How a must-win MI Senate race just became a GOP opening

[0:00] Democrats are growing more bullish about their chances of flipping the Senate. [0:04] But in Michigan, a primary fight could douse those hopes. [0:08] Donald Trump should not be the president. [0:10] I'm leading the articles of impeachment on RFK Jr. [0:15] People love to say, well, it's because he's Arab and Muslim. [0:18] No, it's because I'm f***ing from Michigan. [0:19] What started as an intra-party feud now is a clash over the party's future, [0:24] what it stands for in the Trump era, and just how far left they should go. [0:29] The battle includes former public health official Abdul El-Sayed, [0:33] a 41-year-old who is backed by Bernie Sanders and is staking out the most progressive positions. [0:39] This is about electability. Your party wants to hold on to this seat, of course. [0:44] There is this notion that electability is about being the least offensive. [0:48] If that were true, why would Donald Trump have won the presidency twice? [0:52] And too often in the Democratic Party, we're willing to move on our positions [0:56] because of what Republicans say about us. I don't back down. [0:59] To anyone, on anything. [1:01] The party establishment has its own favorite, Haley Stevens, [1:05] a more moderate congresswoman from the Detroit suburbs. [1:08] Every single poll shows I'm the best person or the only person that can beat Mike Rogers. [1:14] And then there's a state senator, Mallory McMorrow, angling for both wings of the party, [1:18] while offering this warning as the GOP unites behind Mike Rogers, [1:23] a former congressman who narrowly lost a Senate bid in 2024. [1:27] As they aim to make Michigan their firewall to prevent Democrats from netting the four seats they need to win back power. [1:35] And if he wins this seat, if they are successful at trying to buy this seat, [1:39] then there is no path at all for Democrats to take control of the U.S. Senate. [1:45] Now a GOP outside group is preparing to spend a staggering $45 million in the final weeks of the midterms, [1:53] more than any other pickup opportunity. [1:56] All as Rogers now has a bigger war chest than any of his three would-be opponents. [2:02] That's left Democrats struggling with a thorny question in this swing state [2:05] that President Donald Trump narrowly won twice and lost once. [2:10] Should they nominate a firebrand to energize the base and take a harder line? [2:15] Anybody committed to shutting down Trump and the MAGA movement, that's number one. [2:22] Or a more traditional Democrat, or even a leadership ally who could appeal to swing voters like this one. [2:30] Your vote is up for grabs. [2:31] It very much is. [2:33] So it could be either Democrat or Republican. [2:35] It could be. [2:35] Speaking to CNN in his hometown of Ann Arbor, [2:38] El-Sayed went further to the left than his foes on issues like abolishing ICE. [2:44] It's just the same lack of courage that Democrats deploy to argue as to why they should be taking money from corporations [2:51] or why they should be hedging their bets on clear, obvious policies like abolishing ICE [2:56] or guaranteeing health care through Medicare for All. [2:58] And I think what you're seeing in this race right now is that people are sick and tired of the same old Democrats who lack courage. [3:04] But a glaring divide is over Israel in a state with a huge Arab-American community in Dearborn [3:10] and a big Jewish voting bloc in Oakland County. [3:13] Why are you supporting Abdul? [3:16] Because he's not taking AIPAC money. [3:17] He's against the apartheid, against sending tax money to fund a genocide in Israel. [3:23] An independent U.N. inquiry concluded last year that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, [3:30] an accusation the Israeli government firmly rejects. [3:34] El-Sayed, a son of Egyptian immigrants who's born in Michigan and lost to Governor Gretchen Whitmer [3:40] in a tense 2018 primary, was blunt on his views. [3:45] You said the Israeli government is evil. [3:47] Do you think they're just as evil as Hamas? [3:48] Yes. Killing tens of thousands of people makes you pretty damn evil. [3:51] It's not how evil is this one versus that one. [3:53] Hamas, evil. [3:54] Israeli government, evil. [3:56] We could say both. [3:56] Is Netanyahu, in your view, he's a war criminal? [3:59] Absolutely. [4:00] Do you not think he is? [4:01] When you conduct a genocide, you're a war criminal. [4:04] What do you make up the fact that Haley Stevens is backed by AIPAC? [4:06] I find that disastrous for our politics. [4:10] You should be more interested in what's happening in Michigan than you are interested in what's happening in Tel Aviv. [4:14] But about 60 miles away in Lansing, one Stevens supporter touts the Congresswoman's support for Israel. [4:20] It's a normal position for normal Democrats to support and, you know, be allies with Israel. [4:29] I'm a normal Democrat. I want to vote for a normal Democrat. [4:32] The 42-year-old Stevens, who first won a battleground district in 2018, is running a middle-of-the-road campaign. [4:40] It wants to stay focused on economic issues. [4:43] You have the support of AIPAC in this race. [4:46] I'm wondering, do you embrace that support? [4:50] Well, look, I'm campaigning in a grassroots ray alongside a ton of engaged Michiganders. [4:56] But there's also talk about, from some of your opponents here, that Israel, in their view, committed genocide in Gaza. [5:03] Do you agree with that? [5:04] I don't agree with that. [5:05] And like I said, I've been very consistent on this issue, Manu. [5:08] I just think we need to see long-term peace. [5:11] We need to make... [5:12] Is that position, though, going to hurt you in Dearborn, where you need those Arab voters? [5:15] Look, I'm out here every single day, hearing from Michiganders who are dealing with rising costs, who are worried about their jobs. [5:24] Mick Morrow, the 39-year-old Democratic whip in the state Senate, goes further