Will Michigan Rewrite the Rules of Democratic Politics?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Michael Kruse** (0:33)
What does that do to snapping?

**Alyssa** (0:35)
Oh, just no distesting.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:38)
It looks like we've already got some people going in.

**Michael Barbaro** (0:43)
From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

**SPEAKER_6** (0:48)
They're here today to hear what Michigan thinks about the race between Bill El-Sayed and Hailey Stevenson.

**Michael Barbaro** (0:57)
A few days ago, my colleague, political correspondent Michael Kruse, traveled to Michigan with two producers from The Daily, Asthaa Chaturvedi and Anna Foley, to report on the most closely watched Democratic primary of the year. A race for US. Senate that not only tests the growing appeal of left-wing populism, but could also mark a turning point in a long-running debate among Democratic voters about the importance of electability.

**SPEAKER_6** (1:32)
How many of you are going to vote on Tuesday, August 4th?

**Michael Barbaro** (1:39)
It is Tuesday, August 4th. So Michael Kruse, happy to have you on The Daily. I believe this is your first time on the show.

**Michael Kruse** (1:50)
It is. Long-time listener, first-time caller, happy to be here.

**Michael Barbaro** (1:54)
Well, I'm a long-time admirer, so I'm glad to have you. You just got back from a reporting trip to Michigan with two producers from The Daily, and I wanted to start by asking you to explain why in your mind, the Democratic primary that's happening today in Michigan is such an important moment in this long-running battle over the future of the Democratic Party.

**Michael Kruse** (2:18)
Well, it is to date the most important moment in this whole midterm cycle when we are thinking about the question of what the Democratic Party is and where it is headed. Because I think in Michigan we have the purest test yet of whether a progressive vision of the Democratic Party can succeed in American politics. In the last year or so, we've seen compelling progressive victories, but in a certain kind of place, in blue places, Zoran Mamdani in New York, congressional primaries in Philadelphia and Denver. Graham Platner felt a little bit like a test case, but his scandals, the way his campaign ended, hard to extrapolate grand conclusions from Maine. So here in Michigan, we have a race that feels like a much better, truer test of this fight between progressives and moderates, and that's because, Michael, this race is happening in a swing state in the middle of the country. Trump won here in 2016 and 2024
And if the progressive candidate wins this election in Michigan, it would really reorient our understanding of the progressive movement's appeal in our politics at this point in time.

**Michael Barbaro** (3:37)
Right, and just to put a really fine point on it, it would show that in places that we think of as inherently moderate, democratic primary voters are ready to lurch meaningfully to the left. And of course, this test case you're describing is happening in a race where the stakes are already quite high just based on the math of the United States Senate.

**Michael Kruse** (4:04)
Right, this is a Senate seat that Democrats almost have to hold if they have any shot of flipping the Senate. And whichever Democrat wins on Tuesday has a formidable challenger come November because Mike Rogers, the Republican waiting for one of these two candidates, ran for Michigan's other Senate seat two years ago and lost by not even 20,000 votes to Alyssa Slotkin, very much a more centrist, more moderate Democrat.
So the question of who comes out of this primary is critical for Democrats' hopes this year.

**Michael Barbaro** (4:51)
So introduce us to the two candidates who embody this latest chapter of that long running clash between the incrementalists, the moderates and the progressives who would like to bust it all up.

**Michael Kruse** (5:07)
So the more progressive candidate is Abdul El-Sayed.

**Abdul El-Sayed** (5:12)
I'm running for US. Senate because in the state that built the American Dream, it shouldn't be this hard just to get by.

**Michael Kruse** (5:18)
He's 41 years old, a former gubernatorial candidate in 2018, former public health official.

**Abdul El-Sayed** (5:25)
I grew up all American here, became a doctor to help people and spent my career making government deliver for us.