Progressives state Rep. Donavan McKinney and William Lawrence — who are running for the Democratic nod in House races — will make appearances alongside Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, too.
The July 18 and 19 campaign stops in Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids, paired with Peters’s endorsement in the race, mark the latest ideological clash between the dueling left wing and moderate factions of the party as Democrats wrestle over the future of the party at the ballot box.
“The stakes are material,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Hill in an interview. “If Abdul El-Sayed wins, politics in Michigan will be forever upended.”
“There will be a massive amount of assumptions made about Michiganders that I think will be proven wrong about what kind of American can win in Michigan, and I think that it's important to challenge that,” she continued, noting she did not endorse in the House races.
Political observers are keeping a close eye on a slew of critical primaries teed up for Aug. 4 in the battleground Great Lakes State, where President Trump won by over a point in 2024 while Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) beat former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) by less half of a point that same year. Rogers is the presumptive Republican nominee for Senate this cycle as well.
But the contests lay bare fundamental frictions in the Democratic Party that have flared in multiple House primaries as well as progressive Graham Platner’s suspended Senate bid in Maine this year.
“People are sick and tired of watching the same corporations win, whether Democrats win or Republicans win,” El-Sayed told The Hill. “I think they're going to reject the corporate politics.”
El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health director, argues that Democratic voters are frustrated with the status quo. He has focused his campaign on Medicare for All, taking on billionaires and monopolies, and attacking Stevens over corporate contributions as groups like American Israel Public Affairs Committee pour in money into the race.
Stevens, meanwhile, has suggested she’d serve as a steady hand in the Senate and isn’t a “show horse” — a jab she used repeatedly against El-Sayed during their debate earlier this month — but a “work horse” and “Michigan’s manufacturing geek.”
She has hit El-Sayed more recently for not releasing his public finance disclosure forms and tax returns. He released his tax return to WLNS, which shares the same owner, Nexstar, as The Hill, on Wednesday.
El-Sayed's campaign told the news outlet that he would file his personal finance disclosure before the primary.
Stevens, meanwhile, hasn’t shied away from making an electability argument, claiming she’s the stronger general election candidate.
“Abdul, I would say no one is afraid of you, and in fact, the GOP is spending thousands of dollars to prop up your campaign because they think they will make it easier for Mike Rogers to win if you are the nominee,” she said during their July 7 debate.
The Stevens and El-Sayed campaigns ultimately symbolize Democrats’ competing arguments over how to win an election: Stick with a “safer” Democrat whose more centrist or moderate positions could attract independents and disaffected Republicans or pick a progressive, populist who can fire up the base and potentially pick off some undecided voters.
A Detroit News/WDIV-TV (Channel 4) poll released this week showed Stevens leading El-Sayed at 48 percent to 41 percent, with a separate 10 percent undecided. El-Sayed enjoyed an edge in past polling, though the dynamics of the race have changed closer to the primary and with state Sen. Mallory McMorrow's decision to suspend her bid.
Lawrence and McKinney are taking the latter tack as they run for House seats in Michigan’s 7th and 13th Congressional Districts, respectively.
Lawrence, the co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, is running against two more moderate Democrats, former Ukraine Amb. Bridget Brink and former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam. Whoever wins the primary faces battleground Republican Rep. Tom Barrett (Mich.) in November.
“I think that corporate-funded, uninspiring candidates are riskier in the general election because people want change, and they're not going to get out to vote for more of the same,” Lawrence told The Hill.
Brink, meanwhile, says she believes that voters will reward her experience fighting the Trump administration, noting she resigned from her role as Ukraine ambassador over her split with the president on Ukraine and Russia policy.
“For me, this fight is about who will stand up to Trump and who will take on a broken Washington that works for the corporate special interests while leaving mid-Michigan families behind,” she said in a statement. “The truth is I’m the only one who has stood up to Trump and will fight like hell to take on his chaos and corruption in Congress.”
McKinney is looking to unseat Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) who's represented the blue stronghold since 2023. Democrats note the dynamics of this race are different as Black Democrats have historically represented this Detroit area seat.
“Ultimately, the people of the 13th District should decide who their representative ought to be,” Thanedar told The Hill. “And the people of Detroit, which is a 78 percent Black city, has always, always made me victorious.”
The Hill reached out to the Maasdam and McKinney campaigns for comment.
Still, the stakes are high ahead of Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez's tour of the state this weekend — particularly after Platner’s insurgent Senate campaign imploded earlier this month amid sexual assault and misconduct allegations. Ocasio-Cortez notably did not back Platner, while Sanders was the progressive’s leading champion.
His exit has heightened the ongoing fight in the party over its direction, bleeding into the Michigan primary races. Ocasio-Cortez, however, believes what ultimately happens in Michigan is more than just ideological.
“It's actually, I think, a huge opportunity for us to move forward in what a post-Trump America will look like, and I think Abdul El-Sayed can help lead us in a post-Trump America,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Hill. “And that America is coming much sooner than people think, and it's up to us and this generation of young people to define it.”
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