When Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2024, Democrats looked at battleground states such as Michigan as proof that economic discontent could shape political outcomes. In Michigan, the Democratic U.S. Senate primary this August has become a direct contest over how to respond to voters’ cost-of-living concerns—at a time when Democrats are trying to position themselves to win back a seat held by retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
Stevens has cast her affordability pitch around Michigan’s manufacturing base and organized labor. At a campaign stop in Saginaw that included a union training workshop, Stevens wore welding protective gear as apprentices demonstrated techniques, and she discussed how the work connects to jobs and infrastructure as people look to careers in aging systems. She has said her campaign is building on relationships with organized labor and focusing on tariff policies, arguing that Trump’s strategy is hurting Michigan manufacturing and raising prices for consumers.
In a separate interview, Stevens criticized what she described as the president’s priorities, saying he has been “more focused on cutting deals all over the world than cutting deals here in Michigan, and now we have job insecurity and in some cases job loss.” At the event, she also spoke with apprentices and described the importance of careers as local infrastructure ages, telling students that she would work to find money to hire workers to fix existing systems.
Stevens’ approach also included conversation with union leaders, where her campaign sought to connect affordability messaging to the practical challenges of health care benefits. Justin Pomerville, the business manager at UA Local 85, said in the same context that “far left” and “far right” politics fail to improve conditions—an argument his comments aligned with as Stevens tried to pitch herself as a moderate within the Democratic field.
McMorrow, meanwhile, has leaned on state policy and a more personal framing tied to parenthood. Her campaign events have included stops in local venues such as breweries, with her team gathering Democrats ahead of her taking the microphone. McMorrow has described how she came into politics after Trump’s victory in 2016, first winning election in 2018, and she has brought national attention at times through viral moments during prior campaigns.
In describing what drives her candidacy now, McMorrow has pointed to her family, saying: “Like any parent, I am thinking a lot about what tomorrow looks like,” in remarks connected to her campaign. One example she has highlighted is a goal of expanding a Michigan program that provides cash grants to mothers with new children, arguing that when a state program works, it should be broadened.
At a campaign interview, McMorrow said, “When something’s working, you expand on it,” and she added that Michigan had done many things right that could ensure “every American benefits from” the approach. In that same conversation, Karen Breasbois, a former farmer, asked what McMorrow would do about Trump’s tariffs, which she said have hurt soybean operations, and McMorrow said she wanted to listen to rural communities rather than treat them as an outreach project.
Breasbois also referenced Michigan’s longtime agriculture champion in the Senate, Debbie Stabenow, who retired in early 2025, saying: “We need another Debbie Stabenow,” and adding that McMorrow has “that spunk.” The remarks illustrated how McMorrow’s affordability pitch has aimed to combine policy specifics with a message of local listening and Michigan continuity.
El-Sayed’s campaign focuses on health care costs and what he portrays as the political economy behind them. At a town hall in Detroit in late January attended by about 100 people, El-Sayed—described as a physician and former county health official—delivered a diagnosis for the cost-of-living problem centered on “corporate greed.” He led the crowd in a chant used at rallies that includes “Money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all,” and he has long campaigned for Medicare for all.
In recent weeks, El-Sayed has also begun adding an asterisk to the Medicare for all message, saying people should be able to obtain additional coverage from their union or employer. During the town hall discussion, the crowd returned repeatedly to the high cost of health care, which El-Sayed attributed to corporate entities and their lobbying power, saying: “In an era where union membership is near an all-time low and in an era where inequality is near an all-time high, we have to recognize that these two things are not a coincidence, they are one in the same problem.”
In an interview, he said he has been talking about the cost of living for years, while he described other candidates—Democrats and Republicans alike—as arriving more recently to the affordability focus. A supporter at the town hall, Natasha VanGessel, a medical assistant from Royal Oak, said she has followed El-Sayed since his 2018 bid for governor and regularly listens to his podcast, America Dissected, adding: “He’s very well thought out, very intelligent,” and that he has “some good ideas.”
The Democratic primary is also shaped by the larger electoral map. Democrats are trying to position themselves to win in the November midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake, and the party’s chances are viewed as harder without holding the seat held by Peters, who is retiring. The likely Republican nominee is Mike Rogers, a former congressman seeking a Senate seat for the second time; in 2024, Rogers lost by about 19,000 votes to Democrat Elissa Slotkin, who moved from the House to the Senate.