What we're covering:
• All eyes on Michigan: The high-stakes Democratic primary – between progressive Abdul El-Sayed and more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens – will test whether the progressive movement’s success in more solidly Democratic areas can extend statewide in a critical swing state.
• Missouri stakes: Another ideological primary is playing out in Missouri’s 1st District, as progressive former Rep. Cori Bush aims to return to Congress after losing the 2024 primary to moderate Rep. Wesley Bell.
• Also to watch: Elsewhere, the primaries for Kansas governor will kick off the general election for a top Republican pickup opportunity and House primaries in Virginia and Washington will test the direction of both parties and set up races that will influence the balance of the House next term.
November electability is stoking August anxiety
In the final hours of the bruising Michigan Senate primary, Rep. Haley Stevens and the full Democratic establishment have been making an urgent case about which candidate they believe can more easily win in the fall.
Stevens, who was elected to Congress in a 2018 Democratic wave by flipping a GOP-held seat in the Detroit suburbs, says she is strongest challenger against likely Republican nominee Mike Rogers. That argument has been amplified by party leaders like former Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
“This is about electing someone who knows Michigan and can hold the seat by beating Mike Rogers,” Stabenow told supporters Monday night in Grand Rapids. “Period.”
Progressive Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official whose parents immigrated to the US from Egypt, was born and raised in Michigan. He has been confronting questions of electability head-on, making clear that voters know that he, too, knows Michigan.
“It’s not about me. You know who they’re really talking about? They’re talking about you,” El-Sayed told his supporters at a union hall in Warren. “They’re saying that you’re not open-minded enough, you’re not big-hearted enough to elect somebody named Abdul.”
Asked whether he believed his ethnicity was an undercurrent of the electability argument, El-Sayed told CNN: “No.”
“Electability is the thing that’s best defined after the fact,” El-Sayed said. “So, if and when I get elected, then you’ll know I’m electable.”
Senator who backed Stevens says top priority must be candidate who can win general election
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, who endorsed Haley Stevens in the Democratic Senate primary for Michigan, said his number-one concern is nominating someone who can win in the general election against the Republican candidate Mike Rogers.
Coons referenced Rogers’ candidacy in the 2024 Michigan Senate election, which Sen. Elissa Slotkin won by less than 20,000 votes.
“It was achingly close,” Coons said. “This is a very purple state, and it will be a close and difficult election. So whoever wins the Democratic primary tonight has an important job, and that’s to bring the party together and to win support to go into the fall elections.”
What to know about the candidates in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary
Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary is one of 2026’s highest-stakes showdowns between the party’s rising progressive wing and an establishment focused on electability.
The race for the open seat was set in motion by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ retirement and could help shape the balance of power in the Senate.
The primary has narrowed to a head-to-head contest between Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official backed by prominent progressives Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate with establishment support and a track record of winning on red turf.
The Democratic nominee will face former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers in November.
Here’s what you need to know about each candidate:
- El-Sayed was Wayne County’s health director from 2023 to 2025. He supports Medicare for All, wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and says the United States must cut off aid to Israel — a position that has made him a target of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has spent tens of millions on the race. El-Sayed has faced scrutiny over his affiliations and past stances. He has campaigned with pro-Palestinian Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and deleted social media posts calling for defunding the police. He had advocated that position in interviews in 2020 — despite recently claiming he had never done so.
- Stevens, who represents Michigan’s 11th District, was elected to the House in 2018. That year, Stevens flipped a Republican-held seat, helping Democrats win back the chamber. She has cast herself as the more electable, establishment-aligned candidate and sought to highlight her work on President Barack Obama’s task force that rescued the auto industry in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Her campaign has benefited from more than $50 million in outside spending, including millions of dollars from AIPAC’s super PAC arm – an issue that El-Sayed, who has sworn off corporate PAC money, has criticized her over.
Barack Obama's indirect influence in Michigan's Democratic Senate primary
Former President Barack Obama hasn’t endorsed in the contentious Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, but he’s been featured in millions of dollars of advertisements anyway.
Supporters of Rep. Haley Stevens have spent $5 million airing an advertisement nearly 4,000 times that features Obama praising her work as chief of staff for the US Auto Rescue Task Force during the 2008 financial crisis.