than Stevens. [5:30] Do you think that Benjamin Netanyahu has committed war crimes in Gaza? [5:34] I do. You know, watching the devastation, I do believe the war crimes were committed. [5:38] As she stumps in breweries, including one in the Detroit suburb of Canton... [5:42] I like Mallory. She's a tough talker. [5:45] Mick Morrow says El-Sayed's rhetoric does not match reality. [5:49] Rhetoric is nice, but results are better. [5:51] Do you think that he is pretty much all rhetoric, his campaign? [5:56] I think a lot of it is. [5:57] Is the Democratic Party looking for someone, though, who really wants to shake things up? [6:01] Absolutely. [6:02] Just doing rallies and talking about issues and having rhetoric without knowing how to actually implement those things is not going to shake it up at all. [6:09] That's just lobbing bombs from the outside. [6:11] Yet Mick Morrow has drawn criticism from El-Sayed. [6:14] She's shifting her stances on issues such as Israel and corporate PAC money. [6:19] It's not just your positions. It's about whether or not you truly and deeply hold on to them. [6:23] But does it look like to you that Mick Morrow is shifting her position? [6:27] She does not have the same deeply held views as you. [6:29] I know where my positions are, and it's clear that she's moved on a lot of these questions. [6:34] While Stevens accepts corporate PAC money, McMorrow says she now refuses it, after accepting it in past campaigns. [6:41] That's a change. That's a flip. [6:43] McMorrow defends her pivot. [6:45] Over the years, I learned that not only can we campaign differently, but we can't be Republican-like. [6:50] And I am willing to be somebody who evolves. [6:54] El-Sayed has accused McMorrow of co-opting his positions and copying his homework poorly. [7:00] This is governing. It's not middle school. [7:03] Yet it's El-Sayed who has generated the most headlines, like when he barnstormed college campuses with widely followed left-wing streamer Hassan Piker, [7:12] who has a history of inflammatory comments, including saying Hamas is a, quote, thousand times better than Israel. [7:19] And this about the 9-11 attacks. [7:22] America deserved 9-11, dude. F*** it. I'm saying it. [7:25] While Piker later walked back the remarks about 9-11, El-Sayed's opponents have seized on them. [7:31] Should he have brought him in to campaign with him? [7:32] I wouldn't have. [7:33] Yeah. Well, first of all, that's not someone I'd be campaigning with. [7:36] Why not? [7:37] Because it's un-American. And we shouldn't say that America is, you know, deserve 9-11. This is about winning for Michigan. [7:44] El-Sayed pushes back. [7:47] What do you say? [7:48] My understanding of America is it's a place where we have freedom of speech. [7:51] My understanding of America is it's a place where we're willing to have conversations with folks with whom we disagree. [7:56] I went on Fox & Friends this morning. Is it un-American to go and speak on Fox & Friends? [8:00] Or are we drawing certain kinds of lines? [8:02] And it's that penchant for cancel culture that I think people hate about Democrats. [8:06] But you're actively campaigning with them. This is a choice you're making. [8:09] For sure. [8:10] So why make that choice to actively campaign with them? [8:13] Because I know that he's having a conversation with a number of folks who feel locked out. [8:18] Part of that conversation is whether the party should dump Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, whom Stevens has praised. [8:25] You had called Chuck Schumer a great leader. Do you stand by that? [8:28] Look, inside baseball. Look, you know what? That kind of stuff, we'll deal with when I get there. [8:34] But McMorrow says it's time for a change. [8:38] We need new leadership in the Senate. [8:39] You know, Haley Stevens told me that that's an inside baseball discussion. [8:43] I can tell you what I hear on the ground, which is people want a better Democratic Party. [8:47] Let's turn back to my panel, including David Weigel, who's been covering this as well. [8:51] And David, you tweet that kind of summed up basically the entire premise here. [8:58] The entire primary, basically, El Sayed. I'm taking the most maximal left-wing position, McMorrow. [9:04] I wouldn't go that far. [9:05] Stevens, oh golly, I love manufacturing. [9:09] It kind of speaks to where we're seeing the party. [9:11] How do you see this? [9:12] We like to be pithy, but that's been the dynamic for a year. [9:15] El Sayed got in a year ago and just put down his stakes as the Bernie candidate. [9:20] Day one endorsement from Bernie Sanders, who's been more aggressive, I think, this cycle than in the past. [9:25] And saying, these are my candidates. You guys don't know how to win. I do. [9:28] One of the challenges of Michigan is Democrats do know how to win Michigan. [9:31] Not against Trump twice, but Michigan has a record of senators who are not that flashy, who do the work. [9:36] Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters get re-elected despite not being social media stars. [9:41] And the offer that they have is from El Sayed, a very aggressive, progressive to the left-wing media star. [9:48] McMorrow has been, there's a reason she was on stage as a state senator at the DNC in the primetime. [9:52] McMorrow's a communicator that Democrats feel very comfortable with. [9:55] Stevens is, I was in Michigan when she won her 2022 member-on-member primary with the help of AIPAC. [10:01] That and the idea that Chuck Schumer supports her are very unpopular. [10:04] What I find when I talk to Michigan Democratic voters, even moderate Democratic voters, [10:07] the fact that AIPAC was for her in 2022 was coming up a year ago. [10:13] I think it's probably coming up much more now that she can't be trusted on not just the intricacies of Gaza, [10:19] but that she is a D.C. establishment Democrat. [10:22] And even though we had those very recently in Michigan, maybe we need something completely different now.