Michigan’s Senate primary is rapidly becoming the next major battleground in the Democratic Party’s escalating fight between establishment leaders and insurgent progressives, as Democrats increasingly view the race as a test of whether the party’s antiestablishment wave can expand beyond deep-blue enclaves.After state Sen. Mallory McMorrow exited the race amid fundraising and polling struggles, progressives quickly consolidated behind Bernie Sanders-backed candidate Abdul El Sayed, while establishment Democrats rallied around Rep. Haley Stevens, who is backed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D‑NY) and EMILYs List.The race has taken on outsized significance because, unlike many recent progressive victories in safely Democratic districts, the eventual nominee will still need to compete statewide in one of the country’s most important battleground states.
“This is different, because both the kind of moderate centrist wing of the party and the more lefty wing of the party are making kind of a two-step bet in Michigan, which is that they can win the primary and then win the general,” said Lincoln Mitchell, a political analyst and lecturer at Columbia University.
Mitchell argued the movement reshaping Dem …