It’s run more than any other political ad in the Wolverine State over the last year, according to data from AdImpact. The campaign is part of a determined effort to link Stevens to the former president in a state where Black voters made up around a quarter of Democrats in the 2022 midterms and remind voters of her part in the effort to save Michigan’s iconic industry.
Amplifying the messaging gap, outside groups backing Stevens have plowed more than $50 million total into the contest, while her opponent Abdul El-Sayed, who has sworn off corporate PAC money, has seen less than $1 million in outside advertising support.
The source of some of the ads – funded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, during a Democratic reckoning over US support for Israel – is another flashpoint in the latest showdown between the party’s rising progressive insurgency and its establishment wing.
El-Sayed mounted his own outreach to Black voters, releasing an ad that highlights his 2024 endorsement of Kamala Harris.
Michigan Republican says he's in "good shape" in Senate race if El-Sayed is the nominee
If Abdul El-Sayed captures the Democratic nomination in tonight’s Michigan Senate primary, Republican Mike Rogers said he thinks he has a good chance at winning the seat in November.
Rogers’ comments fit into a fierce debate in the Democratic primary about who is best equipped to retain the seat held by the retiring Sen. Gary Peters: El-Sayed, who is running as an unabashed progressive with the support of Sen. Bernie Sanders, or Rep. Haley Stevens, running as a more moderate candidate.
Responding to Rogers’ comments, El-Sayed’s campaign said he has “built the strongest general election coalition: more than 10,000 volunteers, grassroots support in every corner of the state, and a campaign powered by people, not corporate PAC dollars.”
Buttigieg will rally with Michigan Democrats after bruising primary
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, will join Michigan Democrats for a general election kickoff rallying following the conclusion of their bruising Senate primary.
The state party announced plans today for a Friday rally in Detroit, touting Buttigieg’s attendance alongside the nominees for US Senate, governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
The effort underscores the need for party unity after a contentious, high-profile race between Rep. Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed for the Democratic US Senate nomination, underlining party divides ahead of a critical general election against former Rep. Mike Rogers, the presumptive GOP nominee.
Buttigieg declined to endorse in the Senate race, telling Politico’s Jonathan Martin that he wanted to play a role as a unifier.
“It is important to me that I play a good role in helping the party come together,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a very spirited primary, right? Which means you’ve got just a few weeks to get everybody on the same page. I want to be part of that. And so, the less I run my mouth about how I’m going to vote, the better role I can play afterwards and bring everybody in.”
Buttigieg’s attendance at Friday’s rally is likely to fuel speculation about his future plans, as the former 2020 presidential candidate ramps up midterms travel and media appearances with the 2028 presidential cycle just around the corner.
Buttigieg — whose husband, Chasten, is a Michigan native — formally relocated to the battleground state in 2022, but he opted against the races for Senate and governor there this year despite consideration. And on a podcast released this week, Buttigieg remarked that he was “more inclined than not” to run for president in 2028, while acknowledging some uncertainty.
This post has been updated with additional detail.
Stevens says both she and El-Sayed are against socialism
Rep. Haley Stevens tells CNN she would support her opponent, the progressive Abdul El-Sayed, if he wins the Senate nomination in Michigan’s primary tonight.
Democratic candidate Rep. Haley Stevens tells CNN she would support her opponent, the progressive Abdul El-Sayed, if he wins the Senate nomination in Michigan’s primary tonight.
Schumer on rise of democratic socialists: "We are a big-tent party"
Senate Minority Leader Schumer insisted Tuesday that Democrats are a “big-tent party,” despite tensions between establishment-backed candidates and democratic socialists as voters in key states head to the polls for primary elections.
Schumer’s comments come on the day of a high-stakes Democratic primary for Senate in Michigan. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive who has not labeled himself a democratic socialist, is facing Rep. Haley Stevens in a test of the success of the party’s progressive wing.
The party establishment — including Schumer — is coalescing behind Stevens, a more moderate Democrat who is pitching herself as the most electable against the likely GOP nominee.
Pressed on whether he’d back El-Sayed in the general election if he beats Stevens, Schumer would say only, “We are going to win Michigan, take back the Senate, and have a majority.”
