Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez rally for El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaigned for Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan as the progressive stars tried to turn his Senate bid into a show of force against the party establishment. The weekend swing took them through Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids, with the Detroit rally putting their names behind a candidate who is trying to unseat Rep. Haley Stevens in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary.

The appearance carried extra weight because Ocasio-Cortez’s backing of El-Sayed was her first endorsement in a contested Senate primary in the 2026 cycle. It also sharpened the ideological stakes in a race that has become a proxy fight over the Democratic Party’s future, with El-Sayed casting himself as an anti-billionaire, anti-Trump candidate running on “Money Out of Politics, Money in Your Pocket” and Medicare for All.

The contest tightened into a two-person race after Mallory McMorrow dropped out, leaving Stevens and El-Sayed as the main Democratic contenders. A July 16 Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll showed Stevens ahead by about 7 percentage points, with 41.4% support, a sign that El-Sayed still has ground to make up even as he benefits from the national attention Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez bring.

Money has become part of the story as much as ideology. Reports have described Stevens as holding a lopsided spending advantage over El-Sayed, while AIPAC and affiliated groups have poured a record amount into the Michigan Senate primary. That outside spending has intensified the sense that the race is being fought on two fronts: one over who should represent Michigan Democrats, and another over how much national donors can shape the outcome.

The Michigan contest has drawn notice beyond the state because Democrats view the seat as a key test in their effort to win back control of the U.S. Senate. Rashida Tlaib also appeared with Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and El-Sayed at the event, underscoring how closely the race is now tied to the party’s left flank heading into a primary that will help define its balance of power in 2026.