Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow announced Sunday she’s suspending her campaign in a high-profile U.S. Senate primary race.
In a statement and video posted on X, McMorrow said she’s ending her campaign “with a deep, deep sense of gratitude.”
“For our thousands of volunteers, for everyone who donated what you could — building a campaign with zero corporate PAC dollars,” she said. “For my staff, who built this team up from nothing. I thank you.”
Although she is no longer running for this Senate seat, McMorrow added that she’s “not leaving the fight.”
“Here’s what we do next. Every day through November 3rd,” she said. “We win this Senate seat and send Mike Rogers back to Florida for good.”
Rogers is the presumptive Republican nominee. Whoever wins the Senate seat will replace Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat who said in January that he’s retiring.
Now, it’s a battle between U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, in the Democratic primary.
The Michigan race has drawn eyes across the country, as it is another one that could show the political direction the Democrat party is heading. Progressives such as El-Sayed have had wins in other states, including New York and Colorado.
While Stevens has gotten the backing of the Democratic establishment, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., El-Sayed has been endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., something he touted in a response to McMorrow’s announcement.
“I just learned that Sen. McMorrow has decided to suspend her campaign,” he said in a video posted on X. “I just want to say to her, her family, everybody involved in that campaign, her supporters, thank you for the work that you did for democracy. Our democracy runs on people putting in that kind of effort.”
“Party insiders” McMorrow took on have been “bullying anyone who opposes their chosen candidate,” El-Sayed said in his X post. In his video, he asked if voters are “willing to allow AIPAC, big corporations, Chuck Schumer, to show up and rig our democracy, to choose who our Democratic nominee is going to be?”
Stevens has been criticized for taking corporate PAC money, which El-Sayed said he never did. McMorrow also said she did not take funds from corporate PACs in this Senate race.
Meanwhile, Stevens’ campaign has gotten funding from corporate PACs from multiple companies. She’s also seen backlash for her staunchly pro-Israel stance at a time when progressives are calling for divestment from the country, which they say is committing genocide in Gaza.
Stevens, in her own statement reacting to McMorrow suspending her campaign, said her former opponent “has been an important voice, both in this race and in the state Senate, for policies that benefit Michigan’s children and families, and I look forward to working with her in the future to build a stronger Michigan for everyone.”
“As we enter the final month of the primary election, I’m excited to continue to make my case to Michiganders why I’m the strongest Democrat to defeat Mike Rogers this November, lower costs, protect manufacturing jobs and stand up to [President Donald] Trump’s abuses of power,” Stevens said.
Although she did not specifically endorse El-Sayed or Stevens, McMorrow said “whoever wins this primary on August 4th will have my full support.”
“Let’s elect Democrats up and down the ticket and show the rest of this country what it means to fight like Michigan,” she said.
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