Retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) endorsed establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in Michigan’s race to succeed him in the Senate.
Peters backed Stevens over the more progressive candidate Abdul el Sayed in the highly anticipated Aug. 4 Democratic primary for the Michigan Senate seat, putting his thumb on the scale days after the candidates faced off in their first one-on-one debate.
“This is not about rhetoric. It’s about action. She has been a fighter for Michigan. She has been effective in getting things done for the state,” Peters said of Stevens to the Detroit News.
The two-term senator touted Stevens’s legislative record in his decision to back the four-term congresswoman. Stevens is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) preferred candidate in the race over el Sayed, who has several years of public service experience working in Michigan’s local public health administration, but no experience in legislative chambers.
“We need workhorses in the Senate, and we need someone who can do that job from day one. This is not a place for on-the-job training,” Peters said in his endorsement message.
Peters joins Schumer and several other upper chamber colleagues, including Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Chris Coons (D-DE), backing Stevens. However, several more left-wing federal legislators have lined up behind el Sayed recently, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been stumping for el Sayed in the state after endorsing him earlier in the primary.
But Peters’s endorsement comes after the race saw a bit of a shake-up when state Sen. Mallory McMorrow dropped her bid for the Senate seat in early July. Stevens and el Sayed faced off in their first debate without McMorrow days later, with the two hitting each other hard on the financial interests backing their respective campaigns as they sparred over the influence AIPAC and Israeli lobbyists should hold in federal races.
MICHIGAN SENATE DEBATE: EL SAYED AND STEVENS SLAM EACH OTHER OVER FINANCIAL INTERESTS
Stevens’s supporters have pitched her as the more centrist candidate who would be more competitive in the general election against GOP candidate Mike Rogers, a popular name in the Wolverine State who fell to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) by just about 19,000 votes in 2024, 48.6% to 48.3%. Rogers is endorsed by President Donald Trump, who won the state in 2024.
El Sayed has led Stevens in recent polling, but the margin between the two has remained close. Early general election polling between each respective Democratic candidate against Rogers has also remained within a razor-thin margin.
