2026-07-27T09:00:25.386Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
密歇根州庞蒂亚克——
拉里·尼克斯周日来到阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德竞选团队举办的烧烤活动现场，摇下车窗告诉这位党参议员候选人，他需要得到答案。
现年63岁的退伍军人尼克斯和埃尔-赛义德一样，对国家的发展方向感到担忧。他对伊朗战争推高了他的福特远征牌越野车的油价感到愤怒，还认为华盛顿的民主党领导人在对抗唐纳德·特朗普总统方面“有点软弱”。
但在8月4日的初选中，埃尔-赛义德的温和派对手、已连任四届的众议员黑利·史蒂文斯，曾在之前的国会竞选活动中到访过尼克斯家，与他交谈过，还在他家院子里立了竞选标语。“那是我的姑娘，”他告诉CNN。
尼克斯还看到了铺天盖地的电视广告，将埃尔-赛义德描绘成贬低女性的人，重点提及他此前对前第一夫人米歇尔·奥巴马的反肥胖倡议的批评。“我是奥巴马的坚定支持者，你却在攻击他的妻子，”尼克斯谈到自己的担忧时说。他告诉埃尔-赛义德，他想知道“到底是怎么回事”。
这场关于民主党方向的斗争，就发生在庞蒂亚克这个停车场里的这类对话中。埃尔-赛义德在走访当地黑人教堂后，在此处举办了一场动员投票集会。
这位41岁的埃及移民之子，试图让该党的激进派 insurgency 在密歇根州参议院初选中取得迄今为止最大的胜利。但他在黑人选民中遇到了阻力，许多选民表示，他所规避的建制派在重要方面为他们带来了实惠。
埃尔-赛义德曾是一名公共卫生官员，他对尼克斯说的话，和他几分钟前在新伯利恒浸信会教堂对约40名与会者说的一样：这些广告歪曲了他此前关于米歇尔·奥巴马、密歇根州州长格雷琴·惠特默等人的言论，这也是他为何要参选，以将包括美国以色列公共事务委员会在内的巨额资金从政治中剔除的原因——该委员会已斥资数百万美元投放反对埃尔-赛义德的广告。
“他开阔了我的眼界，”尼克斯谈到埃尔-赛义德时说。“我要回家去做我的研究，然后再决定他是否说服了我。”
但埃尔-赛义德前方的道路可能依然艰难。在提前投票的第一个周末，记者在底特律都会区进行了数十次采访，揭示了他在像尼克斯这样的黑人选民中面临的质疑。
这场参议院初选已成为今年衡量民主党意识形态分歧的最重要试金石——埃尔-赛义德与得到华盛顿和密歇根州民主党建制派青睐的史蒂文斯展开对决。这场竞选不仅对民主党希望在11月拿下参议院多数席位的目标至关重要，也提前预示了2028年总统初选即将到来的斗争。
黑人选民约占该州民主党初选选民的五分之一，而且他们在密歇根州类似的意识形态斗争中，历来压倒性支持温和派候选人。出口民调显示，2016年该州总统初选中，希拉里·克林顿在黑人选民中以约40个百分点的优势击败佛蒙特州参议员伯尼·桑德斯，2020年乔·拜登也以类似优势击败了这位激进派中坚人物。
桑德斯在黑人选民中的弱势是他从未克服的障碍，尽管他2016年在密歇根州以微弱优势击败克林顿，但2020年却输给了拜登。
如今，在初选的最后阶段，这些选民再次成为焦点。埃尔-赛义德试图削弱史蒂文斯的优势，而史蒂文斯则希望拉大优势，以抵消埃尔-赛义德在白人激进选民中的领先地位。
埃尔-赛义德面临的一些质疑，是由像尼克斯提到的那些负面广告煽动的。但他也受到了杰出黑人民主党人的持续不满情绪的阻碍——这些人认为他在2024年该州总统初选中最初支持“未承诺”投票运动，最终帮助唐纳德·特朗普总统在当年11月赢得密歇根州，并担心他的竞选活动将重点放在反对美国对以色列的支持上。
其他选民表示，史蒂文斯这位白人女性自2018年民主党浪潮中当选国会议员以来，一直在他们的社区中非常活跃。更有人指出，她曾在巴拉克·奥巴马总统的汽车行业救助工作组中任职——这是密歇根州东南部的经济支柱。
