Abdul El-Sayed is leading in the polls ahead of Michigan’s Aug. 4 Senate primary. If he wins the nomination, Democrats will learn fast whether his politics can win a battleground state.
Senate hopeful Haley Stevens booed during Democratic convention
Representative Haley Stevens was met with boos while giving a speech at the Michigan Democratic Endorsement Convention in Detroit on Sunday, April 19.
In 2025, Elissa Slotkin, a Democratic U.S. senator from Michigan, observed the following about her political party: “We’re like a solar system with no sun. We don’t act as a team, and when we don’t work as a team, we turn our guns on each other, and it’s so, so, so, fruitless.”
Fast-forward to now, and the Democratic Party seems to be moving in a distinct direction: far left. Like, socialist left.
From New York to Colorado, newcomer democratic socialists have unseated sitting members of Congress.
But these victories, so far, have come in solidly leftist strongholds. What I’m watching closely is whether a far-left progressive can win in my state of Michigan, a battleground state that helped elect President Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2024.
The Democratic Senate primary here is Aug. 4, and it’s caught the attention of the country because control of the Senate could be decided in the Great Lakes State. Democratic Sen. Gary Peters isn’t running for reelection, giving Republicans a chance to win the seat back.
Democrats must flip four seats to take control of the chamber, and holding Michigan is essential to that math.
To the chagrin of more “moderate” Democrats, candidate Abdul El-Sayed – a former public health official who’s the darling of democratic socialists like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders – has done remarkably well in the polls, and he’s maintained a lead over more traditional opponents U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.
McMorrow suspended her campaign on July 5, first reported by The Detroit News, after weak polling numbers and likely pressure from Democratic Party insiders.
If El-Sayed pulls off a primary win, it could signal which sun the Democratic Party is heading toward.
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What works in the primary may not play as well in the general
But El-Sayed may face bigger challenges if he makes it to the November election.
He’ll face off against Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman who narrowly lost his 2024 Senate bid to Slotkin.
Michigan hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate in more than 30 years. Yet while Slotkin is a Democrat through and through, she’s adept at appealing to independents and moderates.
That’s not true of El-Sayed, who has palled around with self-identified Marxist streamer Hasan Piker on the campaign trail, in addition to Sanders.
“El-Sayed joins the list of radical leftists running nationally that will also cause consternation amongst mainstream Democrats,” former Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis told me. “Slotkin has already raised the alarm bells and that probably indicates she’s hearing from her constituency, and El-Sayed will need them as well.”
Michigan could determine whether Republicans hold their Senate majority – and it’s the GOP’s best shot at flipping a seat outright.
El-Sayed may be able to rally more radical progressives and the anti-Israel base in the primary, but that message will be a tougher sell to Michigan voters as a whole. As Anuzis put it, El-Sayed’s strength in the primary is his weakness in the general.
“If he wins, then more mainstream Democrats, Reagan/Trump Democrats and culturally conservative, working-class independents will have to make a choice,” he said. “I think that greatly helps Rogers.”
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Democratic leadership is shying away from El-Sayed. Will it matter?
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has openly backed Stevens, the sitting congresswoman, in the race. He and other Democrats clearly think she’s best suited to take on Rogers in November. Along those lines, ahead of McMorrow dropping out of the race, retiring Sen. Peters told associates that Democrats need to back one of the more mainstream candidates to oppose El-Sayed, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Still, El-Sayed has landed a coveted Michigan endorsement: that of the powerful United Auto Workers union, which praised the candidate for pushing forward “a strong working-class agenda with moral clarity.”
And while some believe that McMorrow exiting the race will boost Stevens, that’s far from a certainty. McMorrow notably did not throw her support behind one of the other contenders and her name will remain on the primary ballot.
Following Zohran Mamdani’s successful bid in 2025 for mayor of New York City, U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he didn’t think the democratic socialist represented the future of the Democratic Party.
With several more socialists recently winning seats in Congress, that looks a lot less certain.
Whether El-Sayed prevails in the primary, and then wins over Michigan voters in November, will be the biggest test yet of how far left Democrats are willing to go.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques
