Michigan's U.S. Senate Primary Reaching Record-Breaking Territory

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/20/2026) Michigan's contentious U.S. Senate primary is, as of today, the second-most expensive Democratic senatorial race in U.S. history and is now $6 million away from being No. 1 with two weeks to go before the Aug. 4 primary, according to research conducted by AdImpact.

At $68.46 million in paid media spending up to this point, the Michigan primary — now featuring U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) and Abdul El-Sayed — is behind only the 2024 U.S. Senate primary in California for the most expensive in U.S. history.

The California primary is unique, too, in that the Golden State has a "blanket primary." Republicans and Democrats competed against each other for the top two places on the ballot, meaning two Republicans and five Democrats were competing for two spots on the ballot. In this race, El-Sayed, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) are the only names that will be on the Democratic ballot.

The race has reached stratospheric levels of spending due to the $52 million in outside spending in favor of Stevens. American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobbying group, is connected to at least $27 million spent by the "United Democracy Project," although other political action committees (PAC) with names such as "A Stronger Michigan," "Fight for Michigan," "Center Forward," "United to Win" and "Center for Democratic Priorities" have also spent at least $1 million on on Stevens' behalf.

To put the number in perspective, consider:

- Stevens' campaign has only spent $1.18 million on TV ads this primary season. That's 1/50th of the amount promoting her at this point.

- El-Sayed and a PAC spending on his behalf have spent about $4.5 million on paid media, less than 1/10th of money spent on Stevens.

- McMorrow, who dropped out of the race a couple of weeks ago because she couldn't keep up with the astronomical spending, combined with a PAC supporting her for about $9 million in TV ads.

- In short, take what pro-El-Sayed and pro-McMorrow interests have spent, multiply it by four, and you'll about equal the pro-Stevens spending.

The pro-Stevens messages being shared in the ads — checking President Donald Trump, standing up to ICE and being an effective member of Congress — doesn't get to the core of the spending.

The presumed reason is that El-Sayed is openly campaigning to end U.S. government support for Israel and Stevens is not. Israel remains at war with Hamas in Gaza and continues military operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

El-Sayed, while presumably only one of 100 senators, is seen as the proverbial camel's nose under the tent. Like U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), El-Sayed is the type of charismatic advocate who could gin up more public discontent against Israel going forward.

Stevens, meanwhile, is a vocal supporter of Israel, but that point isn't emphasized in her paid ads because it's becoming an increasingly unpopular position among Democrats. An AP-NORC poll from June 11–17 found that 58 percent of Democrats believe the United States is too supportive of the Israelis in their conflict with the Palestinians.

That's why if you're looking for Stevens' backing of Israel and its fight against Muslim militants in this avalanche of TV spending, you won't find it.

The question hanging out in political circles is if El-Sayed and his strong cadre of progressive candidates like Will Lawrence in MI-7 and state Rep. Donavan McKinney (D-Detroit)in MI-13 are successful, will AIPAC — which typically only spends in Democratic primaries — involve itself in the General Election in support of Republican Mike Rogers, another pro-Israel candidate, in the fall?