在史蒂文斯周六出席的底特律西北高中“灵魂日节”活动上，她的这段经历是选民最熟悉的——也是埃尔-赛义德所斥之为失败的民主党建制派成就的一个例子。
“她曾在奥巴马总统任内帮助拯救我们州的团队中，她一直站在最前沿，”住在底特律的退休大学管理人员凯西·豪斯·文森特说。
“我内心认为（埃尔-赛义德）是一位优秀的候选人，”她说，“但黑利有政绩，我知道她为我做了什么。”
对于民主党崛起的激进派 insurgency 来说，密歇根州是一个试验场——这是一个常年的总统竞选战场，其重要性远高于今年激进派挑战者在深蓝选区击败现任议员的少数几场众议院初选。
下个月参议院初选的获胜者，将在11月的选举中挑战共和党前众议员迈克·罗杰斯，以接替即将退休的民主党参议员加里·彼得斯。对于民主党来说，保住这个席位对他们需要净增四个席位才能拿下参议院多数席位的目标至关重要。
包括桑德斯和纽约州众议员亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科特兹在内的激进派运动领袖都已表态支持埃尔-赛义德。而更温和的建制派，包括参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默、密歇根州众多现任和前任高级民选官员、国会黑人核心小组政治行动委员会以及南卡罗来纳州众议员吉姆·克莱伯恩，都在支持史蒂文斯。
当被问及她的黑人选民支持率时，史蒂文斯提到了她在基础设施和黑人拥有的企业方面争取投资的努力，以及对密歇根州制造业的支持。
“我的竞选方式是像执政一样竞选，像竞选一样执政。做到现身、赢得信任、倾听民众的声音，然后为他们领导，”史蒂文斯周六在底特律“灵魂日节”活动上告诉记者。
埃尔-赛义德也拥有自己的一批黑人支持者，他周日告诉记者，史蒂文斯在黑人选民中的优势归根结底是广告开支。
“这就是6000万美元广告的作用，”他在走访教堂后说。“他们投入这笔钱是有原因的……6000万美元是你用来传递一个信息所需的费用，而这个信息除了对企业政治行动委员会或美国以色列公共事务委员会之外，对任何人都没有真正的好处。”
根据AdImpact的数据，外部团体已承诺投入约5100万美元用于投放支持史蒂文斯或攻击埃尔-赛义德的广告，其中包括美国以色列公共事务委员会关联的超级政治行动委员会“联合民主项目”的3000万美元。
对于一些接受CNN采访的黑人选民来说，意识形态分歧是一个主要因素。
68岁的庞蒂亚克家庭主妇德米特里亚·卡德说，她“其实一点也不激进”，认为史蒂文斯是“人民的声音”。
不过，大多数人都淡化了意识形态在他们初选中投票中所起的作用。
卡德的女儿、45岁的娜塔莎·巴特利是诺维市的信息技术专业学生，她说她支持史蒂文斯，因为她一直在为她的社区挺身而出。
“这不会是她第一次来到我们所在的地方，”她说。“你知道，她看起来很平易近人。我和她聊过，她看起来很诚实。你知道，她看起来不像在隐瞒什么，我喜欢这一点。”
同样，庞蒂亚克54岁的暖通空调技术员雷克斯·克洛斯说，他投票给埃尔-赛义德是因为他“是个诚实的人”。
“我倾听他说的每一句话，他要做的事情，我相信他，”克洛斯说。
但在与密歇根州杰出黑人领袖就该州民主党参议院初选进行的对话中，一个反复出现的抱怨浮出水面：埃尔-赛义德对“未承诺”运动的支持。
这场亲巴勒斯坦抗议运动在密歇根州至关重要，该州拥有庞大的阿拉伯移民社区。加沙战争的反对者在民主党总统初选选票中投“未承诺”，以表达对拜登坚定支持以色列的不满。
时任韦恩县卫生部门主任的知名阿拉伯裔美国人埃尔-赛义德公开支持“未承诺”投票，该运动在该州获得了超过10万张选票。
