Michigan’s primary is now the main proxy battlefield for the ideological war in the Democratic Party.
The embattled left is unleashing its top star next week in what it hopes will stop the bleeding from the damaging collapse of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.
“Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) will co-host with comrade Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) rallies called “The People vs. The Powerful” July 18-19 on behalf of Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
“El-Sayed now owns the political liabilities that come with AOC’s endorsement and her socialist spending spree. Together in Congress, they would saddle Michiganders with crippling tax hikes and dismantle the law enforcement agencies that keep their communities safe,” said Bernadette Breslin, press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
The contested race that is bringing the nation’s most prominent lefties to the Midwest comes due to the retirement of two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI). Left-wing Democratic Socialists of America-backed El-Sayed, 41, has been leading in the polls, but is now encountering a fierce counter-attack from the party’s establishment wing as Dems try to avoid another disaster like Maine.
“We’ve seen what happened in New York and Colorado. The real question is can it happen in a purple state like Michigan?” said Bill Ballenger, a former Michigan state House and Senate member and author of the Ballenger Report, pointing to recent lefty primary wins. “Could El-Sayed win? And if he does – boy then there is really going to be a story this coming November.”
He called AOC’s appearance a “smart move” for the superior retail politician, but doubted she could ever carry the state herself in a “totally different situation” as presidential candidate.
Establishment-leaning Democrats were panicked that two rival candidates – Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who is backed by Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow – might split the vote.
“They’ve got to win for their movement. But others want to win a Democratic Senate for their country. It’s a tale of two tectonic plates. Let’s see what shakes out,” said one Democratic Party official who fretted about the party’s leftward primary lurch.
Facing pressure, McMorrow suddenly dropped out over the July 4 weekend, without explanation – giving Stevens a clear shot at El-Sayed. Within days, AOC and Sanders announced plans of their return to the road, after drawing 30,000-40,000 people to stops on their 2025 “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
Stevens, 43, has been turning up the heat on El-Sayed in their first debate, demanding he release his tax returns, and saying she herself was the only candidate in the race who is not a millionaire.
“I respect them both but the problem is that the Republicans who want to protect Trump’s Senate majority are campaigning for him, too – because they think he’d be easier to beat,” said Andrew Bates, former deputy press secretary for President Joe Biden. “El-Sayed should take a page from Sanders’ book and release his tax returns.”
The Detroit native born of Egyptian parents repeatedly blasted Stevens over the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, using thinly-veiled attacks at Tuesday’s debate. “They clearly want one individual and it’s not me,” El-Sayed said of the pro-Israel group. “I don’t take that money.
“The question is not whether or not you’re a millionaire,” the former public health official said in the Grand Rapids debate hosted by WOOD-TV. “The question is whether or not you are bowing down to billionaires.”
Former Biden Administration official Meghan Hayes linked the El-Sayed camp to the imploded campaign of Graham Platner in Maine.
She said the same consultants “that are bringing you Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan” were behind candidates “who are not vetted because they think that if you are online and you are popular online, that you are going to win people.”
Conveniently, AOC will be getting her name out in a crucial presidential battleground – weeks after a clean socialist sweep in three New York races had insiders buzzing about her prospects.
The Israel issue remains fraught In Michigan, where President Joe Biden had to fend off a campaign led by Arab American residents to back “uncommitted” instead of him in 2024 over Israel’s war in Gaza.
The rallies take them to Democratic strongholds in Detroit and Lansing, as well as more Republican-leaning Grand Rapids, firing up what Sanders called a “strong grassroots movement to take on the billionaire class and corporate greed.”