"You can’t buy inspiration": El-Sayed condemns outside spending in his closing pitch
At his final campaign event before primary day, progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed decried the tens of millions in outside spending that has poured into Michigan’s Democratic primary, arguing voters soon will reject the “special interests who want to tell us what we cannot have and should not fight for.”
El-Sayed expressed confidence about his chances on primary day but urged his supporters to remain focused on advancing their progressive movement in the general election fight ahead.
“The work is not over. We don’t know what the votes will say — although I feel pretty good about it,” El-Sayed said to applause. “We have…13 weeks left to work. We will not have won a US Senate seat tomorrow should the votes come in the way we want. Ours is the work of correcting, ours is the work of continually building a bigger movement.”
Asked about the message this race could send about the Democratic Party, El-Sayed attempted to keep the focus on Michigan, saying, “I just don’t spend as much time thinking about the future of the Democratic Party. I’m interested in the future of Michigan, Michiganders and Michigan voters.”
As El-Sayed rallied supporters, Hasan Piker, the controversial Twitch streamer who has backed his campaign, was in attendance but did not speak at the event.
Voters express discomfort with outside spending in Michigan
Michigan voters outside a Detroit-area polling location expressed discomfort with the tens of millions of dollars in outside spending on the state’s high-profile US Senate primary, criticizing an AIPAC-linked super PAC for its outsized role.
Among supporters of Abdul El-Sayed, the sentiment was especially motivating.
Brooke Vannitischin, another El-Sayed supporter who was among those casting ballots at First Congregational Church on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, also emphasized the role of outside spending in her decision. “I don’t think another country should be buying our elections, and the people should be deciding who’s in power, not foreign interests or corporate interests,” she said.
El-Sayed’s primary rival, Rep. Haley Stevens, saw more than $60 million in outside support for her campaign, roughly half of it coming from United Democracy Project, a super PAC funded by AIPAC that aggressively targeted El-Sayed amid his outspoken criticism of US military support for Israel.
Supporters of Stevens, meanwhile, pointed to her electoral track record in Michigan’s battleground 11th district, and one, Michelle Thurmond, spoke to lingering resentment over El-Sayed’s role in the pro-Palestinian protest movement “Uncommitted” during the 2024 presidential race.
“I like Haley Stevens. I like that she’s a female. I like the work that she’s done. The other gentleman might have gotten my vote, but when he did Uncommitted, that’s a deterrent because that helps the Republican Party,” Thurmond said.
Bush vowed to "tear" AIPAC’s kingdom down. First she has to win back her seat.
Rep. Wesley Bell’s name is on the ballot, but for former Rep. Cori Bush and her allies, Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District is a rematch against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“This is about whether AIPAC is as powerful as they want people to believe,” Chris Rabb, a progressive who won a US House primary in Pennsylvania earlier this year, told CNN.
Bush lost her 2024 reelection bid to Bell, a former county prosecutor who was boosted by $8.5 million in spending by United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with AIPAC. While Bush was an early proponent of a ceasefire in Gaza following Israel’s military response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Bell positioned himself as a staunch ally of Israel.
The question is how frustrated voters on the ground are by the influence of money in politics and US-Israel relations. Bell’s allies argue they will care more about rising costs.
“Most people aren’t thinking about Cori Bush’s rematch with AIPAC,” said Sean Fauss, the chair of the St. Louis City Democratic Party. “Most people are thinking about ‘How am I going to afford to put gas in my tank?’”
How outside spending has become a big topic in Michigan's Democratic Senate race
Outside spending has become a dominant theme of the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan.
United Democracy Project, the AIPAC super PAC, has spent the most, approaching $30 million, according to AdImpact. And its intervention has sparked criticism, animating Democratic divides over US policy toward Israel that have shaped primaries across the country this year.
On top of the TV ads, UDP has distributed mailers to voters highlighting Rep. Haley Stevens’ connection to former President Barack Obama and criticizing Adbul El-Sayed’s support from Hasan Piker, the pro-Palestinian streamer and leftist influencer.
Stevens has historically been one of the House’s more reliable pro-Israel Democrats. She has backed continued US military aid to Israel and supports a two-state solution for the region, though she has sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the campaign trail – drawing a rebuke from Netanyahu himself.