尽管拜登最终退选，民主党试图团结在前副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯周围，但密歇根州的黑人领袖在最近几周接受CNN采访时仍然坚信，这场运动对民主党总统候选人当年的参选机会造成了持久损害。
“许多人认为他是其中的一份子。如果卡玛拉·哈里斯当选，我们就不会陷入现在的困境，加沙也不会是现在这个样子，”底特律全国有色人种协进会主席、史蒂文斯的支持者、团契教堂的安东尼·温德尔牧师说。
尽管埃尔-赛义德最终背书了哈里斯，并鼓励他的支持者为她投票，但他的批评者认为，这为时已晚。由于他在竞选美国参议员期间持续关注美国对以色列的政策，人们对埃尔-赛义德的优先事项仍存疑虑。
“现在的问题是：你会更关心约旦河西岸，还是底特律的西区？”安东尼问道。
Farmington学区委员会成员安吉·史密斯上周末的言论也引发了轩然大波，她告诉当地记者萨姆·鲁宾逊，她支持史蒂文斯，因为她相信这位众议员会代表所有种族。
“我们需要一个能代表我们所有人的人。不只是一个种族，而是所有种族，”她在一段在网上流传的视频片段中说。“你必须知道如何在圈子里运作。不要只说阿拉伯语。不要播放你的阿拉伯音乐。代表每一个人。”
史蒂文斯的团队谴责了史密斯的言论。
“黑利不同意并否认这一言论。她的竞选活动是为了团结密歇根州民众，而不是分裂他们，”发言人阿里克·沃克在一份声明中说。
埃尔-赛义德的竞选团队正在努力回应这些批评。他的竞选团队推出了一则新的电视广告，宣扬他是“首位背书卡玛拉·哈里斯竞选总统的穆斯林美国领导人”。
这是否足以克服持续存在的质疑，仍是一个未知数。
“归根结底，他在这件事上有点圆滑。初选期间，只要方便，他就支持‘未承诺’，”支持史蒂文斯的密歇根州民主党黑人核心小组主席基思·威廉姆斯说。“他一开始就是这场运动的一部分。所以在我看来，你不能既想要蛋糕又吃掉它。”
全国黑人赋能行动基金创始人兼主席达里厄斯·琼斯表示，埃尔-赛义德“将需要不断努力来修复这一裂痕”。
“这绝对没有对我们中西部社区的任何人有任何好处，”他说。“我认为在这种情况下，那场运动领导层的政治判断应该受到质疑，而黑人选民对这种策略确实存在疑问。”
密歇根州其他黑人民主党领袖表示，他们认为“未承诺”运动不会在8月4日的选举结果中发挥主要作用。
民主党全国委员会黑人核心小组主席、密歇根州权力人物弗吉·罗林斯未在参议院竞选中背书，她指出埃尔-赛义德最终背书了哈里斯。
“我家里有50位阿拉伯领袖，他进来和他们交谈。他和他们交谈是为了支持卡玛拉，”她说。“我不认为‘未承诺’对阿卜杜勒来说是个大问题。我认为这是个问题，但不是大问题。”
她补充道：“如果他获得提名，每个人都会100%支持他。我可以保证这一点。”
曾出现在支持埃尔-赛义德广告中的韦恩县委员玛莎·斯科特也淡化了任何围绕“未承诺”运动的持续怨恨将发挥的作用，但承认2024年的失利“一直在我们所有人的脑海中”。
“你知道，我们只是继续努力，希望情况变得更好，”斯科特说。
在网络上，史蒂文斯浓重的密歇根口音——在最近一段走红视频中，她告诉人群她正在“带着一点‘教训他们’的劲头”竞选——经常成为嘲讽的目标。但在现实中，情况则大不相同。
在CNN的采访中，黑人选民形容史蒂文斯最常用的词是“斗士”。那些见过她的人说，她比大多数政客更真诚。
“我和她合得来，”底特律西北部的拉瑟普村前市长凯利·加勒特说，当时她刚参加完周五晚上在底特律举行的史蒂文斯集会，惠特默和克莱伯恩也出席了该活动。
加勒特说，2021年加勒特21岁的儿子死于镰状细胞贫血后，这位众议员给她打了电话，她因此结识了史蒂文斯。大约一个月后，她说她收到了史蒂文斯办公室寄来的一个包裹，里面是一面在美国国会大厦上空飘扬的旗帜，这让她很惊讶。
