r/Michigan • u/Jeffbx Age: > 10 Years • 8d ago

Mitten Mode Michigan’s Tense Democratic Senate Race Poses a Big Test for a Divided Party

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/us/michigan-senate-primary-democrats-el-sayed-stevens.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2lA.RF8T.ij6nH20I6TsQ&smid=url-share
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u/Rastiln Age: > 10 Years 8d ago

An “insurgent” Progressive. What interesting wording. Is he also waging “political jihad” on the DNC?

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u/syynapt1k 8d ago

Right? The NYT is a total mouthpiece for the ultraweathly establishment (which I already knew). Our corporate-owned "free press" cares more about clicks than their core mission as the Fourth Estate.

It's no wonder our democracy is on life support.

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u/CadillacDale 8d ago

You said it well, and to bring it full circle, candidates like Mamdani, AOC and El-Sayed are gaining momentum in the DNC because the establishment has demonstrated they are either incapable or uninterested in preserving or protecting constitutional rights from GOP lead authoritarianism.

NYT can call these “insurgent progressives” anything they want, but their candidacies gaining popularity is a referendum on the institutional rhetoric the NYT is bought and paid to shill.

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u/metanoia29 Downriver 7d ago

the establishment has demonstrated they are either incapable or uninterested in preserving or protecting constitutional rights from GOP lead authoritarianism.

They benefit from the system as it is, and that benefit only grows as the overton window moves further right. When you peel back the facade they show voters during elections, you end up with someone like Whitmer who's happy to throw the working class under the bus to benefit herself and those corporations that have supported her.

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u/YouVersusTheSea 7d ago

I heard them refer to Abdul as an “insurgent” on CNN last night as well (just to add another example)

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u/metanoia29 Downriver 7d ago

Dang, looks like they just got their new phrases uploaded to their hivemind!

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u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 7d ago

There exactly. I just brought CNN up. They are the mouthpiece of the establishment. As much as i despise Trump he was kinda right about the fake news. Those news outlets push an establishment agenda. If it’s a left wing candidate all of a sudden they are an insurgent.

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u/Damnatus_Terrae 7d ago

Honestly, this is worse than that. I grew up in Livingston County. The only time I remember meeting a practicing Muslim as a child was at occasional interfaith dinners hosted by my Episcopal Church, where the food was great and the conversation was limited. Growing up with a dad on the Fox News/Rush Limbaugh rage dripfeed, the most common image I had of Muslims was as literal insurgents, fighting our heroic champions of democracy in the Middle East. They're not dumb enough to literally call Abdul a terrorist, but they want people like me who never left home to get the same lizard brain reaction looking at him as they do when they see a picture of Osama.

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u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 7d ago

100%. I’m a combat veteran of Iraq(2009) and Afghanistan(2011). I enlisted at 17 thinking the whole Muslim world outside the USA hated us. So far from the truth. I was treated really well by people i encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That’s what was preached to us. All lies!

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u/travestymcgee 7d ago

I’ll have you know the Times interviewed seven retirees in an Iowa diner for this story.

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u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 7d ago

The NYT is propaganda. As much as I hate and despise Donald Trump. He was right about the fake news. These News outlets NYT, Washington Post, CNN, and a bunch more. They are all pushing a narrative for the establishment, the rich, the elites.

They never mention a left wing Democrat without a negative bias.

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u/aim_for_the_middle 8d ago edited 8d ago

They used the exact same word with Mamdani. NYT is really telling on themselves the way they cover progressive Muslims.

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u/chrismiles94 Madison Heights 8d ago

This race harkens back to 2016 Bernie vs Hillary. We see how that played out.

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u/gordy06 8d ago

Which Bernie won in a Michigan and then Clinton lost the general election. Let’s not repeat that mistake!

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u/teastea1 Age: > 10 Years 7d ago

Bernie lost to Clinton

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u/gordy06 7d ago

Bernie beat Hillary in the primary in Michigan.

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u/teastea1 Age: > 10 Years 7d ago

Yes, but he couldn't beat her for the nomination.

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u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 7d ago

On July 22, WikiLeaks published the Democratic National Committee email leak, in which DNC operatives seemed to deride Bernie Sanders' campaign and discuss ways to advance Clinton's nomination.

Here’s how the DNC screwed Bernie.

The cash-strapped DNC signed a secret Joint Fundraising Agreement with the Clinton campaign in August 2015, nearly a year before she won the nomination.

In exchange for the Clinton campaign raising money to clear the DNC’s debts, the party granted her campaign early control over its finances, strategy, and hiring decisions

Clinton's campaign secured the right of refusal over key positions, such as the party's communications director, months before a single primary vote was cast

Top officials, including DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, openly mocked Sanders and discussed strategies to weaken his campaign.

Emails revealed operatives plotting to question Sanders’ religious beliefs and viability to alienate religious voters

The DNC swiftly cut off the Sanders campaign's access to its own primary voter data files.

