DETROIT (AP) — Michigan Democrats will gather Friday in a show of unity behind their statewide candidates, three days after a bitter U.S. Senate contest highlighted divisions between the progressive and moderate wings of the party.Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official who narrowly beat establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens in a contentious primary for an open Senate seat, will be the most closely watched candidate at the event. With less than three months before the general election where El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers, the Democratic Party is under pressure to close ranks in a race that will help determine control of the Senate. “The things that unite us are so much bigger than the things that divide us,” El-Sayed said in a Wednesday speech.Former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, a potential presidential candidate who lives in Michigan, is also slated to attend on Friday.
Current Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ decision to not seek reelection left the seat open. Michigan is a perennial battleground state, having voted for President Donald Trump in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020 and Trump again in 2024.Stevens, who lost the primary by just under 1 percentage point, told CBS News on Thursday she was willing to campaign with El-Sayed.