从那以后，两人关系变得亲密起来，加勒特——在集会上振奋人群几分钟后接受了CNN采访——说她们经常在史蒂文斯“需要打气”时聊天。
“你在舞台上看到的那个人，就是你在家里看到的那个人，也是你在外面看到的那个人。那就是黑利的样子。没有两个不同的人，”加勒特说。“如果她说话带点乡音，我也没问题。”
在底特律和庞蒂亚克，许多人——包括那些不活跃于政坛的人——说他们见过史蒂文斯不止一次，而是好几次。
周日在庞蒂亚克的埃尔-赛义德集会上，一位不愿透露姓名的老年妇女说，她很欣赏埃尔-赛义德的到场，但她说她在近十年里见过史蒂文斯四次，这位众议员还去过她的公寓小区。
在“灵魂日节”上，南菲尔德70岁的退休医生安妮塔·蒙克雷斯说，她在一次前往华盛顿讨论医疗保健问题的团体旅行中见过史蒂文斯。她说她支持史蒂文斯，尽管她和埃尔-赛义德在医疗保健政策上都持“积极立场”。
“我喜欢她的活力和她的平易近人，”蒙克雷斯谈到史蒂文斯时说。“正是这些小事决定了一切。”
埃尔-赛义德的支持者也强调了他们社区实地宣传的影响。
庞蒂亚克52岁的汽车工厂经理基翁·格林说，他投票给埃尔-赛义德是因为他觉得他一直在社区里露面——尽管他对史蒂文斯没有任何不满。
“他总是在附近。他经常出现，”格林谈到埃尔-赛义德时说。“人们往往会投票给他们见过面或者有某种联系的人。”
但对于来自雷德福的58岁退休邮政工作者卡坦雅·约翰逊来说，这归根结底是经验问题。
“我对那些毫无准备、想随心所欲地管理我们国家的人不感兴趣，”约翰逊说。
Black voters may decide the nation’s biggest Democratic primary. Many are clearly against the more progressive option
2026-07-27T09:00:25.386Z / CNN
Pontiac, Michigan—
Larry Nix pulled into a cookout hosted by Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign on Sunday, rolled down his window and told the progressive Senate candidate he needed answers.
Nix, a 63-year-old Army veteran, shares some of El-Sayed’s concerns with the direction of the country. He’s furious at how high the war in Iran has driven up the price of gas for his Ford Expedition, and he thinks Democratic leaders in Washington are “getting a little soft” when it comes to taking on President Donald Trump.
But El-Sayed’s more moderate opponent in the August 4 primary, four-term Rep. Haley Stevens, has come to Nix’s house during previous congressional campaigns, spoken with him and put a sign in his yard. “That’s my girl,” he told CNN.
