On a Saturday evening in Michigan, with skies still hazy from smoke from Canadian wildfires, hundreds of voters rose from their seats in Detroit’s posh 104-year-old Opera House and cheered loudly as Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez took the stage.
Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, two leading figures on the American left, were there to defend Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a doctor who runs on a platform of universal health care.
His supporters carried signs with El-Sayed’s slogan, “Medicare for All,” and wore shirts calling for an end to immigration enforcement and more U.S. support for Israel.
But they weren’t the only ones tuning in.
Voters and politicians across the country are watching to see if El-Sayed can win the Democratic Senate nomination in November’s midterm elections. His opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens, is an experienced politician with a lot of money thanks in part to large corporate campaign contributions.
The two men represent divisions within the Democratic Party as it seeks to regain control of Congress. On one side are centrist forces supported by traditional powers. On the other is the left wing of the party, including Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani.
But while left-leaning Democrats have won a series of primaries this summer, including in New York and Colorado, it remains to be seen whether they can win back the support of disillusioned working-class voters who flocked to President Donald Trump in 2024.
In Michigan, which voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 but voted for Trump four years later, an open Senate seat is a must-win for Democrats.
The seat is taken by one of them, and the party will have to keep that seat if it wants to make gains in the Senate and stop Trump’s agenda. Whoever wins the Aug. 4 primary will compete against Trump ally Mike Rogers on Nov. 3.
At Saturday’s rally, some in the crowd felt hopeful. Ocasio-Cortez promised that El-Sayed represents “the future of politics.”
But a few miles from the event, other voters were less confident he could beat Stevens or secure a victory for the Democrat by touting policies like health care for all and steadfast opposition to Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
“This may not be the moment for progressives,” said Colleen Houlihan, 74, of Ferndale, Michigan, who is likely to vote for Stevens. “I want radical change in this country, but we have to start with this administration and an electable candidate to bring sanity back to power.”
