A progressive upset winner faces a former GOP congressman for an open seat
Michigan voters will elect a new U.S. senator on Nov. 3, choosing between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters. The outcome could determine control of the Senate, and Democrats increasingly treat the race as a live test of whether unalloyed progressivism can win statewide in a critical battleground. El-Sayed, a former Detroit and Wayne County health director, defeated Rep. Haley Stevens, the party establishment's choice, in the Democratic primary on Aug. 4.
Ocasio-Cortez bets $1 million and her brand on a Michigan win
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has transferred $1 million from her campaign account to support El-Sayed, campaigned with him in Detroit and in Michigan's deeply Republican Upper Peninsula, and made his race a centerpiece of her closing midterm swing. At a closed-door New York fundraiser she called the race part of a "generational project" for the progressive movement, saying that "if Abdul can win in Michigan, anybody can win anywhere." Meanwhile, an allied super PAC has spent more than $30 million on El-Sayed's general-election bid, even though Senate Democratic leadership had backed Stevens in the primary.
A fractured party struggles to present a united front
Democratic unity in Michigan is visibly fraying. Stevens's fiance publicly declared he would vote for Republican Rogers over El-Sayed, and Stevens's former campaign chair said he plans to do the same, though Stevens herself says she will vote for her former rival. El-Sayed's campaign asked Stevens to skip all campaign events in the race's closing days, putting a planned Sunday unity event in doubt. The fault lines run over religion, race, inflation, tariffs and Israel policy, compounded by Republican attacks on El-Sayed's religion and ethnicity.
