RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed are locked in a close race to be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan. Sylvia Jarrus for NPR hide caption
DETROIT — After two years in the political wilderness, Democrats are feeling cautiously optimistic about turning the tide in the midterms. That has only intensified debate about the direction of the party.
Nowhere is that debate more fraught now than Michigan, where Democrats are weighing two millennial candidates for an open Senate seat.
One is Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist firing up progressives by embracing "Medicare for All" and ripping the influence of corporate money in politics.
The other is Haley Stevens, a four-term congresswoman who flipped a suburban House district and pledges to fight President Trump while still practicing a more moderate brand of politics.
Elections With just a few primary elections to go, the competitive Senate map keeps shifting "You have candidates who are very different," says Joel Rutherford, a Democrat from Warren, Mich. "This passion has just become so big. I try to tell people this is political, not personal."
It does not help that the race has become a proxy for so many debates Democrats are wrestling with: Establishment versus insurgent. Progressive versus more moderate. New media versus old.
And the stakes are high for Democrats. To win back the Senate, the party needs to net a total of four seats. But their path to the majority also depends on holding onto the seat in Michigan — infusing the choice voters make in Tuesday's primary with national implications.
Under a big pavilion in Warren, just outside of Detroit, where designers dream up new Chevys and Buicks for General Motors and the sprawling Warren Truck Plant churns out Jeeps, El-Sayed worked the crowd at an annual picnic in July with a live band, barbecue and games for retired members of the United Auto Workers.
Gwen Martin and her two friends were thrilled to see El-Sayed, who has the UAW endorsement. Martin, who says she has been intrigued by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani , says so many voters are just struggling to get by and are hungry for sweeping change.
"It's a choice now between medicine or do you buy groceries or gas," Martin says.
El-Sayed is pitching the kind of transformation Martin envisions. A former health department director for Detroit and later Wayne County who also ran for governor in 2018, El-Sayed says special interest money in politics is a driving force making problems like access to health care so intractable.
"The problem too often with the Democratic party, we have an instinct to say the right thing, but we're bought off by the people who are on the side of doing the wrong thing," El-Sayed said in an interview. "So we're constantly hedging and pulling punches so we say not much of anything at all."
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed meets with voters and supporters in Rouge Park on July 26, 2026 in Detroit. Sylvia Jarrus for NPR hide caption
Rose Edwards, 66, puts a sticker with her hopes for the future on a banner at a community meetup event for El-Sayed in Rouge Park on July 26, 2026 in Detroit. "You have to get involved in the community, you can't complain and then not get involved. I love him and he has my vote and I can't wait to see what he does when he gets to Washington," Edwards said. Sylvia Jarrus for NPR hide caption
In Michigan, as in other Democratic primaries this year, the debate over special interest money has been felt most sharply in conversations around AIPAC . The pro-Israel lobbying group is spending millions to boost Stevens, a staunch supporter of Israel, and oppose El-Sayed, who supports ending U.S. military aid to the country.
That outside spending has helped flood mailboxes and the airwaves with advertisements. Multiple voters at the picnic questioned El-Sayed on a mailer they received, paid for by an AIPAC-affiliated super PAC, that accused him of making disparaging remarks about former First Lady Michelle Obama.
But Kelley McKenzie, retiring soon after a 33-year career in the auto industry, says that is not why she is leaning toward Stevens. McKenzie was at Chrysler when the auto industry neared collapse during the Great Recession. Stevens was chief of staff for the team President Obama tasked with rescuing Detroit's big three automakers.
Haley Stevens speaks with voters at Detroit Councilwoman Mary Waters' Senior Summer Sizzler event on July 28, 2026 at Eastern Market in Detroit. Sylvia Jarrus for NPR hide caption
As for what McKenzie wants from her party now, fighting President Trump is at the top of the list.
"I want Democrats to get aggressive and fight fire with fire, not fire with water," she says.
In conversations with voters, Stevens pledges to fight, but she also describes herself as a workhorse.
"I'm just beating MAGA four times in my Congressional races, and I'm passing laws and I'm doing damn good work," she told reporters. "We don't need wishlists. We need action now. That's the Michigan way."
Rutherford, an Air Force veteran and retired air traffic controller who has long been involved with the Macomb County Democrats, worries the primary is tearing Democrats apart.
Another Macomb County Democrat, Susan Hier, a grandmother of five, worries Democrats will struggle to marry competing demands as her party clashes over what kind of candidate or platform can best meet this political moment.
"I don't know that we can marry it, and then we're going to be in big trouble," she says.
Hier is still undecided after hoping for a candidate who could bridge those divides. Her preferred choice, State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, dropped out after struggling to carve a middle lane.
Joel Rutherford, a U.S. Air Force veteran and community activist, plans to vote for El-Sayed. "We're not going to get everything we want," he says, "but we have to at least try." Sylvia Jarrus for NPR hide caption
"We're not going to get everything we want," says Rutherford, who is supporting E...
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