Nix had also seen the barrage of television advertisements portraying El-Sayed as disparaging toward women, highlighting his past criticism of former first lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity initiative. “I’m a big pro-Obama person and you’re dogging his wife,” Nix said of his concerns. He told El-Sayed he wanted to know “what the hell is going on.”
The battle over the direction of the Democratic Party is being waged in conversations like this one, in a parking lot in Pontiac where El-Sayed’s campaign was hosting a get-out-the-vote gathering after he visited Black churches in the area.
The 41-year-old son of Egyptian immigrants is seeking to deliver the party’s progressive insurgency its biggest win yet in the Michigan Senate primary. But he is running into resistance among Black voters, many of whom say the establishment he eschews has delivered for them in important ways.
El-Sayed, a former public health official, told Nix the same thing he’d told about 40 attendees at New Bethel Baptist Church minutes earlier: The ads were a distortion of previous comments he’d made about Michelle Obama, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and more, and an example of why he was running to get big money — including that of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has spent millions on ads opposing El-Sayed — out of politics.
“He opened my mind,” Nix said of El-Sayed. “I’m going to go home and do my research, and then I’m going to decide if he switched me over.”
But El-Sayed may still have an uphill battle ahead of him. Dozens of interviews across the Detroit metropolitan area over the first weekend of early voting revealed the skepticism he faces among Black voters like Nix.
The Senate primary has emerged as this year’s most important test of the party’s ideological gulf — with El-Sayed and Stevens, the favorite of the Democratic establishment in Washington and in Michigan, squaring off in a race that is both critical to Democrats’ hopes of claiming a Senate majority in November, and an early preview of the battles to come in the 2028 presidential primary.
Black voters make up about one-fifth of the state’s Democratic primary electorate, and they have a history of overwhelmingly backing the more moderate candidate in similar ideological battles in Michigan. Hillary Clinton bested Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by about 40 percentage points among Black voters in the state’s 2016 presidential primary, exit polls showed, and Joe Biden racked up a similar margin in 2020 against the progressive stalwart.
Sanders’ weakness with Black voters was the obstacle he never overcame, although he narrowly defeated Clinton in Michigan in 2016 while losing to Biden in 2020.
Now, those voters are once again a focal point in the primary’s closing stretch, as El-Sayed seeks to chip into Stevens’ advantage and Stevens looks to run up a big enough margin to overcome El-Sayed’s edge among White progressive voters.
Some of the skepticism El-Sayed faces is fueled by the negative advertisements like those Nix highlighted. But he’s also hampered by lingering resentment from prominent Black Democrats who view his initial support for the“uncommitted” movement in the state’s 2024 presidential primary as ultimately helping President Donald Trump win Michigan that November and who worry about his campaign’s focus on opposing US support for Israel.
Other voters said Stevens, a White woman, has been an extremely active presence in their communities since being elected to Congress in the Democratic wave of 2018. More pointed to her role working on President Barack Obama’s task force that rescued the automotive industry — the economic driver of southeastern Michigan.
At the Soul Day Festival at Northwestern High School in Detroit, which Stevens attended on Saturday, it was the portion of her biography that voters were most familiar with — and an example of the achievements of a Democratic establishment that El-Sayed has cast as a failure.
“She was on the team that helped save our state when Obama was president. She was right there on the forefront,” said Kathie House Vinson, a retired college administrator who lives in Detroit.
“I think in my heart of hearts that (El-Sayed) is a good candidate,” she said, “but Haley has the track record, and I know what she’s done for me.”
For the Democratic Party’s ascendant progressive insurgency, Michigan is a proving ground — a perennial presidential battleground where the stakes are much higher than the handful of House primaries in deep-blue districts where progressive challengers have ousted incumbents this year.
The winner of next’s month Senate primary will take on Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. For Democrats, retaining the seat is crucial to the party’s hopes of the net four-seat gain they’d need in November to win the Senate majority.
Leaders of the progressive movement, including Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have lined up behind El-Sayed. The more moderate establishment, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a slew of top current and former elected officials in Michigan, the Congressional Black Caucus’ political action committee and influential South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, are supporting Stevens.
