PODCAST:
June 10, 2026 ~ Nancy Kaffer, editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, joins the show to discuss the path forward for Michigan Democrats: either the moderate Haley Stevens or the progressive Abdul El-Sayed.
MICHIGAN ~ Michigan Democrats are at a crossroads on what political path to take from the midterms to the general elections later this fall, as two competing ideologies will be tested at the ballot box.
U.S. Congresswoman Haley Stevens (MI-11) and former Wayne County Director of Health, Human, and Veterans Services Abdul El-Sayed are the two remaining candidates in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat after State Sen. Mallory McMorrow recently dropped out. McMorrow was seen as an ideological bridge between the moderate, corporate Stevens and the left-wing progressive El-Sayed, leaving Michigan Democrats with a choice to make.
“I don’t think that there’s a clear answer as to where McMorrow’s voters will fall,” Nancy Kaffer, editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, told WJR. “It’s going to depend on why they were drawn to her candidacy. She combined many of the qualities of each candidate. She was more liberal, more progressive than Hailey Stevens, had more legislative experience, and wasn’t quite as far-left as Abdul Al-Sayed. So, if you were a voter who valued her as a candidate because she had legislative experience, for example, then you might go to Stevens. But if you weren’t comfortable with Stevens’s more sort of status quo, cautious policy approaches, then maybe you go to Al-Sayed.“
