Mallory McMorrow dropped out of the Democratic primary for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat on Sunday, drawing the field down to two candidates.
McMorrow, a state senator, released a video stating that she would be suspending her campaign, with one month to go before the August 4 primary. Her two opponents in the race, Rep. Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed, released statements thanking her for running a hard-fought campaign for the seat.
In her video message, she also seemed to indicate that an endorsement of one of her rivals before the primary’s conclusion wasn’t forthcoming: “Whoever wins this primary on August 4th will have my full support.”
She also reiterated her calls for changes in the Democratic Party, whose leadership in the Senate pulled for Stevens.
“I haven’t been shy about calling for new leadership and a better Democratic Party. I mean it. The energy is there. People are crying out for change. And we owe it to them to listen. Then we need to build it up, together, from the ground up,” she said.
Polls throughout the winter and spring showed the race a competitive three-way split between McMorrow and her two rivals, who all picked up powerful backers in Washington. Backing the state senator were three sitting members of the Senate, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy and Martin Heinrich. But multiple consecutive surveys over the summer showed her support evaporating.
That collapse in her polling share followed a confrontation with the Bernie Sanders-endorsed Abdul El-Sayed, her fellow candidate in the progressive lane in the Democratic field. Like El-Sayed, McMorrow ran on opposing corporate PAC donations, criticism of the Democratic Party’s support for the war in Gaza under Joe Biden, and support for expanding health care availability in America by providing a public health insurance option for Americans.
Her credibility on the issue of Israel was questioned by left-leaning Democrats online as the race played out on social media as it did in real life. Her past submission of a policy paper to the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC and her husband’s previous internship at the organization were leapt upon by some of El-Sayed’s supporters as a sign that her opposition to Israel was at best a new position, and that perception was amplified when she became involved in a feud with the popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker over El-Sayed’s appearance on his stream.
The criticism, to many younger Democratic supporters of Palestinians and the 2024 “Uncommitted” movement, seemed to echo the charges of anti-Semitism which were lobbed by older Democrats at any critics of Israel or supporters of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas during the Biden/Harris presidential campaigns — as well as the anti-Muslim bigotry leveled against another Muslim progressive, Zohran Mamdani, during his campaign for mayor in New York City.
The Uncommitted movement, which was founded in the large Arab-American and Muslim communities in Michigan, sought to push the Biden White House to put more pressure on Israel to stop the staggering civilian death toll caused by Israel’s assault.
McMorrow’s campaign never recovered from the resulting slide. El-Sayed released a video shortly after McMorrow’s was posted, stating that while the two had policy differences he did not doubt McMorrow’s committment to fighting for justice. He also took a shot at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s support for Stevens, asserting: “We cannot allow the establishment to decide our nominee for us.”
Signs pointed to El-Sayed continuing to lock up the progressive lane, boxing out McMorrow. He won an endorsement from the United Auto Workers (UAW) union last month, and last week scored an endorsement from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, still a progressive kingmaker.
Recent polls showed El-Sayed with a comfortable lead over Stevens but the end of McMorrow’s campaign is likely to throw another bit of chaos into the candidates’ poll numbers for the last month of the primary race. The winner of the August primary will go on to face Republican candidate Mike Rogers in November for the open seat, currently held by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. All three Democratic candidates poll within single digits of Rogers in head-to-head matchup modeling, with El-Sayed leading by the largest amount (3 percentage points) in a mid-June poll.
“The same party insiders she had the courage to challenge have been bullying anyone who opposes their chosen candidate,” said El-Sayed. “I welcome her supporters to our movement.”
Democrats need to pick up four Senate seats in the fall to retake a majority in the upper chamber. In Michigan, protecting the seat held now by Peters is crucial to keeping that path open.
Stevens, who released a statement, thanked McMorrow for raising her hand to “serve the people of Michigan”. Her campaign and McMorrow’s traded fire over Stevens’ support from AIPAC, which McMorrow used to draw a contrast between the two while also sturdying her own progressive credentials.
Piker on Sunday, signaled victory, tweeting: “MALLORY MCMORROW QUITS SENATE RUN AFTER SMEAR CAMPAIGN FAILS”.
