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Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and former Wayne County health director Abdul El-Sayed squared off in their second one-on-one debate to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) — just one week out from the Aug. 4 Democratic Senate primary.
The duo clashed once again over corporate influence and support for Israel, with El-Sayed hammering Stevens over the tens of millions of dollars pouring into the race from a pro-Israel super PAC. The congresswoman, meanwhile, suggested El-Sayed was more interested in “celebrity” than serving in Congress.
But the candidates also used the debate, which was hosted by FOX 2 in Detroit just hours after President Trump held a rally outside the city alongside presumptive GOP Senate nominee former Rep. Mike Rogers and other Michigan Republicans, as a forum to discuss the hostile tone of the race and to set the record straight on their positions.
Here’s three takeaways from the latest Michigan Senate debate:
Debate reinforces bitter divides on Israel, corporate money
The debate centered on familiar attacks over outside spending and their stances on Israel and the war in Gaza.
No group has magnified the tensions over both issues better than the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) super PAC. The super PAC, United Democracy Project, has spent close to $25 million so far to support Stevens while attacking El-Sayed, according to federal campaign finance filings. The ad-tracking firm AdImpact, however, noted on Friday that the super PAC’s spending sat at $30 million.
“Just last week, our friend here voted to send 3.3 billion of your tax dollars to a foreign government. That is the pro quo that comes with a quid of $30 million spent by AIPAC,” El-Sayed said during the debate.
The 2018 gubernatorial candidate was referring to a vote that failed on a House amendment earlier this month that would have eliminated $3.3 billion in aid to Israel. Stevens voted against the measure, however, the amendment notably received support from 103 Democrats.
El-Sayed has long been critical of Israel and giving U.S. aid to the country. He has also accused Israel of committing a “genocide.” Meanwhile, Stevens has disputed this characterization and maintained support for Israel.
Yet, she has argued that she is no friend of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said in a previous debate that no person or group owns her vote.
El-Sayed’s “attacked me by name for purporting that the people of Palestine and the people of Israel deserve to live side-by-side, peacefully,” she said. “The goal is always long-term peace, and also the prime minister of Israel has attacked me by name.”
The former public health official has also accused Stevens of being “bought off” by corporations like Detroit-based DTE Energy and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Asked whether she is accepting money from utility companies, Stevens said she was not.
“Let me just say this: that the only thing that ever motivates my work is the people of Michigan, the people who I hear from,” she said.
Bridge Michigan reported Stevens has not received money from DTE’s corporate PAC during her Senate bid but previously accepted contributions during her House bids
Blue Cross Blue Shields’s corporate PAC donated $2,500 to Stevens’ House account in April 2025 before she announced her run for Senate. The health insurance provider’s PAC has not given to Stevens this cycle but contributed to her campaign in previous years.
Stevens, meanwhile, attacked El-Sayed over his father-in-law spending over $1 million in the race.
El-Sayed says he’s ‘not a socialist’ amid attacks from GOP
El-Sayed said during the debate he was “not a socialist” amid attacks from Republicans, including the president, who have sought to define the former public health official and the Democratic Democratic Party as socialists and communists this cycle.
“When it comes to the question of socialism, I’m not a socialist. I’m just a capitalist who understands how capitalism works,” El-Sayed said. “The biggest threat to capitalism was never the idea of government regulation. It was always monopoly.”
Earlier Monday, the president characterized Democrats as “communists” at a rally in Milford, Mich. He did not reference El-Sayed or Stevens by name.
“We’re running against communists now,” Trump said at one point. “You see what they want to do? They want to take your houses. They want to do things that nobody’s ever thought of before. They want to take your money. They want to raise your tax up to 80 percent.”
Republicans, including Trump, are looking to tie Democrats, like El-Sayed, to the far-left Democratic Socialists of America after a series of primary wins this summer.
Three democratic socialist candidates have defeated incumbent Democrats in reliably blue House primaries so far, and some within the party argue elevating El-Sayed, who has support from the two most prominent democratic socialists in the country — Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — could hinder Democrats chances in battleground Michigan.
Stevens, too, has sought to make the electability argument central to her pitch.
“Look, Michigan deserves a senator who can win and who can deliver,” Stevens said during the debate. “I’m the only one on this stage who has flipped a Republican seat, and I was named Michigan’s most effective Democratic lawmaker in Congress because my only focus is you.”
Stevens stumbles on civility question, leans into accent attacks
The Michigan congresswoman stumbled during the debate when asked about the negative tenor of the race, which has been rampant with attack ads, and its effect on voters.
She pointed to a recording of a private donor call, obtained by Politico, where El-Sayed described possible efforts to oust Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) in 2028 as putting “one ogre on a pike.”
“Well, look, there was something else that was revealed in the phone call that Abdul was mentioning,” Stevens said, adding, “He said that he’s not going to be able to get much done. That he’s not focused on policy for the first two years that he is in the United States Senate. That he’s going to be focused on national politics.”
The moderator interjected, asking the House Democrat to answer the question posed about civility.
She responded, calling El-Sayed “a great guy” and a “great father” before attacking her opponent on his previous remarks about some female Democratic leaders in Michigan.
“Only he can account for saying that, you know, ‘Whitmer’s bought and paid for,’ or that, you know, ‘No one cares about Debbie Stabenow,’ or that ‘Mallory McMorrow isn’t smart enough,’” she said.
El-Sayed’s campaign has argued that some of his past statements, highlighted in attack ads funded by AIPAC’s super PAC, have been taken out of context; he also clarified during the debate that the “ogre” remarks were about Fetterman, not Stevens.
At the same time, Stevens used the debate to clap back at online critics who have made fun of her voice and accent.
“My opponent is on these big podcasts … He’s running a podcast himself,” she said. “These folks are making fun of the way I sound, but yet I sound like the people who need help — who are talking to me about what they need.”
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