The Dictatorship
Warren backs El-Sayed in competitive Michigan Democratic primary
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is endorsing Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed, MS NOW has learned.
“He’s growing a movement of working people all across Michigan,” Warren says of El-Sayed in a video announcing the pick. “Michiganders deserve a senator who will fight for you, not for special interests running millions of dollars in TV ads to buy this seat.”
The announcement makes Warren the latest high-profile progressive leader to pick a side in the El-Sayed versus Rep. Haley Stevens race that is both a marquee primary battle for a must-win seat ahead of November, and one that’s increasingly framed as a test of establishment versus outsider with big implications for the Democratic Party’s future.
The primary has seen millions pour in already — with pro-Stevens groups having a multimillion-dollar advantage on the airwaves.
Warren and El-Sayed are set to make two stops in the Mitten State next weekend — one week before Election Day and one week after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, D-N.Y., barnstormed the state for El-Sayed.
“Eventually, we have to ask ourselves: Is the answer to our problems to turn to the same playbook over and over again?” the New York congresswoman asked a crowd in Detroit over the weekend.
For Warren, it’s a change of heart, after initially backing State Sen. Mallory McMorrow in the primary. McMorrow dropped her bid earlier this month and is not expected to endorse in the primary.
“Senator Warren’s vision for our future — one where corporations can’t buy politicians and people can afford to put food on the table — speaks to Americans everywhere,” El-Sayed told MS of Warren’s endorsement, calling her “a generational voice for Americans who are tired of the status quo.”
The primary is August 4th.
Ali Vitali is MS NOW’s senior congressional correspondent and the host of “Way Too Early.” She is the author of “Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House … Yet.”