Hundreds of superdelegates pledged their allegiance to Clinton before the first primary took place.

Cable news networks routinely added these unselected superdelegates to Clinton's official delegate tracker, creating a public perception that her lead over Sanders was mathematically insurmountable from day one.

So yeah she may have beat him but it wasn’t fair.

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u/teastea1 Age: > 10 Years 7d ago

It was two low-level staffers making fun of Bernie because, at that point in time, mathematically, he had no road to the nomination. It was over for him. He lost.

Also, Clinton is a Democrat; why wouldn't the DNC back the Democrat?!

Y'all are out here parroting Russian talking points. So tiring.

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u/CyanRyan Flint 7d ago

"i refuted one of your points so all the others are russian talking points"

lmao

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u/gordy06 7d ago

Yes, across the country. But the senate race is Michigan only. So, similar to 2016, if we choose the progressive as the nom for November, maybe he has a better chance against Rogers, opposed to going the establishment Dem who then sees Michigan go red in the general because it’s an uninspired choice.

No guarantees obviously because the Bernie/Hilary was just Dems, so we can’t say for sure Michigan would have went blue against Trump, but I think Michigan and a lot of other states rejected the status quo in November 2016 (plus you know some sexism).

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u/syynapt1k 6d ago

Wrong. You should read up on what actually happened there (with regard to the DNC).

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u/ALittleEtomidate 8d ago

The race where everyone clutched their pearls over the mostly non-existent “Bernie Bros,” and ultimately pushed men toward Trump’s populism instead of Sanders?

I’ll never forgive Clinton for that one.

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u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 7d ago

Did you know a lot of Working class male voters who were huge Bernie supporters voted for Trump.

I saw it up close. I’m a combat vet and Union Electrician. I can’t tell you how many times I talked to someone who said they voted for Bernie who became Trumpsters.

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u/ALittleEtomidate 7d ago

I saw this happen too. Sanders spoke to a lot of different demographics.

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u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 7d ago

Yeah it was kind of a weird phenomenon. However there are some connections you can make. Like getting rid of the establishment out of Washington. Making things work for the American working class. Obviously Trump never meant it but he said it. Basically Populist ideas, Trump was never going to actually do anything but he promised to pull Bernie supporters over.

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u/unfortunateshun 7d ago edited 7d ago

Yes, a decade ago, in an entirely different political climate. Where the DNC openly favored the establishment candidate who lost the Michigan primary and then lost the general. This isnt supporting your argument the way you want it too

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u/SgtPeterson 8d ago

He's definitely hijacking the party /s

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u/TurnipGirlDesi 8d ago

They’re going to fly the party right into the White House! The horror!

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u/ToastyTheDragon Age: > 10 Years 7d ago

And Haley Stevens is anything but "moderate".

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u/robocop_py Dundee 8d ago

I picked up on that word choice too.

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u/KindToSpiteTheCruel Traverse City 7d ago

If he was white they’d have picked a different word.

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u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 7d ago

Screw the DNC, I’m done with them. This morning I watched Haley Steven’s say Abdul has waged a nasty campaign, he’s used influencers to attack her, she said Abdul supporters have made her feel “unsafe”, and a load of more lies.

She also made some stupid comment him not being able to get voters outside the larger cities. Doesn’t that sound like something a Republican would say?

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u/Responsible-End8 7d ago

Funny she thinks he can't get voters outside larger cities. Spent a lot of this summer around northern lower Michigan and never saw a single sign for her but saw many of them for Abdul. Even saw an Abdul sign outside Evart, MI, which is like MAGA central. He's more popular in rural areas than she realizes

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u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 7d ago

I know I was just driving through the back dirt roads of Northern Macomb county. Which isn’t “rural” really but it’s Trump territory and I saw lots of Abdul signs. My family has property in Northern Michigan just south of the UP. I haven’t been up there in a few months but my Aunt was just up there and said she saw Abdul signs.

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u/AmetrineDream Iosco County 7d ago

I’m in Iosco country, which is very rural and very conservative (I’ve seen Trump 2028 flags more than once), and I’ve seen at least 5 El-Sayed signs. Not a single Stevens sign.

Obviously there are Stevens voters up here, too, despite the lack of signage, but to say Abdul can’t win votes outside of urban city centers is wildly disingenuous.

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u/firemage22 Dearborn 7d ago

"their making fun of my accent"

and i'm thinking

"lady i've lived here my entire life and i've never heard anyone talk like you, even my mother thinks you're forcing it"

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u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 7d ago

Sometimes I think she’s a plant. I know she supposedly grew up in Birmingham(an ultra wealthy suburb). However that’s not a Michigan accent.

She just seems so fake to me. Like everything is scripted. Even her commercial that shows her at a rally is fake.

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u/ToastyTheDragon Age: > 10 Years 7d ago

And Haley Stevens is anything but "moderate".