Deleted social media posts disparaging Michigan, support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement despite evidence of rampant abuses, and a candidate positioning himself as a doctor who never really practiced medicine. These are just a few of the recent attacks coming in from all sides against the Democratic U.S. Senate primary candidates: state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and former Wayne County health official Abdul El-Sayed.
In what was initially a quiet contest that featured broadside attacks and a lot of overlap in terms of campaign policy promises, the Democratic race for the U.S. Senate is quickly getting bitter.
Last week, McMorrow was reeling from reporting that she deleted thousands of social media posts that ranged from embarrassing — commentary on Michigan winters using profane language — to potentially compromising — commentary on voting in California, her former residence, while taking up permanent residence in Michigan. The state senator from Royal Oak went on CNN to dismiss the reporting as anything other than a cheap shot at her campaign, but some critics saw the interview as “disastrous” to her campaign.
The main critic using that language: the campaign of Stevens, the congresswoman from Birmingham.
Stevens’ campaign issued a news release criticizing McMorrow’s decision to delete the social media posts and her campaign’s response, which was to say the posts were just the musings of an average millennial that show authenticity. McMorrow stands by the posts.
Stevens’ attempted takedown of McMorrow also came on the heels of her own shaky showing at April’s Michigan Democratic Party endorsement convention, where she was booed on stage.
Endorsements and party backing reshape the race
Either way, Stevens had ground to make up following the convention, and did so by netting the endorsement of longtime former U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. The stalwart Democrat decided against seeking reelection in 2024, and the party unified around current U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Holly, who went on to defeat former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of White Lake.
With Rogers back as the leading GOP candidate on the other side of the race, Stabenow said it was imperative to back the candidate that most polling shows has the ability to beat Rogers in a general election. Stabenow reiterated that Stevens was that figure.
Stabenow’s endorsement also included various media hits propping up Stevens’ campaign. In speaking to WJR-AM, the former senator likened Stevens to a “workhorse” and McMorrow and El-Sayed as “show horses.”
“She’ll put her head down and she’ll focus on getting things done for Michigan,” Stabenow said of Stevens. “And really that’s what needs to happen.”
McMorrow’s team pushed back by going on the attack against Stabenow and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a major Stevens supporter.
“With nothing but respect for the former senator, she is supporting the type of campaign that may have won in Michigan in decades past, but we are in a different moment and we need new leaders who are ready to meet it,” McMorrow spokesperson Hannah Lindow said following the Stabenow endorsement for Stevens. “Instead, we’re seeing what happens when an ineffective Senate Minority Leader feels threatened on the heels of a political failure in Maine just last week: he is pushing hard for his hand-picked candidate here in our state. One who is relying on outside support from AIPAC and corporate money while refusing to hold a single open, public event to take questions from Michigan voters.”
Lindow also asserted that “endorsements don’t circumvent facts.”
“Democrats are less popular in Michigan than Donald Trump. And voters in the breweries, union halls and churches across our state are telling Mallory that we need new party leadership,” Lindow said. “Mallory is the only candidate who has shown she hears them, has fought and delivered for them, and can actually win for them in November.”
Some Democrats, like former U.S. House candidate Josh Cowen, said on X anyone attacking Stabenow for her endorsement of Stevens was making “a choice.”
ICE votes and outside spending fuel Democratic infighting
Prior to that announcement, McMorrow’s team was hitting Stevens hard on her support for ICE in Congress, pointing to reporting from Punchbowl News. The outlet reported that Stevens asked groups to spend on her behalf, with the goal of covering her record of support for the agency that has become reviled by many in the Democratic Party as an out-of-control police force furthering the deportation goals of President Donald Trump.
McMorrow’s camp noted that Stevens voted in favor of a U.S. House resolution, HR 488, aimed at rejecting antisemitism, support for communication and cooperation between local and federal law enforcement, and to “express gratitude” to law enforcement, including ICE agents. Stevens, in the same vein, did not cosponsor a competing Democratic resolution aimed at condemning an antisemitic attack against a Jewish community in Boulder, Colorado, which had the same goal as HR 488 but did not explicitly thank ICE or other law enforcement.
Days later, McMorrow’s team issued another release noting that a dark money organization, the Center for Democratic Priorities, had launched a $5 million ad campaign to prop up Stevens’ record on fighting against ICE in Congress.
Many political observers believed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, had funded the advertising campaign, although the group denied being involved.
“Millions of Americans want to help tough, principled Democrats defeat extremist candidates. Despite conspiracy theories, not every dollar spent in that effort comes via AIPAC,” the lobbying organization said in a post on X. “AIPAC isn’t funding Center for Democratic Priorities.”
The sniping between McMorrow and Stevens was evident, but El-Sayed mostly sat in the background as the other two campaigns went at each other’s throats.
That changed this week when Politico published a story on Tuesday calling El-Sayed’s medical credentials into question.
Politico reported that El-Sayed has publicly claimed he was a physician, but there was no evidence that he had experience as a licensed physician or medical doctor. The outlet reviewed medical license records in both Michigan and New York and did not find a match for El-Sayed. Some Democratic strategists interviewed by Politico said that the misstep of El-Sayed calling himself a doctor when he was not had the potential to blow up a large part of his message to voters.
In response, El-Sayed spokesperson Roxie Richner said the Politico reporting was less of a “gotcha attack” but something that is intrinsic to the candidate’s story — and one that his supporters should already know well because of the way he talks about it on the campaign trail.
“Dr. El-Sayed has spoken extensively about his experiences in medical school that led him first to public health and then to public service. Dr. El-Sayed earned a Medical Doctorate from Columbia University and a Doctorate in public health from Oxford University,” Richner said in a statement. “That’s two doctorates — he has earned the right to be called ‘doctor’ twice over … He’s a nationally recognized public health expert, literally wrote the book on Medicare for All, and has twice testified before the U.S. Senate on medical debt and universal healthcare.”
Richner went on to say that any attempt to dispute “Dr. El-Sayed’s credentials, which are matters of public record, are an attempt to distract from the fact that Medicare for All is a broadly popular policy, and that he is the only candidate in this race willing to fight for it.”
This story was originally published by Michigan Advance.
