Democrats Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed face off in primary debate for Michigan Senate

Michigan’s remaining Democratic Senate candidates — Rep. Haley Stevens and former Michigan health official Abdul El-Sayed — are set to go head to head in a televised debate Tuesday, two days after state Sen. Mallory McMorrow suspended her campaign. 

McMorrow’s departure shook up an already-heated primary that has been marred by intraparty fighting. McMorrow cast herself as the middle ground between Stevens, a moderate who has the backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, and El-Sayed, a progressive who is supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. 

The primary between Stevens and El-Sayed is Aug. 4, with the winner advancing to compete against former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers in the general election. Rogers narrowly lost his last bid for Senate to Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024. Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, who currently holds the seat, is retiring. 

The race is one of the mostly closely watched Senate contests this cycle. Holding the seat is critical to Democrats’ chances of winning the Senate majority in November. In order to regain control of the Senate, Democrats need to flip four seats while defending other competitive seats, including in Michigan. 

The Democratic candidates last debated in May, where they took few shots at one another, despite deep divisions that the race has highlighted, particularly over Israel. El-Sayed has been highly critical of Israel while Stevens has been supportive of the nation. 

Asked during the May debate about what it means that her campaign has the backing of the pro-Israel political action committee AIPAC, Stevens avoided a direct response and called her campaign “a love letter to our state” while listing off others who support her candidacy. 

“You’re also just not answering the question,” El-Sayed said.

El-Sayed suggested that money from AIPAC donors was used to elect lawmakers who will oppose cutting U.S. funding for Israel. 

“Let me tell you what absolutely would not shape my perception — it’s AIPAC money, which is being spent already in this race to pump up one of my colleagues on this stage,” he said. “I don’t think that our taxpayer dollars, which we pay every April, ought to be going to bomb children, to fund bombs and tanks for other countries when we got kids who can’t afford basic things in our own.”

Stevens, meanwhile, has criticized El-Sayed for campaigning with Hasan Piker, a popular online streamer whose comments on Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip have drawn controversy.