--- title: Michigan’s Senate Primary Turns Ugly Ahead of Tuesday Voting description: Polls point to Abdul El-Sayed defeating Haley Stevens in one of the most expensive and toxic primary fights in recent memory. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/08/03/michigan-el-sayed-stevens-democrats-israel/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-08-03T20:56:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-03T21:55:50.970Z article:section: Politics og:title: Michigan’s Senate Primary Turns Ugly Ahead of Tuesday Voting og:description: Polls point to Abdul El-Sayed defeating Haley Stevens, suggesting his left-leaning platform and Israel critiques were not the turn-offs centrists predicted it would be. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/08/03/michigan-el-sayed-stevens-democrats-israel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt069cad50748573c0/6a70fd33d0f6bbf830484878/GettyImages-2288799153.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GettyImages-2288799153.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Michigan’s Senate Primary Turns Ugly Ahead of Tuesday Voting twitter:description: Polls point to Abdul El-Sayed defeating Haley Stevens, suggesting his left-leaning platform and Israel critiques were not the turn-offs centrists predicted it would be. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt069cad50748573c0/6a70fd33d0f6bbf830484878/GettyImages-2288799153.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Michigan’s Senate Race Turned Ugly. Democrats Eyeing 2028 Are Watching Closely  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Aug 3, 2026 8:56 PM UTC  Abdul El-Sayed speaks to supporters before a march through downtown on August 02, 2026 in Detroit, two days before Michigan's primaries. Abdul El-Sayed speaks to supporters before a march through downtown on August 02, 2026 in Detroit, two days before Michigan's primaries.Scott Olson—Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Aug 3, 2026 8:56 PM UTC  ### The DC Brief Twice A Week Making sense of what matters most in Washington. Sign Up By signing up you are agreeing to our [Terms of Service](https://legal.time.com/terms-of-service/) and [Privacy Policy](https://legal.time.com/us-privacy-policy/). Finally, at long last, Michigan’s messy Democratic primary is circling for a landing. As far as intra-party clashes go, it is one of the most turbulent the Democrats have waged in recent memory—and it may hint at the mess that could be lurking in 2028. Most signs point to surging populist [Abdul El-Sayed](https://time.com/article/2026/07/08/democratic-senate-hopeful-abdul-el-sayed-is-running-against-two-parties/) having a good showing on Tuesday over Rep. Haley Stevens, the Establishment favorite who has struggled to catch fire. Many consultants predict Michigan will be the most expensive primary on the Democratic side this year—even as it reveals the limits of money. Emerson College released a [survey](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/polls/michigan-us-senate-election-polls-2026.html) last week showing El-Sayed, a former public health official and podcaster, up 15 points. If Tuesday night's results look anything like that, it would mean some $60 million in outside money was unable to boost Stevens and El-Sayed’s left-leaning platform and pointed critiques of Israel did not tank his candidacy, as many centrists had predicted it would. Michigan, where Donald Trump won both times he reached the White House, provides a useful miniature of what the loitering gallery of presidential aspirants will face across the country in two years. Not all lessons will be welcome for the would-be candidates, nor will they be fully understood until we know the outcome in November. But if the tone in this race’s final days is a hint, it signals that the win-at-all-costs footing that has defined the era of Trump has crept into the Democratic ether. Acrimony doesn’t even begin to get at the mood on the ground, according to operatives in both camps. In a recent podcast interview, El-Sayed called Stevens “the least capable candidate in America.” Stevens responded with a message on her social media on Thursday that showed how raw feelings have become: “Everyone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans.” This primary is about as perfect a snapshot as you could find of the tensions playing out among Democrats. In a swing state like Michigan, Stevens was widely acknowledged as the stronger candidate to go against the presumptive Republican nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers. Her supporters include outgoing Sen. Gary Peters, and party heavyweights like Chuck Schumer (but not, notably, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who was Stevens' former House colleague, but has stayed out of the primary). Meanwhile, El-Sayed—who would be the country’s first Muslim U.S. Senator—has captured the imagination of the left wing of the Democratic Party, drawing visits from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. At the same time, his unrelenting criticism of Israel has opened wounds inside the Jewish community in Michigan—and beyond—as his [detractors](https://jewishinsider.com/2026/05/abdul-el-sayed-struggles-israel-right-to-exist-jewish-state/) say he is venturing into dangerous anti-Semitic territory. Add in the race and religion [factors](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/08/03/black-voters-divided-progressives-are-pivotal-michigan-senate-primary/) animating the race, and Tuesday’s primary in Michigan could lay bare which litmus tests are likely to shape the 2028 presidential contest.  