Haley Stevens

A contentious primary debate on Tuesday night in Michigan’s key Senate race encapsulated the choices Democrats are facing across the country this year.

On one side, a progressive candidate vowed to upend a political system he said was overly reliant on corporate money. On the other, a moderate argued that she was better equipped to win the general election.

With the progressive, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, leading in polls, his moderate rival, Representative Haley Stevens, wasted no time in going on the attack. She accused Dr. El-Sayed, a former public health official who has released a stream of cheeky social media videos, of caring more about his own publicity than about helping Michiganders. She argued that Republicans wanted him to win the primary because he would be easier to beat in November.

Dr. El-Sayed, in turn, argued against a system of corporate-backed politics that he argued Ms. Stevens was a mere cog in. He took digs at corporate interests or corporations at least 31 times during the hourlong debate in Grand Rapids — about once every two minutes.

“I am not trying to sell a book or a podcast,” Ms. Stevens said in her opening remarks, pounding the lectern for emphasis. “I’m only one on this stage who doesn’t have a talent agent trying to pitch me for paid speeches. And unlike my opponent, I’m not running at the first mic or camera I see.”

Dr. El-Sayed framed Ms. Stevens as a tool of corporate interests and of the pro-Israel lobby, suggesting that she would be little different from the Republican awaiting them in the general election, former Representative Mike Rogers, who is running unopposed in his primary.

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