Michigander here: I watched all four videos and they helped me as I decide for whom to vote in this crucial race. Thank you for your work in providing us with this information.
I thought I would probably support McMorrow, but I have gotten at least a half dozen fundraising letters from her and they are prettty awful....."we need new, younger leadership in Washington!" ....that kind of thing. Zero content. The momentum on the ground (I am in Kalamazoo) seems to be toward El-Sayed. He's showing up everywhere, and his supporters are the most passionate. I pretty much expect him to win the nomination at this point. The Iran war is crystalizing the need to have more senators who can be very clear about where unwavering bipartisan support for Israel has led us, and I believe of the three candidates, he would be best at that. Arab-Americans deserve political representation, too. We have got to stop with business as usual. Time to take some chances. Also, he is very smart. Check out his bio.
Thank you for such a well-written, soundly backgrounded picture of unions and politics intersecting. It is a field I feel US political journalists too often ignore, or nod to dismissively -- "Candidate X is a union member" without even naming the union.
Michigan, as a non-Michigander, I kindly ask you to please choose carefully, with an eye towards the general election. This Senate seat is one of the most critical many of us can imagine.
Michigan voter here. Although this story mentions that UAW members are no longer a monolithic voting block, it doesn’t mention that many rank and file UAW members are now voting Republican. This dilutes the effect of their leadership’s support for El-Sayed. Other rank and file members will not vote for the progressive Muslim candidate, because he is the progressive Muslim candidate.
Beyond the UAW endorsement, I believe that El-Sayed and McMorrow will split the progressive vote, allowing Rep Stevens to win a close primary, with as low as 40% of the vote. She is up on television already with ads pushing back against Trump.
Overall, if the Democrats do nominate El-Sayed, I predict that Republican Mike Rogers will win the general election, perhaps maintaining the Republican majority in the Senate. The Democrats need to be very careful here.
You are absolutely correct about diversity of UAW member opinion.
Actually had a sentence about that in my original drafts. It came out of the article during revision and editing - it was part of a section I cut for length. In retrospect, I should have found a place to restore that thought.
Thanks for covering the candidates. I have been a McMorrow supporter but my 24 yo son (recent Michigan grad who has struggled to find a job) is desperately trying to sway me to Abdul. He’s well-spoken and passionate but not sure if he’s what Michigan wants. I worry that Mike Rogers will win and that makes me very disheartened. 😔
Really excellent analysis of all 3, particularly their approach to legislating. Personally, I like Stephens' approach the best because it is the way you keep things moving, but in this era now I don't know if it still works. Glad I am not in Michigan and have to choose!
Voters say they want "fighters," but then seem to have no idea how government works and resent any politician who will work within the system vs. burn it down.
Michigander here. Thank you very much for interviewing these candidates, and well done. I was especially eager to hear from Haley Stevens, and now I wish she would just go away and be quiet. She is like an amalgamation of every mealy-mouthed, fork-tongued, weak Democrat interested in her own power and prospects. Talks in circles and says nothing. I was shocked at how bad she was. Mike Rogers, who was my congressman at one time, and who I voted for at one time, will clean up the floor with her. He used to be more normal than he is now, but even in his Trump-addled current state he makes more sense than she does, although I would still vote for her if she won the primary because i would vote for a steaming pile of dog shit before I vote for a Republican ever again. Meanwhile, El-Sayed has always seemed like a nice guy. I met him when he was running against Whitmer. His position on health care is clear and I agree with it but it is not enough. His answers to the other questions didn't make a lot of sense. I still think he looks like a nice guy. McMorrow seems to have the best command of the most issues and to be able to explain things clearly and directly. In spite of whatever calumny was heaped on her recently for accepting donations from someone outside the small Democratic tent, she still seems to me to have the most potential to be the best candidate, and while I will certainly watch the July 7 debate for another look, this interview helped push me further toward McMorrow.
1000%. McMorrow is the most grounded, sane and broadly appealing of the three. And IMO would be also the most effective in office. We have to hew to attainable goals, assuming folks are in office. Not Quixotic dreams best left for a later day. Starting with Medicare for all. I'm sorry. Yes, that day may come. But it's anything but located reachable anywhere in the Trump era of today. Right now, efforts need to be towards appealing to the broadest possible coalition- including the Trump dismayed- who may be open to other reasonable, normal sounding people, such as McMorrow.
