Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the nation\u2019s most prominent progressives, is endorsing Dr. Abdul El-Sayed for Senate in Michigan, wading into her first contested Senate primary of 2026 in one of the nation\u2019s top battlegrounds.<\/p>\n
Her endorsement, which she made in an interview with The New York Times, represents one of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s most assertive moves so far this year to build up the left flank of the Democratic Party. And it puts the congresswoman from New York in direct conflict with Senator Chuck Schumer, who has backed<\/a> a more moderate candidate, Representative Haley Stevens, who he argues<\/a> is more electable.<\/p>\n Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said she holds the opposite view. She made the case that it is Dr. El-Sayed who has energized voters and built the kind of campaign and coalition to deliver the crucial state for Democrats.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,\u201d Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. \u201cAnd I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Her intervention could energize progressive activists, who see a potential champion in Dr. El-Sayed. It could also enrage establishment-minded Democrats who are fearful that the party will fumble away a crucial Senate seat in a year that favors Democrats by veering left in a battleground state that voted for President Trump in 2024.<\/p>\n Ms. Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s endorsement follows a series of left-wing victories in competitive House primaries in deep-blue districts in Colorado and New York. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez did not endorse in those races. But the results have emboldened many on the left to believe that 2026 is the year to take power, not just from Republicans, but inside the Democratic Party itself.<\/p>\n The Michigan primary, scheduled for Aug. 4, is widely seen as the most consequential Democratic nominating contest left on the calendar this year.<\/p>\n The race pits Dr. El-Sayed, an outspoken progressive proponent of Medicare for all, against the moderate Ms. Stevens, who has been boosted by more than $16 million in super PAC spending, including millions from pro-Israel groups. Mallory McMorrow, a state senator who has built a national following of her own, has run as a progressive and tried to occupy an ideological middle ground between the other two.<\/p>\n Dr. El-Sayed, who would be the nation\u2019s first Muslim senator, has emerged as the front-runner in recent public<\/a> and private polls.<\/p>\n Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was careful not to directly criticize Ms. Stevens, who serves in the House with her. But she effusively praised Dr. El-Sayed\u2019s communications skills, which she said are as essential to modern campaigning as anything else.<\/p>\n \u201cJust like it\u2019s extremely challenging to run candidates that can\u2019t raise money, it\u2019s also just as challenging to run a candidate that can\u2019t message online,\u201d said Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who for years has been one of party\u2019s magnets for attention on social media. \u201cI think we\u2019ve now kind of crossed this Rubicon where online and digital messaging is no longer a niche. It is a core competency, just like any other.\u201d<\/p>\n Other Democrats fear that Dr. El-Sayed, who earned an endorsement last year from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and who pushed to \u201cabolish ICE\u201d in a recent ad<\/a>, is too liberal for a state with a history of embracing centrist Democrats.<\/p>\n Whoever wins the Democratic nomination will face Mike Rogers, a Republican former congressman who lost in 2024 to Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, by the narrowest of margins: fewer than 20,000 votes.<\/p>\n In a separate interview Wednesday, Dr. El-Sayed said he was thrilled to receive \u201cthe A.O.C. seal of approval,\u201d her first Senate endorsement of the cycle in a contested primary. He also recently won the backing of the United Auto Workers union, which has a storied history in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m honored for what her support says about what this campaign is building and what we\u2019re fighting for,\u201d he said. He also waved off fears about his electability.<\/p>\n \u201cI think too many establishment Democrats are more afraid that I will win,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s really what they\u2019re trying to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n He called out Mr. Schumer in particular.<\/p>\n \u201cHe doesn\u2019t want to see me on the inside of the U.S. Senate,\u201d Dr. El-Sayed said, adding that he would call out \u201cthe kind of politics where we take money from corporations and AIPAC to run milquetoast campaigns and don\u2019t say anything about the problems that everyday people are facing.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Ocasio-Cortez downplayed any breach with her state\u2019s senior senator. Mr. Schumer is up for re-election in 2028, and she has been widely discussed as a potential primary challenger if he seeks re-election. \u201cI don\u2019t really see this through that lens,\u201d she said of the endorsement, while also praising Mr. Schumer\u2019s recruits in other states this year, including Ohio and Alaska. \u201cIt\u2019s natural to not be in agreement 100 percent of the time on 100 percent of decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n In some ways, the endorsement is unsurprising. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, now 36, supported Dr. El-Sayed, 41, in his insurgent run for governor \u2014 she endorsed him exactly eight years ago to the day \u2014 just after she won her first primary in 2018.<\/p>\n The two candidates share the goal of bringing both generational and ideological change to the Democratic Party. They are both millennials and prot\u00e9g\u00e9s of Mr. Sanders, and both embrace an expansive vision of what government can do for the working class and are outspoken critics of some of Israel\u2019s policies. When she talks about Dr. El-Sayed, their familiarity is evident in her use of his first name.<\/p>\n Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has brought her star power to endorsements both sparingly and strategically. She did not endorse Graham Platner in Maine, for instance, when the progressive backed by Mr. Sanders was locked in a primary against the state\u2019s more moderate two-term governor.<\/p>\n She was also on the sidelines in her home state last month, when two left-wing candidates, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander, ousted incumbent House Democrats, while a third candidate, Claire Valdez, won in an open seat against a Democrat backed by the old-guard establishment of Brooklyn. All three earned the backing of Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York.<\/p>\n Nor did she endorse in Colorado, where Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist, defeated<\/a> a 15-term incumbent, Representative Diana DeGette, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n So far, in fact, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has backed no challengers to any of her colleagues in the House. But when she has endorsed, her blessing appears to have mattered.<\/p>\n She backed Democratic candidates for the House in four states \u2014 California, New Jersey, Montana and Pennsylvania \u2014 all of whom won contested primaries. That includes two solidly Democratic seats and two Republican-held seats that Democrats are hoping to flip this fall.<\/p>\n