| There is little chance that Democrats will take control of the Senate without winning Michigan’s open seat in November. And that is why there is a growing concern among some Democrats that polls are consistently finding Abdul El-Sayed, a former local health official who lost a previous gubernatorial bid, at or near the top of the three-person August primary race. We explored this dynamic with our colleague Erin Cox today — you can read our full report here — which found Democrats are hopeful the Senate could be in play this year and worried they could drop the ball in Michigan. Abdul El-Sayed has outflanked Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow from the left, boosted by a populist agenda and endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and liberal lawmakers. The concerns among Democrats can be distilled pretty easily: Michigan backed Donald Trump last cycle and only narrowly elected Sen. Elissa Slotkin over former representative Mike Rogers, who will again be the Republican nominee this November. So, their thinking goes, nominating someone who has staked out a far-left position on Israel’s war in Gaza, campaigned with controversial figures that Republicans will demonize in November and is strident in his liberalism could doom their chances in this must-win seat. It’s a familiar dynamic — establishment Democrats often worry that candidates too far left on the party’s spectrum could hurt the party in November. “There is real concern that Abdul would not be able to beat Rogers and then potentially lose us a majority possibility in the Senate,” said Lon Johnson, a former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party and Stevens supporter. “It’s not just thinking with our hearts but with our heads,” said Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat who represented Michigan in the Senate for 24 years. Stabenow recently endorsed Stevens, one of a number of high-profile endorsements that appear aimed at stemming El-Sayed’s rise. So what does El-Sayed think? “I would rather them keep saying it, honestly,” El-Sayed said in an interview with Cox about the way other Democrats are worried about him. “I think people in Michigan are like, ‘Wow, we hate politics, and if politics hates that guy, he might actually be the one for us.’” The pressure on this race has only amplified the divisions in the primary, turning the race into a sometimes messy fight that Democrats think will only get messier ahead of the August primary. In a debate last week, El-Sayed was brash when attacking his opponents, hitting them on everything from their fundraising to their support for Israel. Stevens, the more establishment pick who is the preferred candidate of people like Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, stumbled during the debate at times, at one point arguing she was for getting rid of the filibuster in the Senate before saying Democrats should have used it to stop legislation. McMorrow trained most of her fire on El-Sayed — at one point suggesting he was mostly talk without the ability to actually get his plans done — a sign that she knows her success is likely tied to his failure. Both Stevens and McMorrow were also careful about how they talked about El-Sayed in interviews with us. “I haven’t spent years trying to become a talking head or have a podcast or sell a best-selling book or something like that. I have been writing laws and passing laws and helping Michiganders and fighting for them,” Stevens said, referring to El-Sayed’s books and podcast. “I’m in the strongest place to beat Mike Rogers.” But Stevens went out of her way not to say El-Sayed’s name. McMorrow was slightly more direct. “There is a path for Democrats to take back the Senate, but not without Michigan,” she said. “And as I think about how purple our state is, we need to be able to pick up independents, even Republicans, who no longer see themselves in Donald Trump’s MAGA party.” We asked El-Sayed how he would feel if his detractors were right, and he won the primary but lost to Rogers, thereby costing Democrats the Senate. “I’m not going to lose,” he said — echoing every candidate ever — but it was how he described the effort against him that really stood out to us. “Look at the characters who are lining up now to support the other candidates in this race. From the people who brought you the financial crisis? The early 2000s politicians trying to come and reclaim 2026? Go ahead. If people felt happy about that era of politics, we wouldn’t be where we are,” he said. Read our full report: A hard-charging Michigan liberal dampens Democrats’ hopes of retaking Senate. Our picks - ICE to stop reporting deaths of newly released detainees, internal memo says, from Douglas MacMillan.
- Senate votes to fund ICE for the rest of Trump’s term, from Theodoric Meyer and Jarrell Dillard.
- Spike in border wall spending goes mostly to 2 firms with GOP, White House ties, from Arelis R. Hernández, Andrew Ba Tran and Razzan Nakhlawi.
- Helicopter rides, pitch-side seats: How the ultrarich are doing the World Cup, from Natalie Compton.
- John Bolton expected to plead guilty in classified documents case, from Katie Mettler, Perry Stein and Jeremy Roebuck.
