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The battle between the left-wing and the center-left establishment for the ideological future of the Democratic Party is staying put in the Midwest.
After far-left candidate Abdul El-Sayed narrowly edged out more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens this week in battleground Michigan’s high-stakes Democratic Senate primary, the spotlight now shifts to nomination showdowns next week in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
At stake: a top-tier Senate showdown in Minnesota that’s among a dozen races nationwide that will determine if the Democrats can win back control of the chamber from the GOP, and a gubernatorial face-off in crucial swing-state Wisconsin where Republicans are aiming to flip the governor’s mansion.
“Michigan proved that working people are ready for something different, and Wisconsin is next,” Democratic candidate for governor Francesca Hong wrote following El-Sayed’s victory.
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Hong, a state representative and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member, is the polling frontrunner in a Democratic gubernatorial nomination showdown that’s been rocked this summer after two major contenders dropped out and another candidate re-entered the race.
The primary winner will likely face off in the general election with Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, the overwhelming polling and fundraising frontrunner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, in the race to succeed Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who decided against running for a third term.
Hong, a former chef, is backed by top nationally known progressives, including Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ro Khanna of California, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender.
She is running on a platform that includes guaranteed paid leave and a one-year moratorium in Wisconsin on building AI data centers. Hong has faced scrutiny over years-old social media posts calling for defunding and abolishing the police. Hong says she no longer supports cutting police budgets or abolishing police departments.
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But Hong’s made national headlines in recent days over a resurfaced 2020 social media post that the country should “cancel Thanksgiving” in order to “stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indegenous folx [sic.] and women.” It’s a comment she has since walked back amid backlash, and now says that Thanksgiving is her “favorite holiday.”
There’s a growing number of moderate Democrats who worry that if Hong captures the gubernatorial nomination, as many expect, it will give Tiffany a big boost in his bid to flip the governor’s office.
A Wisconsin-based Democratic strategist who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely argued with Hong at the top of the ticket, “it will hurt Democrats down ballot, in key congressional and legislative races” in the Midwestern battleground.
In Minnesota, which also holds primaries next Tuesday, the Democratic Party’s civil war is also on display as progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and more moderate Rep. Angie Craig are the top two contenders battling for the party’s nomination. The current senator, Democrat Tina Smith, is retiring at the end of this year.
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A primary victory by Flanagan, who is backed by progressive champions Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, may boost the GOP hopes of flipping the seat in a blue-leaning but competitive state.
Michigan’s primary came in the wake of left-wing victories in Democratic primaries this spring and earlier this summer in deep blue congressional districts across the country, including in New York City and Denver, and in the extended race for Maine’s Democratic Senate nomination.
More than $80 million was spent on the Michigan Senate primary, making it the most expensive Democratic Senate nomination contest in history. Much of the money came from outside groups supporting Stevens or opposing El-Sayed. The largest spender was United Democracy Project, a political action committee aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is best known by its acronym AIPAC.
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), a leading group on the left, referred to El-Sayed’s narrow margin over Stevens and told Fox News Digital that “any win against $60 million dollars of outside spending by AIPAC and corporate interests is a giant win and sets us on a path of proving our case in November to shake up the system.”
El-Sayed’s razor-thin win was accompanied by two other progressive victories.
William Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement climate advocacy group, edged out two more moderate Democrats in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, a Republican-controlled swing seat that is among roughly two dozen races expected to help determine control of the House.
Lawrence, who was backed by Sanders and El-Sayed as well as several prominent progressive groups, will face Republican Rep. Tom Barrett in the general election.
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And in Michigan’s heavily Democratic 13th Congressional District, Rep. Shri Thanedar, who was supported by top House Democratic leaders, was narrowly defeated by state Rep. Donovan McKinney. McKinney was backed by Sanders, El-Sayed and “Squad” members Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania.
There was a setback for the far-left: DSA member and former Squad member former Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri was crushed by Democratic Rep. Wesley Bell in their rematch, as she unsuccessfully tried to win back her old seat in Congress representing St. Louis.
But El-Sayed’s victory and the potential wins by the left next week are further fueling the ongoing Republican push to characterize all Democrats on the ballot in the midterms as far left radicals, or as President Donald Trump calls them, “communists.”
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Vice President JD Vance, in an interview Wednesday on Fox News “The Ingraham Angle,” argued that “the base of the Democratic Party just wants radicals. It wants these DSA types, it wants people who hate even the idea of private property ownership.”
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Whether the GOP messaging is effective will be answered on Election Night, in November’s midterms.
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