Stevens campaigns at the Jazz on the Ave festival in Detroit on August 1, 2026. Finn Gomez—Getty Images The issues in Michigan matter as much as the approach to campaigning. El-Sayed is promising wholesale change to politics, a progressive upheaval of traditionalist incrementalism, an outsiders’ indifference to tradition. Stevens is running almost a mirror campaign, one rooted in her technocratic experience on Barack Obama’s administration and pragmatic restraint. El-Sayed wants Medicare for all. Stevens wants to improve Obamacare and introduce a public healthcare option. El-Sayed wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Stevens wants reforms. El-Sayed wants to stop providing aid to Israel. Stevens has been a consistent pro-Israel vote. That issue has become the dominant one in the primary, as El-Sayed paints Stevens as a puppet for Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has spent $30 million on her behalf. Stevens casts El-Sayed, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Egypt, as too focused on issues beyond the state’s borders. “He’s made this whole race about Israel and AIPAC,” she [said](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2026/08/02/haley-stevens-abdul-el-sayed-muslim-jewish-israel-aipac-michigan-senate/91141532007/) during a church stop on Sunday. “And I have made it about lowering costs for Michiganders, about standing up for the state that we love.” The list goes on and on but over the weekend, it seemed this increasingly contentious primary was rooted in almost anything but the issues. Both candidates appeared to get that the tone of the rhetoric has spiraled. The Detroit _News_ [captured](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2026/08/02/haley-stevens-abdul-el-sayed-muslim-jewish-israel-aipac-michigan-senate/91141532007/) the self-realization that unfolded over the weekend, after a parishioner of Fellowship Chapel in Detroit said to Stevens, “We know you’re gonna kick that Muslim’s butt." Stevens tried to deflect, telling the man, “You know what, we’re here for Michigan,” and then later emphasized to reporters, "Look, that’s not what my campaign is about." Later in the day, the _News_ relayed, El-Sayed did his own bit of defusing. "In the attempts to focus on all of the conflict in this race, I think you miss the joy of the folks who are out here doing this,” he told reporters. “I wish more people saw what it felt like to be a part of a movement where you're inspired by what could be." The Democratic Party, as it stands, is a party that seems completely adrift. The Democratic National Committee is both broke and broken, a New York _Times_ [bombshell](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/us/politics/ken-martin-dnc-democrats.html) last weekend detailed. The party’s priorities are a scattershot of ideas with no unifying narrative. Michigan’s results may offer a hint about where the Democrats are heading, but the outcome alone is far from a guaranteed predictor. After all, some Democrats are still smarting about the 2008 presidential primary and more than a few are still stammering about the 2016 one. In both cases, an Establishment candidate who happened to be a woman faced a charismatic leader whose campaign became a movement. In both cases, the losing candidate was Hillary Clinton. Democrats are still—almost two decades on—trying to figure out what it all means, and how voters’ tastes have changed in the interim. That’s why it’s a sure bet that 2028 hopefuls (and their consultants) will be watching Michigan’s election dashboard very, very closely Tuesday night. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/03/michigan-el-sayed-stevens-democrats-israel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/03/michigan-el-sayed-stevens-democrats-israel/"},"headline":"Michigan’s Senate Race Turned Ugly. Democrats Eyeing 2028 Are Watching Closely","datePublished":"2026-08-03T20:56:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-03T21:55:50.970Z","description":"Polls point to Abdul El-Sayed having a good showing on Tuesday over Haley Stevens","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/03/michigan-el-sayed-stevens-democrats-israel/","keywords":["The D.C. Brief","democrats","Michigan","elections","Midterm Elections"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt069cad50748573c0/6a70fd33d0f6bbf830484878/GettyImages-2288799153.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Philip Elliott","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt069cad50748573c0/6a70fd33d0f6bbf830484878/GettyImages-2288799153.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-2288799153.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/the-dc-brief/","name":"The D.C. Brief"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/03/michigan-el-sayed-stevens-democrats-israel/","name":"Michigan’s Senate Race Turned Ugly. Democrats Eyeing 2028 Are Watching Closely"}}]}] ```