El-Sayed, an outspoken critic of Israeli leadership and the military campaigns in Gaza and Iran, has pushed back forcefully on the group’s opposition to his campaign.
“They are spending against me because they’ve called me the most dangerous candidate for the US-Israel relationship, because maybe I don’t want to waste our money fighting wars we don’t need,” he argued at a debate last month.
Stevens has also benefited from millions in spending by other outside groups not affiliated with AIPAC, reinforcing a broader establishment vs. anti-establishment dynamic that El-Sayed’s camp has embraced.
El-Sayed's past support for "uncommitted" movement met with skepticism from voters
In conversations with prominent Black leaders from Michigan about the state’s Democratic Senate primary, a recurring complaint came up: Abdul El-Sayed’s support for “uncommitted” in 2024.
The pro-Palestinian protest movement was a critical factor in Michigan, with its large Arab immigrant community, as opponents of the war in Gaza voted “uncommitted” on Democratic presidential primary ballots to register their dissatisfaction with Biden’s steadfast support for Israel.
El-Sayed, a prominent Arab American then serving as director of the Wayne County Department of Health, publicly backed “uncommitted,” which garnered more than 100,000 votes in the state.
Though El-Sayed ultimately endorsed Kamala Harris and encouraged his followers to vote for her after Joe Biden withdrew from the race, his critics argue it was too little, too late. Black leaders in Michigan who spoke to CNN in recent weeks remain convinced the effort did lasting damage to the Democratic presidential ticket’s chances that year.
As El-Sayed runs for US Senate against Rep. Haley Stevens with an ongoing focus on US policy toward Israel, doubts also linger about El-Sayed’s priorities.
El-Sayed’s campaign has worked to address those critiques and launched a TV ad, touting his role as “the first Muslim American leader to endorse Kamala Harris for president.”
Whether it’s enough to overcome enduring skepticism is an open question.
Haley Stevens argues that she is the best equipped to take on Mike Rogers
Rep. Haley Stevens closed her Democratic Senate primary campaign on Monday with a stop in Grand Rapids, delivering one final argument that she believes she is the strongest candidate to take on Republican challenger Mike Rogers in November.
Steven did not mention her Democratic rival, Abdul El-Sayed, by name as she repeatedly made the case about her ability to reach out to all voters in the state.
“We want to go roaring to the polls,” Stevens said. “We want tons of Democrats showing up, showing Mike Rogers what he’s going to face in November when he faces me, Haley Stevens.”
The final event on Stevens’ primary schedule was held in Grand Rapids, where a few dozen people crowded into Pux Taphouse, which sits next to the office of the Kent County Democratic Party.
A handful of demonstrators greeted Stevens as she walked inside, protesting the millions of dollars AIPAC and other outside groups have spent on the race.
She was joined on stage by Democratic Rep. Hillary Scholten, former Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Jessica Mackler, president of Emily’s List.
Why Black voters will be critical in today's Democratic Senate primary in Michigan
Abdul El-Sayed, the 41-year-old son of Egyptian immigrants, is seeking to deliver Democrat’s progressive insurgency its biggest win yet in today’s Michigan Senate primary. But he is running into resistance among Black voters, many of whom say the establishment he eschews has delivered for them in important ways.
Now, those voters are once again a focal point in the primary’s closing stretch. Rep. Haley Stevens, the other candidate in the race, has been looking to run up a big enough margin to overcome El-Sayed’s edge among White progressive voters.
Some Black voters said Stevens, a White woman, has been an extremely active presence in their communities since being elected to Congress in the Democratic wave of 2018. More pointed to her role working on President Barack Obama’s task force that rescued the automotive industry — the economic driver of southeastern Michigan.
El-Sayed, who boasts his own long list of Black supporters, told reporters during the campaign that Stevens’ advantage among Black voters comes down to ad spending.
Bernie Sanders sparked a Democratic midterm war. Now it's coming to a head in Michigan
Heading into the midterms, Sen. Bernie Sanders has perhaps never been more powerful in Democratic politics. But the Vermont independent is now at the center of a brewing party civil war that could sway the fate of key midterm seats with control of Congress on the line.