A vote for el-Sayed is a vote for moral inversion and moral depravity. Democrats (and an increasing number of Repubs) are living in the longest running, most well-funded psy op in history. See attached video.
I have been asking for months for more coverage of the Michigan race. It is a flip waiting to happen. People talk about it like it a certain democratic hold but is absolutely not. The primary election has the possibility to elevate a candidate who cannot win in a Michigan general. There is a lot of passion for El Sayed and he may do okay in southeast MI but I don’t see a path for him in a general. Mike rogers is not stupid and barely lost to Slotkin and a candidate that alienates moderates democrats and republicans in purple MI is dangerous. I see commentary that moderates will just go along with whatever candidate and that is absolutely NOT the case. And there is so much misinformation about McMorrow being funded by AIPAC and so much astroturfing. I have blocked so many accounts who are just spamming instagram posts.
Correct. Stevens is the obvious choice (she is similar to Slotkin) but leftists are trying their usual fantasies out, that there are all these hidden leftist voters that need to be activated. Bernie isn't president and El Sayed won't win Michigan. McMorrow might. Why are we risking this seat?
Perhaps. I prefer McMorrow. To me Stevens has not seemed to have met the moment and I find her responses weak and a little milk toast. Her social media presence is also a mess. But I understand the Stevens appeal. Just wonder if she is too safe…if that makes sense.
It does. I am not opposed to the idea McMorrow is the right choice. But so far, polling is tending to Stevens over McMorrow as the anti-Sayed candidate.
>The union’s statement said, “UAW members in Michigan want a fighter in Washington, D.C. who isn’t afraid to push forward a strong working-class agenda with *moral clarity*."< (emphasis mine)
Moral clarity? How does openly embracing and parading around with an intellectually and morally deficient internet hate monger, social media parasite and opportunist like Hasan Piker, all in the guise of courting votes in the college crowd and the youth demographic, and then thumbing his nose at anyone with the temerity to question the wisdom - or even the appropriateness - of doing that relate to anything resembling moral clarity?
C'mon, UAW. Did an engine block fall off an overhead monorail and hit y'all in the head?
You gotta be talkin' out both sides of your mouth at once and with your eyes closed to squeeze El-Sayed and moral clarity into the same sentence after that little demonstration of his judgement about what role morals and character should play in our state's politics.
Fifty years a dues paying UAW member (now retired), fifty years a skilled trades shoprat in the auto industry in Michigan at both a GM union and small privately owned non-union shops ... dressing in deer hunting gear to stand in a line outside an unemployment office that stretched across the parking lot and down a city street during a cold Michigan winter; walking a picket line at a plant entrance in the dead of night for nearly eight weeks during a GM strike one hot Michigan summer... they just don't come any more blue-collar working class than me, at least as far as how I've made my living and the socio-economic milieu that I occupied for the majority of my lifetime.
And I'm here as that working class guy to say that I wouldn't pull the lever for El-Sayed now with a ten-foot pole while wearing gloves. Not because of his name. Not because of the color of his skin. Not even because of his *politics*, not all of which are necessarily bad or disqualifying in my book. It's his little "extremism in the cause of winning isn't extreme" demonstration that's disqualifying for me. As an Independent voter, I'm no more interested in such a candidate from the Ds than I am a MAGA or any other flavor of GOP candidate, none of whom can any longer pass the smell test with me. That's just the kind of shit that got us here in the first place, and I won't condone any more of it with a vote, even if it's a vote for a Democrat.
The Ds have had my vote exclusively by default up and down the ballot since 2016 due to all the usual anti-Trump, pro-democracy, the-fucking-Republicans-have-lost-their-minds reasons.
But while voting for a lesser evil can sometimes make sense, I have no taste at all for just voting for one of two lessers. And I don't know yet who I'll vote for in the August primary, but either of the other Democratic candidates would be better for any number of reasons, not the least of which I've put forth here.
But if El-Sayed ends up the Democrats' candidate in the general, folks better get used to that Senate seat being held by a Republican. Because I very seriously doubt there's a deep enough blue streak in the statewide working class to ultimately put him into that statewide office, especially if he pulls anymore boners like a Hasan Piker.
