{"id":569948,"date":"2026-08-01T07:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T07:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/569948\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T07:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T07:14:13","slug":"stevens-and-el-sayed-debate-in-run-up-to-democratic-senate-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/569948\/","title":{"rendered":"Stevens and El-Sayed debate in run-up to Democratic Senate primary"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 27, Congresswoman Haley Stevens and former Wayne County health department director Abdul El-Sayed held their final debate<\/a> ahead of the August 4 Democratic primary election for US senator from Michigan. The winner of that contest will face Republican Mike Rogers, former congressman from Michigan\u2019s 8th Congressional District, in the November general election.<\/p>\n

The Democratic primary has attracted a great deal of national attention. El-Sayed ran for governor in 2018 and lost in the Democratic primary to the incumbent governor Gretchen Whitmer. He has gained popular support among workers and young people in the current election by running as an anti-establishment \u201cprogressive,\u201d calling for Medicare for all, the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and a cutoff of military funding to Israel.<\/p>\n

Michigan U.S. Senate candidates, Abdul El-Sayed, left, and Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., are displayed on a television during a debate inside the spin room at WoodTV studios on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, in Grand Rapids. [AP Photo\/Kristen Norman]<\/p>\n

He is seeking to capitalize on the wave of election victories\u2014in New York, Washington D.C., Denver and other cities\u2014of candidates backed by Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), some of whom call themselves socialists. These elections, along with the election last November of DSA member Zohran Mamdani as New York mayor, express a broad and deep shift to the left<\/a> toward socialism in the political orientation of working and young people and sections of the middle class. On July 18, Sanders, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Representative Rashida Tlaib and UAW President Shawn Fain shared the platform with El-Sayed at a campaign rally<\/a> in Detroit.<\/p>\n

During the July 27 debate, El-Sayed made a point of declaring his opposition to socialism, signaling to the corporate oligarchy that he did not represent a threat to its basic interests. \u201cI am not a socialist,\u201d he said. \u201cI am a capitalist who understands how capitalism works.\u201d He went on to say he was in favor of government regulation of business and opposed to monopolies. He made no attempt to explain how he would implement these changes under conditions of record levels of wealth concentration and control of both parties by Wall Street.<\/p>\n

Stevens is serving her fourth term as congresswoman from the 11th Congressional District, based in Oakland County and the northwest suburbs of Detroit. She is running openly as the candidate of the Democratic Party establishment, arguing that she is better positioned than El-Sayed to defeat Rogers in the general election.<\/p>\n

At stake is the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Gary Peters, who has held the position since 2015. From the standpoint of electoral politics, the outcome of the race is pivotal, since the Democrats must retain Peters\u2019 seat to have any hope of winning control of the chamber from the Republicans. On the other side, Donald Trump\u2019s plunging approval ratings make flipping the Senate seat critical to maintaining Republican control.<\/p>\n

Record sums are being poured into the Democratic primary, overwhelmingly for Stevens. Outside groups have spent $60 million in her behalf, the bulk, somewhere between $30 million and $34 million, coming from super PACs backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).<\/p>\n

Stevens is an ardent defender of Israel. She refuses to call the US-backed mass murder carried out by Israel in Gaza a genocide and voted in July against an amendment<\/a> to cut off $3.3 billion in US military aid to the Zionist state. She has said that Israel \u201ccomes to me in my dreams.\u201d On Thursday, she placed a post on X accusing El-Sayed of being an antisemite: \u201cEveryone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The most recent opinion poll on the primary race has El-Sayed leading by a substantial margin, but other polls have Stevens ahead. El-Sayed has gained ground since the early days of the race and appears to have the momentum on his side.<\/p>\n

In the July 27 debate, broadcast by Fox 2 Detroit, Stevens boasted of her establishment credentials. She said she had been endorsed by Governor Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, Senator Gary Peters, former senator Debbie Stabenow and the chair of the legislative Black Caucus. Following the debate, Detroit Police Commissioner Victoria Camillo posted a video on X announcing her endorsement of Stevens.<\/p>\n

The debate for the most part consisted of mutual mud-slinging, with El-Sayed attacking Stevens for taking \u201cforeign\u201d money and voting to fund \u201cforeign governments\u201d (Israel) rather than investing in Michigan. Stevens for her part denounced El-Sayed for failing to release his tax returns and claimed she was the only non-millionaire running for the Senate seat.<\/p>\n

The two candidates vied for the distinction of having the closest ties to the trade union bureaucracy. Stevens touted her 17 \u201clabor endorsements.\u201d El-Sayed said, \u201cI\u2019m grateful for the endorsement of the UAW,\u201d and added, \u201cThe UAW built the US auto industry.\u201d He boasted as well of his endorsement by the American Federation of Teachers.<\/p>\n

