Voters in Wayne County will influence the future of the Democratic Party on Aug. 4 when they vote to elect the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate.
Millions of dollars are pouring into the Democratic primary race that has the attention of the country because of the neatly placed political identities of both candidates.
In Michigan’s largest county, voters are being hammered with ads promoting U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Birmingham, the establishment backed, pro-Israel candidate endorsed by moderate Democrats. Abdul El-Sayed of Ann Arbor is the pro-Palestine, anti-establishment candidate backed by younger, highly educated progressives.
The winner of the Democratic primary is expected to face former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who served as the U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 8th congressional district from 2001 to 2015. Republicans nationally trying to hold their Senate majority in Congress are targeting the seat.
A Republican hasn’t won a U.S. Senate general election in Michigan since 1992.
The stakes
Should El-Sayed defeat Stevens in August and the Republican candidate in November, progressives across the country will point to the win as proof a left-wing candidate can win in a swing state like Michigan.
The dynamics in the race reflect those playing out within the Democratic Party nationwide.
Ads to boost Stevens’ campaign have been almost entirely funded by dark money groups suspected of being connected to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby that has become a boogeyman among young Democratic voters.
A win for Stevens, who has the backing of nearly Michigan’s entire political establishment — save for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — would be evidence for moderate Democrats that their formula isn’t broken.
The debate over whether American taxpayers should be paying for weapons of war is playing out among Democratic Party officials all across the country, and Michigan is the centerpiece of the conversation. Michigan boasts the largest Arab American population outside of the Middle East, and is also comprised of a large Jewish population.
In Macomb County, which neighbors Wayne, Michigan is emerging as one of the nation’s defense technology hubs.
And in Detroit, the largest Black majority city, Black voters in Detroit who have elected Democrats for decades aren’t a monolith.
18-year-old Aminata Niang, of Hazel Park, told Michigan Chronicle at the African World Festival at Hart Plaza earlier this month that El-Sayed would give a new look to the Democratic Party.
“These decisions affects people like me: low income students, students of color,” Niang said. “I really think it’s super important for us to vote but also
Keith Williams, the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus, endorsed Stevens earlier this year. He represents a segment of older Black voters skeptical for El-Sayed over his progressive values.
At an event at Fellowship Chapel in April, Stevens introduced U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn who came to the city to promote his new book.
“Whose Detroit’s Jim Clyburn?” Williams said. “We don’t have one.”
Coalitions at odds
Williams told Michigan Chroncile that Detroit has been without a Clyburn type figure since the city’s Congressional representatives are non-Black.
“Who are the leaders talking about Black political power? John (Conyers) and Carolyn (Cheeks-Kilpatrick) were the only ones talking about building Black political power. We used to have Charles Diggs, George Crockett. Conyers was out there preaching the good news about African Americans, and we don’t have that anymore.”
State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who dropped her campaign after running to the middle of Stevens and El-Sayed, had the support of a few Detroit area politicos. She received endorsements from state Sen. Adam Hollier and Maia Anthony, who is the daughter of Detroit Branch NAACP leader Rev. Wendell Anthony. Anthony, who has led the Detroit branch NAACP for decades, is supporting Stevens.
Despite representing part of Detroit in the state Legislature, McMorrow’s campaign never caught on with working class Black voters.
El-Sayed is from Ann Arbor, but has a connection to the city, having worked for the city under former Mayor Mike Duggan, leading its retooled health department after the agency had privatized. Plus, El-Sayed worked at the county downtown Detroit at the Guardian Building leading the Wayne County Health Department.
He’s endorsed by Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, the Black Slate, the Wayne County Black Democratic Caucus, Wayne County Treasurer Eric Sabree; and Detroit City Council members Denzel McCampbell and Gabriela Santiago-Romero.
But some Black voters, like Williams, have been cautious to support anyone who endorsed the Uncommitted movement in February 2024.
At the Michigan Democratic Party convention earlier this spring, Williams used his position as chair of the party’s Black Caucus to deny U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib from speaking to members at the caucus meeting.
Though El-Sayed endorsed Harris the same week she announced she replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, it hasn’t stopped the criticism. His vote for Uncommitted in February remains a concern among some Black voters, who believe the effort helped tank Harris’ presidential campaign.
Ahmed Alrayashi, a Chrysler employee and UAW member, voted for Trump in 2024 over the war in Gaza. He says he regrets the vote, and two years later plans to vote for a Democrat again in El-Sayed.
“I feel like Abdul is an American first candidate,” Alrayashi told Michigan Chronicle. “I’m sick and tired of these typical politicians… to me Haley Stevens is a corporate politician.”
Alrayashi represents a key demographic that Democrats used to count on prior to the Oct. 7 attack against Israel, which was followed by Israel’s suffocating war in Gaza. El-Sayed is primed to bring back thousands of voters to the party who sat out the November 2024 election in protest of the party’s pro-Israel position.
Stevens herself invoked El-Sayed’s support of Uncommitted in an attack against him on stage during the first two-way debate between the candidates.
“Who did that help? When you sat out ’24, that vote is an important thing. People are entitled to use it as they see fit, but we also need courages leaders right now,” Stevens told Michigan Chronicle when asked about El-Sayed’s support of the February primary effort.
The Obama effect
Stevens’ ads that feature former President Barack Obama are motivating Black voters in Metro Detroit to vote for Stevens. The former president with ties to Chicago remains the most popular political figure in the city of Detroit more than a decade after leaving the White House.
One Southfield man who spoke to Michigan Chronicle about the primary race said that he voted for Stevens, “‘Cause Obama said so.”
Read more: How the Obamas are Motivating Black Voters in Michigan’s U.S. Senate Race
The ads are having the opposite affect on supporters of El-Sayed, who recognize Obama has not weighed into the race, and are upset by the past political era which gave way to President Donald Trump.
“There’s no pushback on that widely circulated campaign ad that she’s using him,” says Dennis Boatwright, the director of the Center of Pan-African studies in Detroit.
He said in an interview earlier this month that he believes El-Sayed will win over younger Black voters because they’re tired of the status quo.
“People are losing faith in the current status quo Black politician,” Boatwright said. “You slowly see them being displaced… Rashida Tlaib is winning by landslides because the typical Hakeem Jeffries type — old guard, Clinton, even Obama … and I like Obama — they’re being replaced by people who younger people feel are responsive to their needs.”
Boatwright said the Democratic Party needs to give voters more than just how they’re going to stand up to Trump.
“You have to have more answers and actual solutions instead of just blaming everything on Trump,” he said. “This is why you’re seeing a lot of young people … replacing them with people like (NYC Mayor Zohran) Mamdani.”
Williams, whose Facebook page is a go-to place for Detroit’s younger progressives and legacy establishment duel in the comments, told Michigan Chronicle he doesn’t see the battle between progressives and moderates. He says he expects Black women will make the difference in a Stevens win.
Williams supported a number of progressive candidates in recent months; Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, Washtenaw County prosecutor Eli Savit, who is running for attorney general and state Rep. Donavan McKinney, running for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District.
“I just want people to do right by my people,” Williams said.
“Progressives are trying to get us out the way, but we need to join the ride together so we can get together for all of us. We have to compromise. They have good points about healthcare and data centers, but don’t forget what I went through trying to participate in the American dream as an African American.”
