El-Sayed and Stevens clash over AIPAC and other takeaways from the Michigan Senate debate

By Eric Bradner, David Wright, CNN

(CNN) — Rep. Haley Stevens pitched herself as a “workhorse” on Capitol Hill. Abdul El-Sayed said he represents “a threat to politics as usual.”

The two remaining Democrats competing in Michigan’s August 4 primary to take on Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in one of the most important Senate races of this year’s midterm elections faced off in a tense debate Tuesday night. The clash highlighted their huge differences in style and their different visions for the role they seek to play in the party.

The stakes for the debate grew after a third contender in the race, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, ended her campaign Sunday – positioning the primary as a true showdown between the Democratic Party’s progressive insurgency and its more moderate establishment forces. It’s playing out in a state that’s poised to play a critical role not just in the 2026 midterms, but in 2028: Michigan is likely to vote early in the Democratic presidential nominating contest, and the state is one of the most important general election presidential battlegrounds.

El-Sayed and Stevens squared off over campaign funding, specifically from allies of Israel, as well as regulating artificial intelligence, free trade pacts and more in the one-hour debate.

They also repeatedly jabbed at how their rival has operated as a candidate, and sought to cast doubt on their opponent’s ability to defeat Rogers in November.

“We do not need a celebrity senator. We need a workhorse,” Stevens said.

El-Sayed, who is a much more frequent presence in television interviews, on podcasts and at rallies, shot back that special interests were spending millions targeting him because in Stevens they are “trying to buy a politician who’s going to do their bidding instead of yours.”

“If you want your politics dictated to you by AIPAC or Chuck Schumer, then I’m not your guy,” he said, referring to the Senate Democratic leader.

The stakes in Michigan are high: Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the midterm elections to win a Senate majority next year. To do so, they likely need to retain the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.

Here are takeaways from the Michigan Senate Democratic debate:

Split over Israel

Tensions over US policy toward Israel and campaign spending by AIPAC provided an early flashpoint in the debate, underscoring disagreements that have animated Democratic primaries across the country this year.

El-Sayed, an outspoken critic of Israel’s military conduct in Gaza and the war with Iran, laced into Stevens over the tens of millions in outside support her campaign has received from AIPAC’s super PAC arm.

“The reason that we’ve seen this war [with Iran] fought is because of the impact of AIPAC in our politics. AIPAC has spent tens of millions of dollars on attack ads against me, or ads lying about the congresswoman’s record. They clearly want one individual, and it’s not me,” he said. “They are spending against me because they’ve called me the most dangerous candidate for the US-Israel relationship, because maybe I don’t want to waste our money fighting wars we don’t need.”

Stevens shot back, “Well, Abdul, I would say no one is afraid of you.” And she pushed back on El-Sayed’s effort to cast her as compromised, saying that “no one owns my vote.”

“The difference between my opponent and myself on this issue is that I believe in a two-state solution,” Stevens said. “I can say that Israel has a right to peacefully exist alongside the people of Palestine and in Gaza. It is very clear that Mr. Netanyahu has not made us safer, has not brought us closer to peace, and he’s endangered Jews here in America and around the world.”

El-Sayed, however, was insistent, saying “I believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis alike.”

“But the question I think the congressman needs to answer is, why has she allowed $40 million of outside spending, the bulk of it coming from AIPAC, to come into this race?” he charged.

Workhorse vs. change agent

Disagreements over communication and campaign tactics provided another dominant theme in Tuesday’s debate.

Stevens sought to portray El-Sayed as unserious and opportunistic, contrasting her lawmaking experience with her opponent’s penchant for online virality.

“I am not trying to sell a book or a podcast. I’m the only one on this stage who doesn’t have a talent agent trying to pitch me for paid speeches, and unlike my opponent, I’m not running at the first mic or camera I see,” Stevens said. “Instead, my head is down doing the work for the people of Michigan, who need the work to be done.”

Stevens urged voters to look to her record “as the most effective lawmaker for Michigan in the House of Representatives.”

El-Sayed, meanwhile, consistently hammered Stevens over the flood of outside spending backing her campaign, framing Stevens as an agent of a corrupt establishment.

“So long as corporations are buying politicians, we can’t actually enact the solutions because they’re getting the policies that they signed up for when they pay for their politicians,” El-Sayed argued, returning to the point repeatedly throughout the debate.

El-Sayed cast himself as a change agent, aligning with the insurgent progressive wing challenging the party establishment and its Senate leader when asked about shifting Democratic politics.

“I’ll tell you this: It won’t shift if we continue to elect leaders who take money from the same corporations who have broken with the interests of the American public. Chuck Schumer desperately wants one of us to be the next senator, and it’s not me,” he said.

A reshaped race

Looming over the debate was the absence of McMorrow.

While both candidates appealed to her supporters upon her withdrawal, their contrasting approaches Tuesday night demonstrated little inclination for the middle lane McMorrow once occupied.

“I’m running to do three things: get money out of politics, put money in your pocket, pass Medicare for all,” El-Sayed declared, offering the kind of pithy campaign summary that powered New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s landmark campaign last fall, a template for progressive candidates like El-Sayed in his wake.

“I’m not doing this because of some direction of a party. I’m doing this because of the Michiganders that I’ve gotten to see,” he continued.

Stevens, meanwhile, appealed to voters seeking reliability and experience, concerned with the volatility of the Trump administration and unified Republican control of government. Touting her electoral record, Stevens argued, “The one thing that I do is I win tough races.”

“I flipped a congressional seat that was long held by a Republican – blue in 2018, and I held it when Donald Trump was on the ballot, living my values, living the values to make change and improve people’s lives,” she said.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.