At the heart of the debate: Whether to nominate candidates more friendly to the party establishment and seen as wooing swing voters, or to pick democratic socialists or further-left progressives who can energize a restive party base but who risk alienating independents.
The clash is coming to a head in the critical battleground state of Michigan in today’s Democratic Senate primary. Sanders has backed Abdul El-Sayed, whose pursuit of “Medicare for All” and criticisms of Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee have made him a darling of the progressive left.
The party establishment is coalescing behind Rep. Haley Stevens, a more moderate Democrat from the Detroit area who is pitching herself as the most electable against the likely GOP nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers.
Sanders’ critics say he is trying to shift the party in a direction that most voters will reject outside of the very liberal districts where members of the Democratic Socialists of America have won primaries.
The election comes with huge stakes for Democrats. They almost certainly need to retain the seat of retiring Sen. Gary Peters to have a path to the net four-seat gain the party needs to win a Senate majority in November’s midterm elections.
Stevens says she plans to support her opponent “should he win the nomination”
Democratic candidate Rep. Haley Stevens said she would support her opponent, the progressive Abdul El-Sayed, if he wins the Senate nomination in Michigan’s primary tonight.
“I’m also going to be working with everyone who has voted in the Democratic primary and everyone who’s going to go to the polls in November,” Stevens said. “We’re going to have a great turnout today. We’re going to have a great turnout in November, and we are going to send the voices of common-sense Democrats.”
She added that El-Sayed is a “proud capitalist, as am I,” adding that he “campaigns with some people who do the socialism, but yeah, Michiganders don’t want that.”
Democratic voters in Detroit cite outside spending and electability as deciding factors
Many supporters of Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive candidate in Michigan’s Senate Democratic primary, cited the volume of outside spending in the contest as a key deciding factor behind their votes.
Rome Moore, also a Democratic voter in Detroit, said he voted for El-Sayed “because he doesn’t take money from AIPAC.” He argued the party needs to move in a more progressive direction and “take care of the people here.”
Semaj Shelton, a Democratic voter who backed President Donald Trump in 2024, also voted for El-Sayed, saying he wants to see “overall change and people who had an independent view and thought process of what’s right for the voters. Not what’s right for corporate PACs or what’s right for any affiliations that support them.”
William Stephens said he voted for Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic Senate primary, citing her past work with the Obama administration on the auto bailout. He also raised questions about El-Sayed’s ability to appeal to a broader electorate in November.
“I used to be an auto worker for five years. That’s how I got through college so it’s important that that’s not forgotten,” he said. “There’s concern if her opponent wins, he can’t win in the election. So that was a concern too.”
Ta-Tanisha Baldwin cast her absentee ballot for state Sen. Mallory McMorrow on the same day she dropped out of the race but said she is now supporting El-Sayed.
A former candidate hands out snacks at a polling place in Detroit
Mallory McMorrow arrived at a polling place in northern Detroit this morning not pitching for votes but, instead, handing out snacks.
The state senator, who dropped out of the Democratic Senate primary race a month ago but made a point of not endorsing either of her former opponents, is planning to go to the party of whichever candidate wins on Tuesday night. At that time, she will be the first one to pitch for unity.
But first, she is walking around with a white basket full of candy and cookies for campaign workers who waited outside an elementary school to make final pitches to a very slow stream of voters who came in around midday.
Gretchen Whitmer broke monthslong neutrality to endorse Haley Stevens in Senate primary
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Rep. Haley Stevens late last month, delivering a boost to the favored candidate of the party establishment ahead of today’s primary matchup with progressive Abdul El-Sayed.
The endorsement was a break from Whitmer’s monthslong neutrality in the race between Stevens and El-Sayed. Whitmer defeated El-Sayed in the Democratic gubernatorial primary eight years ago.
“I am absolutely thrilled to have Gov. @GretchenWhitmer ’s endorsement for U.S. Senate,” Stevens wrote on social media. “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. Let’s go win!”
Whitmer’s backing could carry weight. The term-limited governor leaves office at year’s end as one of the most popular Democrats in the battleground state, and though she’s downplayed talk of a 2028 presidential run, she’s never fully shut the door.
