentuated by his refusal for weeks to disclose his personal finances \u2014 El-Sayed also put out a statement that condemned sexual assault but did not explicitly call for Platner to quit even as other Democrats were.\n <\/p>\n

\n Others have suggested that El-Sayed was being either too deferential to his consultants or to Sanders, who himself waited on calling for Platner to leave the race. His campaign spokesperson did not respond when asked to explain the timing or content of the statement. But the campaign acknowledged internally it was a mistake, according to a person familiar with the matter.\n <\/p>\n

\n El-Sayed has otherwise been deliberately unapologetic, standing by positions even when they go beyond where some think the median voter seems to be. He refused to back down on campaigning with streamer Hasan Piker, who has said America deserved September 11, a comment Piker has since said he regrets, and has called Mao Zedong \u201cone of the great leaders of this world, a man who changed the entire universe.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n He took a swipe at Whitmer after her endorsement and repeatedly attacked Stevens even after calling on allies to lower the temperature as they mocked her \u201cstick it to \u2018em\u201d moment.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen AIPAC watches this: Come for me, see what happens,\u201d he said in an interview posted Thursday. \u201cYou picked literally the least capable candidate in America, right? And then Chuck Schumer doubles down and then AIPAC doubles down and part of me is like, OK.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\"Michigan<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nMichigan US Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed, left, and Rep. Haley Stevens, are displayed on a television during a debate inside the spin room at WoodTV studios in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 7, 2026.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Kristen Norman\/AP<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n \u201cEveryone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans,\u201d Stevens fired back Thursday night on X. \u201cBut buddy, let me be very clear, I will lower the costs of groceries, ban stock trading for elected officials, stop Trump\u2019s abuses of power, and protect Michigan manufacturing. And you\u2019ll just be a celebrity whining and writing books to get even richer. You\u2019re part of the complainer class, looking for their next book or podcast deal.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n El-Sayed has kept making the same joke about having a funny name at nearly every campaign stop. His own videos wearing fitted T-shirts and dancing were themselves a deliberate move to make him seem more relatable, less scary. Going viral helped too.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe all feel a tremendous amount of pressure. But the candidate who has the most fun usually wins,\u201d said Rebecca Katz, one of El-Sayed\u2019s strategists. \u201cThe stakes are as high as they can possibly be, but we\u2019re having fun.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n As an array of Democrats are turned off by El-Sayed\u2019s pugilistic approach and positions, particularly on Israel, that\u2019s exactly why he\u2019s generating so much interest from those more aligned with Sanders.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is a pivotal race, not just for the Michigan Senate seat, but for the entire map in 2028 \u2014 because if a progressive wins not only the primary but the general, the centrists\u2019 whole argument that progressives can\u2019t win a swing state is moot,\u201d a Sanders ally told CNN. \u201cAnd that sets the stage for a national candidate in 2028.\u201d\n <\/p>

Read more Trump predicted an oil catastrophe if the war didn\u2019t end. The clock is ticking<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday\u2019s Michigan Senate primary between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed has become a bitter referendum on many of the fights Democrats are having nationally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nThe fight for Michigan: How a marquee Senate primary became the Democrats\u2019 latest proxy war - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8154\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The fight for Michigan: How a marquee Senate primary became the Democrats\u2019 latest proxy war - 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