Michigan and the Fight for the Future of the Party
What Mallory McMorrow's exit means for Michigan's Senate primary
It’s been an exciting and tumultuous primary season for Democrats. Several incumbent members of Congress have lost their primaries, in many cases to first-time candidates. But most of those races have taken place in some of the bluest districts in the country, where the primary winner is effectively the general election winner.
Despite all that has happened, there is probably no primary more interesting and consequential than the one happening in Michigan. There is no path to a Senate majority without a win in Michigan. It’s the one Democratically held seat that might be in danger. Senator Gary Peters is retiring, and Mike Rogers, who lost to Elissa Slotkin by less than 20,000 votes, is running unopposed for the Republican nomination.
The Democrats had been in the middle of a pretty contentious and very expensive three-way primary featuring Abdul El-Sayed, State Senator Mallory McMorrow, and Congresswoman Haley Stevens. This primary has been a proxy for so many of the bigger divisions roiling the party — anger at the establishment, ideology, and Israel and Gaza.
Yesterday, this three-way primary became a two-way primary. McMorrow suspended her campaign. She had fallen into third place in the polling, and there were questions about how she could overtake El-Sayed and Stevens before the August 4th primary.
As some of you know, I was supporting McMorrow in this race. I rarely, if ever, take a position in a Democratic primary, but I have long been impressed by Mallory and have gotten to know her a little bit over the years. I think she is extremely talented, a good person, and someone who is in politics for the right reasons.
Great candidates sometimes lose races. Barack Obama famously got clobbered in a race for Congress. I’d encourage you to watch the video above. Mallory McMorrow has a very bright future, and I’ll be watching to see what she does next.
Her decision reshapes the most important Democratic primary in the country. Here’s what we need to be watching.
Why McMorrow Lost
As always happens when a campaign fails, there is a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking. For the McMorrow campaign, much of that analysis has centered on how McMorrow responded when Hasan Piker came to campaign for El-Sayed. McMorrow condemned El-Sayed for campaigning with Piker.
