NOVI, Mich. — Democrats are facing a moment of reckoning over how to approach long-term U.S. support for Israel amid the seemingly never-ending war in Gaza and the ongoing humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians.
Nowhere in the country are those divisions more pronounced than in the party’s messiest Senate primary in a must-win state for Democrats in 2026.
The open Senate seat in Michigan, a state President Donald Trump won in 2024, has triggered an intense battle that’s morphed into a proxy fight over the future of the Democratic Party.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), seen as the favorite of Democratic leadership, is doubling down on her pro-Israel record. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow and former Michigan health official Abdul El-Sayed — to varying degrees — say Democratic voters want their leaders to reconsider what’s been a reflexively pro-Israel stance by both parties in Washington for decades.
El-Sayed, a 40-year-old physician who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2018, was a prominent booster of the “uncommitted” movement during the Democratic presidential primary last year. El-Sayed saw it as a way to pressure then-President Joe Biden to change his support for Israel’s war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas, although he backed Democrats in the general election. But the move reflected the anger at Democratic Party leaders among Michigan’s prominent Arab-American community.
El-Sayed insists his position isn’t only smart politics in a Democratic primary but also in a general election.
“There’s an opportunity to take back the voters we lost in 2024 — who, by the way, happen to be Arab voters and young men,” El-Sayed told a crowd here, describing himself.
“[Trump] is, for whatever reason, someone who comes off as being authentic,” El-Sayed added in an interview. “People are going to look at me and be like, that man believes what he says.”
The bigger picture. Back in Washington, Democratic support for Israel is slowly slipping as the war in Gaza grinds on. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark recently referred to Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “genocide,” although she later walked back those comments and didn’t lose her AIPAC endorsement.
The Senate Democratic Caucus is bitterly divided over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and the tidal wave of Palestinian civilian casualties. This is evidenced by recent Senate votes on resolutions to block offensive weapons sales to Israel. Both El-Sayed and McMorrow told us they would’ve backed the resolutions, which have steadily picked up additional Democratic support over the past year as the conflict continues.
Despite the shift, Stevens says she’s staying consistent. In an interview in Warren, Mich., on Tuesday, Stevens told us she would have opposed the Senate’s Israel resolutions.
“I have a record that I stand by,” Stevens said. “I would not have voted for that legislation in part because I don’t think that that was the solution to getting this war to end, getting the hostages to come home, building toward lasting peace and getting Hamas to surrender. I believe consistency and transparency is really important here.”
Stevens was first elected to the House in 2018, flipping a Trump district by focusing on bipartisanship and revitalizing the state’s manufacturing industry. Redistricting forced Stevens to run in 2022 against a fellow incumbent, then-Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), who was more critical of Israel.
AIPAC poured tons of cash into the race on Stevens’ behalf. Since then, the pro-Israel group has also helped topple progressive “Squad” members.
This is news: McMorrow is publicly urging AIPAC to stay out of the Michigan primary, adding that she’s been in touch with the organization directly, as well as other pro-Israel groups.
McMorrow said the groups have been “receptive,” later clarifying that she was referring to her positions on Israel more broadly.
“I think they understand the shifting dynamics not only in Michigan but around the country and the world,” McMorrow added. “People are very attuned to the deep influence PACs have that outweighs the influence of people and voters.”
Yet it remains to be seen how the burgeoning Democratic messaging on Israel will play in a general election, especially one that’s still 15 months away in a state Trump won in 2016 and 2024. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, the presumptive GOP nominee who has Trump’s endorsement, is happy to sit back and watch things play out.
“It is very short-sighted and politically naive to walk in and say we’re not going to allow Israel to defend itself. This has been a fairly easy conversation for me to have,” Rogers said in an interview.
A long, bruising primary. The Democratic candidates have mostly refrained from directly attacking each other at this early stage, choosing instead to draw contrasts from their opponents.
McMorrow, for example, says Hill Democratic leaders aren’t fighting Trump enough or effectively — and she’s implicitly tying Stevens to them.
“There’s a real disconnect between what Michigan voters are looking for and what Democrats in D.C. are currently offering,” McMorrow said. “As angry as people are at Donald Trump and at Republicans, they seem to be angrier at Democrats.”
But there’s a concern among Democrats back in Washington that a divisive primary — which doesn’t take place until a year from now — will weaken the eventual nominee.
On top of that, Michigan lawmakers have taken steps in recent years to expand ballot access, which means some voters will have ballots in-hand as soon as five weeks after the primary. That leaves precious little time for Democrats to rally behind their nominee, while Republicans already have their candidate in Rogers.
“I’d rather be us than them,” Rogers quipped, accusing Democrats of “trying to out-left each other, which just does not represent Michigan.”
