U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and former Wayne County health director Abdul El-Sayed debated corporate money in politics, ICE and issues central to the divide within the Democratic Party on Fox 2 on Monday, July 27.
The race represents the deep divide within Democratic Party politics, where younger, more progressive voters are looking for candidates who aren’t beholden to corporate interests. Older, more moderate Democratic voters are looking for candidates who they believe can defeat Republicans.
Stevens made that case again on Monday night, telling Fox 2 host Roop Raj she’s the only candidate on stage who had previously defeated Republican candidates, and she will do it again.
“Abdul is running for celebrity,” Stevens said. “This isn’t about the DC or NY influencer crowd… “This is about making sure Mike Rogers doesn’t get anywhere close to this seat.”
El-Sayed pushed back on Stevens’ claim.
“Poll after poll after poll has shown, despite what my colleague says that I am the most competitive candidate to take on Mike Rogers,” El-Sayed said. “Ask yourself if DTE funds both Mike Rogers and Haley Stevens, who wins? DTE wins, and Blue Cross and Big Pharma and Big Tech and APAC, all funded by the same people.”
Stevens on stage when asked whether she would accept money for her campaign from DTE Energy, said that she would not.
“These companies do not care about the ratepayers, and they are selling us out,” Stevens said.
However, public records show that she accepted money from DTE and Consumers Energy a month before her Senate campaign. She later transferred those funds into her campaign for Senate.
FEC reports reveal her Senate campaign received $2,500 from Consumers Energy’s political action committee and DTE’s PAC on March 24, 2025, which was transferred from her U.S. House committee.
The money was apparently transferred from her U.S. House committee, records show.
“So I’d really like to revisit that question because I don’t know how to explain $40,000 directly to her campaign from DTE,” El-Sayed said on stage.
Stevens doubled down on the assertion she hadn’t taken money from the utility company after the debate, telling a Detroit News reporter she appreciated being pushed on the fact that she had accepted the money.
“He just asked about my current campaign,” Stevens responded.
El-Sayed’s campaign has made the rejection of corporate PAC donations a centerpiece of his stump. Stevens’ campaign has accepted corporate PAC money and is being supported by outside groups that have spent millions on TV ads and mailers.
“I don’t take money from the corporations who are jacking up your prices in the first place — when you’re bought off by DTE and Blue Cross and Big Pharma and Big Tech and AIPAC, don’t be surprised that there is a pro quo that comes with that quid,” El-Sayed said on stage. “That money doesn’t just fall off trees. $60 million from outside organizations in this race didn’t come nowhere. It’s because those exact same organizations expect something on the other side, and that’s that they get to expect to own your next U.S. senator.”
Stevens denied taking money from large companies means she owes them something in return.
“The only thing that ever motivates my work is the people of Michigan, the people who I hear from,” Stevens said.
The candidates also debated their position on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Stevens has said the agency housed within the Department of Homeland Security needs reformed, while El-Sayed has advocated to eliminate the agency altogether.
“Parents who are afraid to drop their kids off for school because of these ice raids,” Stevens said. “This isn’t working for us. This is abuse of power, and I am standing up to Trump right now on these abuses of power.”
El-Sayed pointed to Stevens’ votes to fund ICE and thank ICE agents for their service.
“I just want to push back on the idea that it’s calmed down. I mean, I was just in Genesee County this weekend, and you had raids in Saginaw. People are scared to death, and we’ve got a con a college woman who tells you that she’s against ISIS voted to raise ICE funding. Voted to thank ICE.”
He said his position on abolishing ICE doesn’t mean “we are not going to keep our streets secure. That’s not to say that we’re not going to enforce immigration policy.”
“Just say we we did it for most of our history,” he said. “For most of our history, we didn’t have ICE. We had INS, and they were targeted. They obeyed the laws of this land. They didn’t terrorize people in places like preschools and parking lots.”
Stevens was the only candidate to mention issues specifically related to Black residents, saying she has taken the time to visit a minority owned business on the campaign trail.
“I want to see my bill that would take an investment capital structure into Black owned businesses so things like what we have on the Avenue of Fashion — which is a national best practice — that we can do that in Saginaw in Muskegon and Lansing.”
Detroit ombudsman Sherry Gay-Dagnogo told Michigan Chronicle after the debate that she’s shared with Michigan Democratic Party leader Curtis Hertel that the party needs to renew its focus toward Black voters.
“If they don’t pull it together, the Democratic Party could really end up losing the workhorses of our campaigns and that’s the African American vote,” Gay-Dagnogo said.
