Haley Stevens

Congresswoman Haley Stevens’ opening salvo in the Fox 2 News debate with Abdul El-Sayed Monday night sounded a little like an early victory lap.

“Abdul is running for celebrity,” she said. “Republicans are propping up his campaign, and Mike Rogers just the other day said in a secret phone call that he makes it easier for him to win, that he’s the one he wants to run against.”

“Look, this isn’t about the D.C. or New York influencer crowd,” she continued. “This is about putting Michigan first, and I’ve got the receipts to do that, which is why Governor Whitmer and so many others are joining my campaign to win in November.”

With just over a week left in a pummeling Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Gary Peters, at least some of the chips do seem to be falling her way.

The most recent poll shows Stevens seven points ahead, though it also shows that a significant number of voters are undecided or uncertain.

Last week, CNN reported on a leaked phone call that captured likely Republican nominee former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers saying that, if El-Sayed wins, “I think we’re in good shape.”

And Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed the four-term Democratic congresswoman on Friday, joining the likes of former Sen. Debbie Stabenow, former Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Peters, as well.

Some of the biggest names in Michigan Democratic politics are saying they believe Stevens has the best chance to hold the seat, which the Democrats will need to do if they hope to retake control of the Senate.

El-Sayed has big-name endorsements of his own, of course, among them the United Auto Workers and progressive superstars Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

And his response, befitting a trained medical doctor who has spent his career in public health, was to keep his focus on what he sees as the disease of modern politics: massive spending on the part of corporations and special interests.

“When you’re bought off by DTE and Blue Cross and Big Pharma and Big Tech and AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), don’t be surprised that there’s a pro quo that comes with that quid,” he said, pointing out that Stevens has been the beneficiary of nearly $60 million in outside spending on her behalf, much of it from the United Democracy Project, a Political Action Committee (PAC) linked to the AIPAC.

“I’m the only candidate in this race who doesn’t take any money from corporations,” he said.

“Never have, never will. And then, from there, I actually can stand up to them. I can do things like enforce our antitrust policies that haven’t been enforced. I can do things like tax billionaires their wealth so we could take that money and invest it in you and your kids, in your schools. I can do things like make sure that rather than sending your money somewhere else to drop bombs on other people and their kids, we can keep that money here at home.”

Moderator Roop Raj pressed Stevens on the significance of the outside spending on behalf of her campaign.

“Do you see why some people are bothered by the fact that so much money, $40-plus million, has come from AIPAC for these PACs to talk about you and to promote you and to put you up as their candidate,” he asked.

Stevens detoured twice into a conversation about her desire for peace between Israel and Palestine and support for a two-state solution, but pressed by Raj, she ultimately responded, “Well, I don’t think there’s much difference between super PACs going in for Abdul or super PACs going in for me. We have a problem with campaign finance reform in this country.”

Fighting for Michigan, the pro-El-Sayed super PAC that Stevens was referencing, has spent about $2 million on the race. At least $200,000 of that has come from El-Sayed’s father-in-law.

El-Sayed responded that “the difference between us is $46 million of AIPAC spending.”

El-Sayed has faced blowback from fellow Democrats over a comment made during a Zoom meeting and first reported by Politico: “Ideally you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different.”

Raj said it “really pointed to the bigger question about the tone and tenor that you’ve been accused of having in this campaign.”

“Do you regret any of the comments that you’ve made, and do you think that this race could take a more productive and more substantive tone if we kept those personal slams out?” he asked.

“Look, I took to Twitter last week and said that the tone in which people talk about my opponent is unkind and I asked anybody who supported me to not talk about her that way,” El-Sayed responded.

He also explained that the “ogre” comment had been about Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman.

“Thank you for clarifying that you didn’t call me an ogre,” Stevens said.

El-Sayed also turned the issue back to his opponent, noting that her supporters had blanketed the state with advertisements claiming he was “disrespectful to women.”

“I’m the father of two daughters. I’m raising them to be stronger than any man,” he said. “My wife is a doctor. My mother was the first tenured professor of engineering at her university. I was raised by strong women. To say that somehow, because I wrote an op ed 15 years ago about First Lady Michelle Obama or I ran against Governor Whitmer, that somehow, I’m disrespecting anybody is just inconsistent with the truth.”

Stevens responded that “Abdul’s a great guy. He’s a great father. Only he can account for saying that Whitmer’s bought and paid for, or that, you know, no one cares about Debbie Stabenow, or that Mallory McMorrow isn’t smart enough. That is certainly on him to respond to, which we certainly just did hear from him on that.”

The candidates tussled on their attitudes toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Stevens said she is, “leading the charge in the Congress right now to redirect $70 billion of your tax money, Michigander’s taxpayer money that went to ICE at the expense of your health care, at the expense of food benefits.”

“Not a penny more for this rogue agency that is wreaking havoc,” she added.

El-Sayed noted that Stevens has voted to increase funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and to thank ICE.

Stevens has noted in the past that the measure thanking ICE and other law enforcement for “protecting the homeland” was part of a resolution condemning an antisemitic terrorist attack and that she voted to increase ICE’s funding as part of a deal that prevented a government shutdown.

El-Sayed said he would not simply strip funding from the agency but eliminate it altogether.

“When a culture of impunity sets in to a government agency, it becomes almost impossible to take out, and so I think the agency as it exists does not need to exist,” he said.

“That’s not to say that we are not going to keep our streets secure. That’s not to say that we’re not going to enforce immigration policy,” he said.

The debate was likely be the final public meeting between the two candidates before the primary election on Tuesday, Aug. 4.

“The vote,” Raj said as the debate closed, “is now in the people’s hands.”