El-Sayed and Stevens make final Democratic Senate primary push in Michigan churches, union halls

DETROIT (AP) — Abdul El-Sayed sat quietly alongside his wife and Black political leaders in a packed Detroit church Sunday morning, clapping as the congregation sang and the pastor preached. Then he stood before the room and asked for their… Then he stood before the room and asked for their votes.Less than 10 miles away, U.S.

Haley Stevens was making her own appeal at another Black church, where one of the city’s most prominent pastors made the case for her.There were fewer than 48 hours left in Michigan’s fiercely contested Democratic Senate primary. And after more than a year spent preaching starkly different visions for their party — with tens of millions of dollars poured into the race and national attention focused on it — both candidates had come to some of the same places looking for the votes to win it.First, Black churches. Then rallies surrounded by their core supporters.Stevens, who has been through several competitive Democratic primaries, has a name for the frenzy of the closing days: “the last word phenomenon.”“Everyone’s trying to get in their last points,” Stevens said.Where the candidates chose to make those final points reflected the simple contest underneath all the money and ideological warfare: which one can assemble enough of Michigan’s Democratic coalition to win Tuesday.The primary has become one of the clearest tests yet of where Democratic voters want their party to go.

El-Sayed, a progressive backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and other leaders on the party’s left, has run against much of the Democratic establishment. Stevens, a four-term congresswoman backed by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and many of Michigan’s top Democrats, has made electability and experience central to her case.The stakes extend well beyond the primary.

The nominee will need to bring a fractured Democratic coalition back together to defeat Republican Mike Rogers in November and hold an open seat that is critical to the party’s hopes of taking control of the Senate next year.Both hopefuls focused on the Detroit area, where Democratic primaries are often decidedDemocratic primaries in Michigan have long run through Detroit, where support from the city’s Black voters is often crucial.El-Sayed’s pitch to those voters Sunday — during stops at three churches — centered on a vision of economic opportunity and equal treatment.“I believe in the kind of America where no matter where you g…