Yeah, I absolutely won't vote Republican, no matter what, for the reasons stated. And like I said, I've given the Ds every one of my votes for the past ten years by default. But they never put up a candidate for me to vote on that I found as completely objectionable and inappropriate as this guy, so I absolutely will *not* vote for this one in the general if that's what it comes down to. Will write in a name if I have to, but won't condone any of this BS with a vote, Republican victory or not.
Gotta' draw the line somewhere, and this is where I draw it for myself.
I have always voted blue no matter who and after the 2024 election I felt myself moving further and further left. Then I started to see the commentary…the vile, hateful and violent comments against moderate Dems coming from the left and I have been so disgusted I have thought of changing to independent. I donate to Ds I like and can never see myself voting R, but past comments and actions make El Sayed not an option to me and it actually does bother me that he presents himself as a physician when he never did residency, held a medical license or treated patients.
Just more reasons not to trust him. Like you, I find the hateful rhetoric from the left disgusting, and that against moderate Dems just plain stupid. These idiots are as dumb as Trump... yeah, go on and denigrate those who are supposed to be your allies about at least some part of your agenda... just keep pissin' 'em off and see how that works out.
I have no use for people like that... the ones who, just as on the other side of the divide, think compromise is a dirty word. One authoritarian party is more than enough.
Michigander here: I watched all four videos and they helped me as I decide for whom to vote in this crucial race. Thank you for your work in providing us with this information.
I thought I would probably support McMorrow, but I have gotten at least a half dozen fundraising letters from her and they are prettty awful....."we need new, younger leadership in Washington!" ....that kind of thing. Zero content. The momentum on the ground (I am in Kalamazoo) seems to be toward El-Sayed. He's showing up everywhere, and his supporters are the most passionate. I pretty much expect him to win the nomination at this point. The Iran war is crystalizing the need to have more senators who can be very clear about where unwavering bipartisan support for Israel has led us, and I believe of the three candidates, he would be best at that. Arab-Americans deserve political representation, too. We have got to stop with business as usual. Time to take some chances. Also, he is very smart. Check out his bio.
Thank you for such a well-written, soundly backgrounded picture of unions and politics intersecting. It is a field I feel US political journalists too often ignore, or nod to dismissively -- "Candidate X is a union member" without even naming the union.
Michigan, as a non-Michigander, I kindly ask you to please choose carefully, with an eye towards the general election. This Senate seat is one of the most critical many of us can imagine.
Michigan voter here. Although this story mentions that UAW members are no longer a monolithic voting block, it doesn’t mention that many rank and file UAW members are now voting Republican. This dilutes the effect of their leadership’s support for El-Sayed. Other rank and file members will not vote for the progressive Muslim candidate, because he is the progressive Muslim candidate.
Beyond the UAW endorsement, I believe that El-Sayed and McMorrow will split the progressive vote, allowing Rep Stevens to win a close primary, with as low as 40% of the vote. She is up on television already with ads pushing back against Trump.
Overall, if the Democrats do nominate El-Sayed, I predict that Republican Mike Rogers will win the general election, perhaps maintaining the Republican majority in the Senate. The Democrats need to be very careful here.
You are absolutely correct about diversity of UAW member opinion.
Actually had a sentence about that in my original drafts. It came out of the article during revision and editing - it was part of a section I cut for length. In retrospect, I should have found a place to restore that thought.
So thank you for mentioning.
What's the status of the MI republican party? I seem to recall it was a clown car rodeo for a significant period of time.
It’s in pretty bad shape for sure.
Trump was able to overcome liabilities — remains to be seen whether a Republican Senate candidate running in office year can do the same “.
These are great interviews and The Bulwark should post them on the general, publicly available YouTube channel. Thanks for doing these!
Thanks for covering the candidates. I have been a McMorrow supporter but my 24 yo son (recent Michigan grad who has struggled to find a job) is desperately trying to sway me to Abdul. He’s well-spoken and passionate but not sure if he’s what Michigan wants. I worry that Mike Rogers will win and that makes me very disheartened. 😔
Michigander here. I, too, applaud passionate progressives, but we know Michigan. Be pragmatic with the vote. Rogers is *this* close.
