About 2,000 supporters gathered at the Detroit Opera House on Saturday night to hear U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rally behind Abdul El-Sayed’s bid for Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, with less than three weeks until the August 4 primary.
Sanders, an independent from Vermont, framed the race as a choice between “democracy versus oligarchy,” while Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd that El-Sayed represented “the politics of the future.” Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, called the primary election a “pick-a-side moment” for Michigan Democrats and criticized party members who hesitate to take a clear stance on progressive issues.
El-Sayed, a progressive former health official from Ann Arbor, is competing against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham for the Democratic nomination in the race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Gary Peters. The contest has become a high-profile test of the Democratic Party’s ideological direction, with national progressive figures backing El-Sayed’s campaign for Medicare for All and stricter limits on corporate political influence.
The rally highlighted a stark financial disparity in the race. Outside spending has favored Stevens by a 12-to-1 margin, according to The Detroit News, with the super PAC United Democracy Project—funded in part by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—planning to spend $28.5 million either supporting Stevens or attacking El-Sayed. Ocasio-Cortez directly addressed the spending gap, telling supporters: “We can choose $50 million and counting in dark money trying to buy the state of Michigan. Or we can choose Dr. Abdul El-Sayed.”
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, also took the stage and targeted two of her Democratic House colleagues, Stevens and U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, over their campaign funding sources. Tlaib suggested that corporations backing both candidates profit from pollution and sickness in Detroit, saying: “We see what corporations have done to us. We can’t breathe literally.”
After the rally, El-Sayed told reporters he expected a wave of outside spending but planned to counter it by building grassroots support through direct voter contact. He called the campaign ads a “crutch for a campaign that has no excitement” and labeled the outside spending “anti-democratic as hell.”
Recent polling shows Stevens holding a seven-point lead over El-Sayed in the Democratic primary, though El-Sayed outraised his rivals in the second quarter of 2026 through direct campaign donations. The Republican nominee, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of White Lake Township, criticized the rally and its speakers, accusing them of promoting a “socialist agenda” that includes defunding police and eliminating private healthcare.
Sources
- The Detroit News — reported on the rally, attendance, speaker statements, spending disparity, and candidate positions
- The Hill — reported recent polling showing Stevens’ seven-point lead
- WLNS 6 News — reported on El-Sayed’s fundraising advantage in Q2 2026