Both candidates espoused economic nationalism. Stevens denounced Trump and Rogers, saying they \u201click the bootstraps of China.\u201d She has a record of anti-China demagogy.<\/p>\n

A member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, she participated in a March 26 hearing one week after the suicide of University of Michigan researcher Danhao Wang at which members of both parties railed against the supposed theft of US scientific research by Chinese researchers. Wang jumped to his death after being interrogated by federal agents, including ICE officers.<\/p>\n

This followed the frame-up, jailing and deportation of several Chinese post-doctoral researchers at the University of Michigan for allegedly smuggling harmless research materials. At the hearing, Stevens promoted legislation to expand the definition of partnerships with \u201cmalign foreign talent programs,\u201d a bill, since passed by the House, that broadens federal spying on researchers engaged in routine academic exchange, data sharing, or co-authorship with foreign nationals.<\/p>\n

El-Sayed echoed the nationalist (and pro-Trump) line of UAW President Shawn Fain, denouncing the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement and attacking Stevens for voting for it. He also declared his support for \u201ctargeted tariffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

On ICE and the rampage against immigrants, Stevens said she would not vote for a \u201cpenny more\u201d for the immigration Gestapo, meaning she would leave it intact. El-Sayed said he would abolish ICE, but went on to make it clear he supported the anti-immigrant system.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

He declared, \u201cWe can have a safe and secure southern border and we can enforce immigration policies. But ICE is not about that.\u201d Advocacy of a \u201csecure border\u201d is code for denying immigrant workers seeking refuge from poverty and repression caused by US imperialist intervention and plunder the right to live and work where they choose. El-Sayed reinforced his support for the apparatus of state repression, adding, \u201cThat is not to say that we are not going to keep our streets secure. It is not to say we are not going to enforce immigration policy. It is not to say you can\u2019t have a safe border.\u201d<\/p>\n

The escalating war of aggression in Iran and the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine went virtually unmentioned. The same was the case with the Trump administration\u2019s drive to dictatorship, including its preparations to call off, rig or overturn the results of the November midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Stevens was entirely silent on the war against Iran. El-Sayed referred to it once, but only to claim that it was \u201cpushed by a foreign country (Israel).\u201d This line, that the war in Iran is Israel\u2019s war, into which the dupe Trump was dragged by Netanyahu, obscures the real relationship between US imperialism and its attack dog in the Middle East, Israel. It provides cover for the chief instigator of war and reaction internationally, US imperialism. It is promoted by pseudo-left organizations and, on the right, by overtly antisemitic forces.<\/p>\n

The point at which the debate most clearly exposed the class lines dividing both the \u201cprogressive\u201d and the establishment candidate from the working class came when Stevens said she was \u201cdeeply proud\u201d of her role as a member of Barack Obama\u2019s auto task force, which oversaw the structured bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler in 2009. This was a multi-billion-dollar government bailout of the auto companies that imposed savage attacks on the autoworkers to ensure to profitability of the bosses and Wall Street investors going forward.<\/p>\n

The \u201crestructuring,\u201d carried out with the full support of the UAW bureaucracy, including then-local union president Fain, slashed the wages of new-hires in half, to $14 an hour, and institutionalized the two-tier wage system, which remains in place to this day. It directly cut 35,000 auto jobs and shuttered dozens of plants. The economy-wide impact, including suppliers, dealers and ripple effects, eliminated an estimated 171,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

The plan gutted retiree health care. GM was allowed to pay half of its $20 billion obligation to the union-controlled retiree health care fund in stock rather than cash. This gave union officials a direct financial stake in the companies\u2019 profitability and made them partners in further wage-cutting.<\/p>\n

It imposed a six-year ban on strikes.<\/p>\n

El-Sayed, in line with his alliance with the UAW bureaucracy, was silent on Stevens\u2019 touting of her role in imposing this devastating attack on autoworkers.<\/p>\n

Neither candidate made any call to mobilize mass popular opposition to the corporate oligarchy and its policies of war, austerity and repression. El-Sayed, in particular, sought to use his left rhetoric and reform demands to contain working class resistance and rebellion within the confines of the Democratic Party. Along with the DSA and the pseudo-left as a whole, his candidacy is aimed at blocking the emergence of an independent movement of the working class.<\/p>\n

The World Socialist Web Site is the voice of the working class and the leadership of the international socialist movement. We rely entirely on the support of our readers. Please donate today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On July 27, Congresswoman Haley Stevens and former Wayne County health department director Abdul El-Sayed held their final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-569948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}