Party leaders are rallying around Stevens in a primary they see as crucial to holding the seat.
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Sen. Gary Peters endorsed Rep. Haley Stevens on Monday to succeed him in Michigan, giving the congresswoman a boost from the state’s retiring Democratic senator in a bitter primary for a seat Democrats likely need to hold to retake the Senate.
Stevens is facing Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, in an Aug. 4 primary that has become an increasingly sharp fight over the direction of the Democratic Party.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and several moderate-leaning Senate Democrats have backed Stevens. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) have endorsed El-Sayed, who is running as the more progressive candidate. A third Democrat, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, suspended her campaign earlier this month.
Peters’s endorsement comes as much of the Democratic establishment has rallied around Stevens amid fears that El-Sayed could lose in November to the likely Republican nominee, former congressman Mike Rogers. Former senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) and former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm also endorsed Stevens in recent months.
Peters cited Stevens’s work during the Obama administration to help rescue the auto industry before she ran for Congress, saying in a statement that she “will be ready on day 1 to fight for Michigan.”
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El-Sayed has drawn criticism for campaigning with Hasan Piker, a left-wing streamer whose past comments about the Israel-Hamas war have drawn scrutiny. El-Sayed has sharply criticized Stevens for her support of Israel and described her in a debate last week as a pawn of the pro-Israel lobby.
Asked in April about El-Sayed’s decision to campaign with Piker, Peters said he had tried to remind the candidates that prevailing in the general election matters more than winning the primary.
“I think we’ve got a pretty spirited primary going right now,” Peters said at the time. “I would prefer that [it] was less spirited.”
El-Sayed and his supporters have disputed that he is less likely to defeat Rogers than Stevens. Ocasio-Cortez told the New York Times she thought El-Sayed gave the party the best shot at holding the seat.
Democrats need a net gain of four seats to recapture the Senate, while also defending seats such as Michigan, which Donald Trump won narrowly in 2024. Republicans see the open Michigan seat as one of their best shots to flip a seat now held by Democrats and blunt any gains the party may make elsewhere.
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