Don't stay fearful of progress.
Really excellent analysis of all 3, particularly their approach to legislating. Personally, I like Stephens' approach the best because it is the way you keep things moving, but in this era now I don't know if it still works. Glad I am not in Michigan and have to choose!
Voters say they want "fighters," but then seem to have no idea how government works and resent any politician who will work within the system vs. burn it down.
Working within the system gave us Pedo47. Twice.
It needs burnt down.
Yeah, those 90,000,000 people who didn't vote were definitely not a factor. /s
Michigander here. Thank you very much for interviewing these candidates, and well done. I was especially eager to hear from Haley Stevens, and now I wish she would just go away and be quiet. She is like an amalgamation of every mealy-mouthed, fork-tongued, weak Democrat interested in her own power and prospects. Talks in circles and says nothing. I was shocked at how bad she was. Mike Rogers, who was my congressman at one time, and who I voted for at one time, will clean up the floor with her. He used to be more normal than he is now, but even in his Trump-addled current state he makes more sense than she does, although I would still vote for her if she won the primary because i would vote for a steaming pile of dog shit before I vote for a Republican ever again. Meanwhile, El-Sayed has always seemed like a nice guy. I met him when he was running against Whitmer. His position on health care is clear and I agree with it but it is not enough. His answers to the other questions didn't make a lot of sense. I still think he looks like a nice guy. McMorrow seems to have the best command of the most issues and to be able to explain things clearly and directly. In spite of whatever calumny was heaped on her recently for accepting donations from someone outside the small Democratic tent, she still seems to me to have the most potential to be the best candidate, and while I will certainly watch the July 7 debate for another look, this interview helped push me further toward McMorrow.
1000%. McMorrow is the most grounded, sane and broadly appealing of the three. And IMO would be also the most effective in office. We have to hew to attainable goals, assuming folks are in office. Not Quixotic dreams best left for a later day. Starting with Medicare for all. I'm sorry. Yes, that day may come. But it's anything but located reachable anywhere in the Trump era of today. Right now, efforts need to be towards appealing to the broadest possible coalition- including the Trump dismayed- who may be open to other reasonable, normal sounding people, such as McMorrow.
A vote for el-Sayed is a vote for moral inversion and moral depravity. Democrats (and an increasing number of Repubs) are living in the longest running, most well-funded psy op in history. See attached video.
https://substack.com/@thelionesswrites/note/c-272375948?r=2q93jc&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
glad you are still here : )
Observer to the fall, but still… thanks.
“embracing the likes of Hasan Piker” …. please!!!!!
Piker would be an effective attack line in a general election. Michigan is not a blue state.
The ad writes itself…too liberal/socialist for Michigan
They will say that whoever is the candidate.
True. But it will work better on El Sayed. Michigan is about the margins.
I have been asking for months for more coverage of the Michigan race. It is a flip waiting to happen. People talk about it like it a certain democratic hold but is absolutely not. The primary election has the possibility to elevate a candidate who cannot win in a Michigan general. There is a lot of passion for El Sayed and he may do okay in southeast MI but I don’t see a path for him in a general. Mike rogers is not stupid and barely lost to Slotkin and a candidate that alienates moderates democrats and republicans in purple MI is dangerous. I see commentary that moderates will just go along with whatever candidate and that is absolutely NOT the case. And there is so much misinformation about McMorrow being funded by AIPAC and so much astroturfing. I have blocked so many accounts who are just spamming instagram posts.
Correct. Stevens is the obvious choice (she is similar to Slotkin) but leftists are trying their usual fantasies out, that there are all these hidden leftist voters that need to be activated. Bernie isn't president and El Sayed won't win Michigan. McMorrow might. Why are we risking this seat?
Perhaps. I prefer McMorrow. To me Stevens has not seemed to have met the moment and I find her responses weak and a little milk toast. Her social media presence is also a mess. But I understand the Stevens appeal. Just wonder if she is too safe…if that makes sense.
It does. I am not opposed to the idea McMorrow is the right choice. But so far, polling is tending to Stevens over McMorrow as the anti-Sayed candidate.