What we’re watching What’s a screwworm? Bad news. The invasive species of parasitic fly larvae was reported in Texas this week 60 years after it was largely eradicated in the U.S. Screwworms can burrow in the skin, causing serious illness in humans and cows. They’re not just gross. They can have catastrophic impacts on the food supply. Farmers are already experiencing one of the worst agricultural crises in generations, fueled by minuscule margins, high fuel costs, fertilizer shortages, wildfires and climate change. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has exacerbated matters, keeping essential agricultural supplies from reaching farmers. Family-owned farms have been going bankrupt at record paces for the past two years. The emergence of the screwworm is just another straw on the camel’s back (worm on the cow’s side?), and it has the agriculture sector freaking out. The screwworm can jeopardize the beef industry, leading to higher prices when affordability is already a top issue going into November. The price of beef has already drastically increased in the past six years, with the country’s cattle herd at its lowest point in 75 years. And cattle ranchers hurting with low profitability were already furious at the administration for allowing Argentine beef to flood the market last year. Mind you, farmers make up an enormously important pillar of the Republican coalition and are experiencing some of the most acute impacts of the Trump administration’s policies. Tariffs and the war in Iran have been brutal on exporting crops and importing fertilizer. Congress has also failed to pass a new farm bill for years, meaning vital programs to help farmers haven’t been able to keep up with the changing agricultural landscape. “A lot of farmers today have lost and are losing faith and are feeling betrayed,” said Joe Maxwell, president of Farm Action Fund. Farmers haven’t always been loyal to Republicans. They used to be a major part of the Democratic voting bloc, helping win blue seats in rural states during the 1980s farm crisis. Democratic Sens. Thomas Daschle (South Dakota), Harry M. Reid (Nevada), Tom Harkin (Iowa) and Paul Simon (Illinois) all flipped red seats during the crisis. “There is clearly an opportunity for Democrats,” Maxwell, whose group supports candidates from both parties, said. “The question is, ‘Will the Democrats seize that opportunity to make a difference at the ballot box?’” Several critics of the Trump administration have pointed to the federal government slashing initiatives under the Department of Government Efficiency. One of the cuts at the Agriculture Department: a program dedicated to monitoring and stopping the spread of the screwworm. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller criticized the administration’s response as “slow, bureaucratic, and incomplete.” Maxwell said most farmers feel the administration has been on a campaign to “dismantle” USDA, from the DOGE cuts to a 20 percent funding reduction in the president’s budget request for the department. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told the House Agriculture Committee yesterday that cutting the program wasn’t the culprit that led to the worm’s resurgence. She said the department had been anticipating its revival for years and that illegal immigration during the Biden administration helped the worm’s spread. “Under the last administration and having the Darien Gap, which is the biological barrier between South America and Central America, which held the screwworm at bay since the 1960s, that Darien Gap crumbled under the last administration,” Rollins told the committee. Maxwell, whose group supports candidates from both parties, acknowledged that the administration has put money toward building a facility in Texas to combat the spread of screwworms and closed the border with Mexico to prevent the spread of further parasites. But he said linking the current resurgence with Biden-era migration made no sense given the short lifespan of a screwworm. “That’s unfortunate they would do that,” he said. “It politicizes this issue and this is just wrong leadership.” In your local paper Bangor Daily News: The latest report to shake up the Maine Senate race comes from the New York Times, with three women alleging that Graham Platner mistreated some of the women he dated and was physically intimidating. Bridge Michigan: We have highlighted the local blowback against data centers. But there has also been local blowback against renewable energy projects nationwide, including in Michigan, despite a state law allowing them to bypass local governments. It’s a reminder that local opposition to large-scale projects such as data centers and solar farms happens all the time. Spotlight PA: Speaking of data centers, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro released his oversight and incentive plan for data centers this week. The plan seeks to balance the desire to bring in data centers for the economic benefits they represent with widespread local concerns about how data centers impact everything from water quality, lifestyle and energy prices. The San Francisco Standard: Silicon Valley interests put a ton of money behind certain candidates in California this week. And, well, they didn’t do well, especially San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who has currently received just 4 percent of the vote in the gubernatorial primary. As this outlet writes, “Sorry, Silicon Valley, it isn’t that easy to buy an election.” Send a reply “60 Minutes,” arguably the most iconic institution in television media, is in chaos after three top correspondents, including Scott Pelley, were fired. Pelley was fired for forcefully questioning his new boss, Nick Bilton, and CBS News head Bari Weiss. What do you make of the chaos at the news program? Are you worried about the future of “60 Minutes”? Do you watch regularly? And will you continue to watch? Let us and your fellow Early Brief readers know at earlytips@washpost.com. Thanks for reading. You can follow Dan and Matthew on X: @merica and @matthewichoi. | 
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