Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens on Friday with 10 days left until the Aug. 4 primary election.
Stevens is running against former Wayne County and Detroit health director Abdul El-Sayed.
“As governor I’ve had one strategy: Get things done. And that strategy informs everything that I do, and that’s why I’m endorsing Haley Stevens for the U.S. Senate,” Whitmer said in a video Stevens posted to social media.
Stevens said she is “absolutely thrilled” to have the support.
“She is a champion for our state. She understands the stakes of this race and why it’s so important we elect the strongest Dem in this primary, and she gets stuff done for Michigan,” Stevens said of Whitmer.
At a press event on Friday, Stevens said Whitmer represents leadership who fights and wins.
“Someone who has won her fair share of tough races, who has delivered for this state,” Stevens said.
Whitmer and El-Sayed have history, as she defeated El-Sayed in the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary election. During the race, El-Sayed criticized Whitmer for accepting corporate money, saying she was “bought and sold.”
“The corporate establishment has closed ranks and made their pick – now, Michigan voters will get to make theirs,” said Roxie Ritchner, the spokesperson for El-Sayed’s campaign.
Whitmer has faced complaints from progressive Democrats since she covered her face with a blue binder inside the White House during what she said was a impromptu press conference put on by President Donald Trump.
Whitmer has gone to D.C. to talk to the president about federal assistance for storm recovery, funding for the Selfridge Air National Guard base in Macomb County, environmental protections for the Great Lakes and the automobile industry.
She’s also welcomed the OpenAI data center in Saline earlier this year, which residents and the township rejected. OpenAI threatened litigation, which the township said it could not afford to fight.
Still, Whitmer remains popular with voters, according to a May poll from the Detroit Regional Chamber showing 52.2% of Michigan voters approve of the job being done by Whitmer, with 39.0% disapprove.
A recent poll of 500 likely Democratic primary voters by the Detroit News and WDIV, found that half of those undecided in the party’s Senate primary said a Whitmer endorsement would make them more likely to support a candidate.
Whitmer joined Stevens on Friday at the Teamsters headquarters on Trumbull Avenue in Detroit, where the Congresswoman met with U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn.
“I know how to energize Democratic voters, I know she has what it takes to energize Democratic voters,“ Clyburn said of Stevens.