Thank you for this thoughtful, insightful presentation
>The union’s statement said, “UAW members in Michigan want a fighter in Washington, D.C. who isn’t afraid to push forward a strong working-class agenda with *moral clarity*."< (emphasis mine)
Moral clarity? How does openly embracing and parading around with an intellectually and morally deficient internet hate monger, social media parasite and opportunist like Hasan Piker, all in the guise of courting votes in the college crowd and the youth demographic, and then thumbing his nose at anyone with the temerity to question the wisdom - or even the appropriateness - of doing that relate to anything resembling moral clarity?
C'mon, UAW. Did an engine block fall off an overhead monorail and hit y'all in the head?
You gotta be talkin' out both sides of your mouth at once and with your eyes closed to squeeze El-Sayed and moral clarity into the same sentence after that little demonstration of his judgement about what role morals and character should play in our state's politics.
Fifty years a dues paying UAW member (now retired), fifty years a skilled trades shoprat in the auto industry in Michigan at both a GM union and small privately owned non-union shops ... dressing in deer hunting gear to stand in a line outside an unemployment office that stretched across the parking lot and down a city street during a cold Michigan winter; walking a picket line at a plant entrance in the dead of night for nearly eight weeks during a GM strike one hot Michigan summer... they just don't come any more blue-collar working class than me, at least as far as how I've made my living and the socio-economic milieu that I occupied for the majority of my lifetime.
And I'm here as that working class guy to say that I wouldn't pull the lever for El-Sayed now with a ten-foot pole while wearing gloves. Not because of his name. Not because of the color of his skin. Not even because of his *politics*, not all of which are necessarily bad or disqualifying in my book. It's his little "extremism in the cause of winning isn't extreme" demonstration that's disqualifying for me. As an Independent voter, I'm no more interested in such a candidate from the Ds than I am a MAGA or any other flavor of GOP candidate, none of whom can any longer pass the smell test with me. That's just the kind of shit that got us here in the first place, and I won't condone any more of it with a vote, even if it's a vote for a Democrat.
The Ds have had my vote exclusively by default up and down the ballot since 2016 due to all the usual anti-Trump, pro-democracy, the-fucking-Republicans-have-lost-their-minds reasons.
But while voting for a lesser evil can sometimes make sense, I have no taste at all for just voting for one of two lessers. And I don't know yet who I'll vote for in the August primary, but either of the other Democratic candidates would be better for any number of reasons, not the least of which I've put forth here.
But if El-Sayed ends up the Democrats' candidate in the general, folks better get used to that Senate seat being held by a Republican. Because I very seriously doubt there's a deep enough blue streak in the statewide working class to ultimately put him into that statewide office, especially if he pulls anymore boners like a Hasan Piker.
Just want to say, it's great to have a UAW retiree reading and then commenting on this article.
Thank you!
I don’t like his association with Hasan Piker.
I have not been a fan of him since he ran against Whitmer and cannot see myself voting for him if he wins the primary either.
Yeah, I absolutely won't vote Republican, no matter what, for the reasons stated. And like I said, I've given the Ds every one of my votes for the past ten years by default. But they never put up a candidate for me to vote on that I found as completely objectionable and inappropriate as this guy, so I absolutely will *not* vote for this one in the general if that's what it comes down to. Will write in a name if I have to, but won't condone any of this BS with a vote, Republican victory or not.
Gotta' draw the line somewhere, and this is where I draw it for myself.
I have always voted blue no matter who and after the 2024 election I felt myself moving further and further left. Then I started to see the commentary…the vile, hateful and violent comments against moderate Dems coming from the left and I have been so disgusted I have thought of changing to independent. I donate to Ds I like and can never see myself voting R, but past comments and actions make El Sayed not an option to me and it actually does bother me that he presents himself as a physician when he never did residency, held a medical license or treated patients.
Just more reasons not to trust him. Like you, I find the hateful rhetoric from the left disgusting, and that against moderate Dems just plain stupid. These idiots are as dumb as Trump... yeah, go on and denigrate those who are supposed to be your allies about at least some part of your agenda... just keep pissin' 'em off and see how that works out.
I have no use for people like that... the ones who, just as on the other side of the divide, think compromise is a dirty word. One authoritarian party is more than enough.
Losing this seat would be worse in Maine. Will be an auto vote for Trump whereas Susan Collins won’t put a Judge Jeanine on the Supreme Court.