Former Wayne County and Detroit health director Abdul El-Sayed and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens traded verbal blows in their third debate as each questioned the others’ transparency with voters and ability to embrace and enact political change as they battle for the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat.
The hour-long debate hosted by WOOD-TV8 in Grand Rapids and broadcast by its partners across Michigan on Tuesday, July 7, saw the candidates more frequently challenging each other than in past forums with four weeks to go until the Aug. 4 primary and a rival, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak, dropping out of the race on July 5th.
The winner will face Republican former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of White Lake in a November general election that appears to offer the GOP its best chance to pick up a Democratic seat in chamber and shore up its odds of retaining control of the Senate. Here’s a rundown of some of the remarks made by the candidates in the debate:
‘We do not need a celebrity senator’
Stevens, of Birmingham, came out swinging. A more-moderate candidate who has the support of much of the Democratic Party establishment and flipped a formerly Republican district based in Oakland County in 2018, she has trailed El-Sayed, a more-progressive Democrat from Ann Arbor who has received nationwide attention, in polling averages. In a bid to challenge El-Sayed’s campaign polish, as well as his experience as a healthcare scholar, author and podcast host, she went after him early on, touting her legislative record, promising to fight for Michigan and keeping her focus on the job. “Unlike my opponent I’m not running at the first mic or camera I see,” she said. “We do not need a celebrity senator. We need a workhorse.”
‘Corporations are buying politicians’
Throughout the debate, El-Sayed hammered away again and again at the fact that while he has refused to take corporate donations, Stevens has continued to accept what he considers a corrupting influence on politics. When moderator Rick Albin asked early on about making life better for Michiganders, El-Sayed pointed to his plans to guarantee free government-supplied health care, raise wages, and improve schools and roads through higher taxes on the rich. “But all of this has to happen by way of getting the corruption out of our politics,” he said. “So long as corporations are buying politicians, we can’t actually enact these solutions.”
‘What are you hiding?’
Stevens, meanwhile, herself returned several times to a theme in which she accused El-Sayed of not being transparent with voters because he hasn’t − as she has − publicly released her tax returns or filed an updated financial disclosure with the Senate as required. “You talk about getting money out of politics and putting money in people’s pockets but who is putting money into yours?” she asked. But El-Sayed has made his tax returns available to the Detroit News when asked previously; as for the extension he received in filing the financial disclosure, he said he’s not at all unusual and Stevens has gotten them in the past as a House member as well. (He also filed one previously as well.) There is no campaign rule requiring tax returns be released either.
‘AIPAC has spent tens of millions of dollars against me’
The question of American support for Israel remained at the forefront of this race as it continues to cleave the Democratic Party. Stevens, who has been a supporter of aid to Israel and seen tens of millions of dollars in outside aid spent in the race on her behalf, tried to distance herself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the United States needs “long-term peace” and that Netanyahu (who recently criticized Stevens) had “failed in that regard” considering its role in starting the war with Iran. El-Sayed, noting the support Stevens has received from the pro-Netanyahu American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and linked groups, suggested Netanyahu’s remarks were a cover for Stevens and that AIPAC would be fine if either she or Rogers won. “AIPAC has spent tens of millions of dollars in attack ads against me,” he said. “They clearly want one individual and it’s not me.” Netanyahu, he said, “is trying to steer away the stink of how staunchly she stands for their policy.”
‘It’s unfortunate to see my opponent pursuing Republican tactics’
Several times during the debate, Stevens argued that she is the Democrat most likely to beat Rogers in Michigan and claimed that Republicans had spent “thousands” in helping El-Sayed’s candidacy, believing him a weaker candidate. (It’s unclear whether that is entirely true; conservative websites and both the Republican National Committee and state Republican Party have hammered at El-Sayed and Stevens alike.) But at one point, El-Sayed responded to a question about Immigration and Customs Enforcement under President Donald Trump by saying Stevens had supported ICE. She noted that she had voted for bipartisan legislation that included a remark thanking ICE for responding to an antisemitic attack as a “cynical” ploy by Republicans to hurt Democrats. “It’s really unfortunate, yet again, to see my opponent pursuing Republican tactics.”
‘How different are things really going to be?’
After Stevens noted her victories in “tough races” − specifically referring to her 2018 win in what had been a Republican district − El-Sayed noted that polls have shown him to have as good if not better chance of beating Rogers in the fall as she. Referring back to his arguments for universal government health care as well as his refusal to take corporate donations − and his argument that the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement Stevens voted for has not been as helpful to Michigan workers as it might have been − he said he’s more electable “because you got to actually fight for something. It’s not enough to offer people two options that kind of look the same on the issues that matter the most. If you’re taking money from corporations, the same corporations, Democrat or Republican, how different are things really going to be?”
Stevens had a good comeback and one that could play with Democratic women: “With all due respect to Abdul, I think he looks a lot more like Mike Rogers than I do.”
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on X @tsspangler.
This story has been updated with additional information.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: El-Sayed, Stevens trade pointed barbs in Democratic US Senate debate
Reporting by Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
