With voting already underway, the two candidates for the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat faced off Monday night for their final debate of the primary season.
U.S. Representative Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) and former Detroit and Wayne County health official Dr. Abdul El-Sayed argued over U.S. aid to Israel, immigration enforcement and corporate PAC donations and outside political spending in the televised debate held at Fox 2-Detroit’s Southfield studios.
El-Sayed, a progressive, attacked Stevens on voting for aid to Israel while it wages a war in Gaza.
“I want your tax dollars spent in Michigan to provide schools in Michigan, to build healthcare in Michigan, to build roads in Michigan, and I think that money sent over there to kill kids and women is the worst use of our tax dollars,” he said.
Stevens called El-Sayed “a celebrity candidate” looking to build a podcast audience with no practical experience in governing. Stevens also said she has a track record as a policymaker familiar with manufacturing issues and winning tough races in a swing congressional district.
“Look, Michigan deserves a senator who can win and who can deliver,” she said.
“I am the only one on this stage who has beaten MAGA four times,” she said. “And delivered repeatedly for this state and for our values, for our rights and our freedoms, and I promise you, Michigan, I will make us shine.”
National eyes are on this race as Michigan’s open seat could determine which party will control the Senate. And the two candidates represent distinct factions vying for influence within the Democratic coalition, said pollster Richard Czuba of the Glengarriff Group.
“The two sides are so divided,” he said. “The reality is we’re looking at two very different Democratic parties in Michigan.”
Oakland University political science professor David Dulio said at this late stage of the campaign the candidates are not just trying to win over undecided voters, but to close the deal and get supporters to vote.
“This is an opportunity for both of them to convince folks who are in their camps to take the next step and return that absentee ballot, go out to the early voting site or show up on election day,” he said.
Czuba said his most recent survey found a significant number of likely Democratic primary voters are still weighing their options.
“There were 31% of Democratic primary voters who were still moveable and persuadable. That’s a whole lot of voters in a primary,” he said. “What we’ve been seeing is a whole lot of volatility because people aren’t sure where to go.”
