DETROIT, Mich. — Dr. Abdul El-Sayed may not be running alone on Michigan’s progressive flank for long.
Staunch progressives are looking beyond the Michigan Senate race, setting their sights on four pivotal congressional contests across the Wolverine State — from reliably Democratic districts to more rural stretches of Michigan.
As a Rust Belt battleground, Michigan has become a proving ground for both Democratic moderates and the party’s left wing, each arguing it has the better path to winning back working-class voters who have drifted away from Democrats.
Members of the “Squad” and other prominent progressive figures have descended on Michigan to support El-Sayed’s Senate bid and boost ideologically aligned candidates, placing the state near the center of the Democratic Party’s internal fight.
One of the most closely watched House primaries is state Rep. Donavan McKinney’s Democratic challenge to Rep. Shri Thanedar of Michigan.
Thanedar is already among the House’s more liberal lawmakers and belongs to the Congressional Progressive Caucus. His Detroit-based 13th Congressional District is also considered a safely blue seat.
McKinney, however, has the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, which has notched five primary victories this cycle. Thanedar’s 2022 win was historic for another reason: It marked the first time since 1955 that Detroit, a majority-Black city, was not represented in Congress by a Black lawmaker.
Thanedar has previously benefited from crowded primaries that divided the opposition vote. More recently, just months into President Trump’s second term, he introduced articles of impeachment against him.
On Capitol Hill, Thanedar is not particularly popular with many of his colleagues in the Democratic Party, seemingly not too worried about him going down. The entrepreneur has a net worth in the tens of millions due to the Ann Arbor-based chemical testing lab he helped found, which he has used to buoy his campaign.
But his defeat could mirror that of Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) to Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander, respectively, in June.
In addition to Donavan, the DSA is backing incumbent Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who is favored to win her seat as an original Squad member and anti-Israel crusader.
The DSA is also targeting a House seat held by Republicans: the 8th District, which Rep. Jack Bergman (D-Mich.) currently holds. The DSA is backing Kyle Blomquist in that northwest Michigan race. Bergman won reelection handily in 2024 by some 22 percentage points.
Although the DSA isn’t involved, lefties are taking aim at Rep. Tom Barrett’s (R-Mich.) seat in the Lansing-anchored 7th District, as well, which is a swing district.
There are three top Democrats vying for that seat: Sunrise Movement co-founder William Lawrence, Matt Maasdam, and Bridget Brink. Lawrence is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and is hoping to prove that the far-left can take purple districts.
Michigan had previously been a staging ground for the far left. Sanders won the state in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, and it was essentially the birthplace of the “uncommitted” movement against former President Joe Biden in 2024.
Moderate and mainstream Democrats have long argued that tacking too far to the left will scare off potential swing voters, while hardcore progressives believe voters aren’t as ideological and can be moved by bold ideas.
“The growing number of Michigan independents are not mushy moderates,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, theorized to The Post. “They passionately detest both political parties, thinking they are bought and paid for.”