Stevens, when asked about her Black support, pointed to her efforts to secure investments in infrastructure and Black-owned businesses, as well as support for Michigan’s manufacturing sector.
“My campaign approach is to campaign like I govern, and govern like I campaign. To show up, to be trusted, to listen, to hear from folks, and then to lead for them,” Stevens told reporters Saturday at the Soul Day Festival in Detroit.
El-Sayed, who boasts his own long list of Black supporters, told reporters Sunday that Stevens’ advantage among Black voters comes down to ad spending.
“It’s what $60 million in advertising does,” he said after a church visit. “There’s a reason they spend that money. … Sixty million dollars is what you need to move a message that does not really offer anything to anyone unless you’re a corporate PAC or AIPAC.”
Outside groups have committed about $51 million to running ads boosting Stevens or attacking El-Sayed, including $30 million from the United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-aligned super PAC, according to AdImpact data.
For some Black voters who to CNN, the ideological schism is a major factor.
Demetria Card, a 68-year-old Pontiac housewife, said she is “not progressive really at all,” and thinks Stevens is “the voice of the people.”
Most, though, downplayed the role ideology is playing in their primary votes.
Card’s daughter, 45-year-old Natasha Bartley, an information technology student in Novi, said she is backing Stevens because she’s consistently shown up for her community.
“This won’t be the first day she’s been somewhere that we’ve been,” she said. “You know, she seems approachable. I talked to her. She seems like she’s honest. You know, doesn’t look like she’s hiding anything, and I like that.”
Likewise, Rex Close, a 54-year-old HVAC technician in Pontiac, said he voted for El-Sayed because he’s “an honest guy.”
“I listen to everything he’s saying, what he’s going to do, and I believe him,” Close said.
But in conversations with prominent Black leaders from Michigan about the state’s Democratic Senate primary, a recurring complaint came up: El-Sayed’s support for “uncommitted” in 2024.
The pro-Palestinian protest movement was a critical factor in Michigan, with its large Arab immigrant community, as opponents of the war in Gaza voted “uncommitted” on Democratic presidential primary ballots to register their dissatisfaction with Biden’s steadfast support for Israel.
El-Sayed, a prominent Arab American then serving as director of the Wayne County Department of Health, publicly backed “uncommitted,” which garnered more than 100,000 votes in the state.
While Biden ultimately withdrew and the party attempted to rally around former Vice President Kamala Harris, Black leaders in Michigan who spoke to CNN in recent weeks remain convinced the effort did lasting damage to the Democratic presidential ticket’s chances that year.
“Many people believe that he was a part of that. And had Kamala Harris been elected, we would not be in the mess we’re in right now. Gaza would not be what Gaza is right now,” said Rev. Dr. Anthony Wendell of Fellowship Chapel, the president of the Detroit chapter of the NAACP and a Stevens supporter.
Though El-Sayed ultimately endorsed Harris, and encouraged his followers to vote for her, his critics argue it was too little, too late. As he runs for US Senate with an ongoing focus on US policy toward Israel, doubts also linger about El-Sayed’s priorities.
“The question is now: Are you going to be more concerned about the West Bank than the West Side of Detroit?” Anthony asked.
Remarks from a Farmington school board member Angie Smith also made waves over the weekend, when she told local reporter Sam Robinson that she was backing Stevens because she believed the congresswoman would represent all races.
“We need someone that can represent all of us. Not just one race, but all races,” she said in a clip that circulated online. “You have to know how to work the room. Don’t come out speaking only Arabic. Don’t come out with your Arabic music on. Represent everyone.”
Stevens’ camp denounced Smith’s comments.
“Haley disagrees with and disavows this comment. Her campaign is about bringing Michiganders together, not dividing them,” spokesperson Arik Wolk said in a statement.
El-Sayed’s campaign is working to address those critiques. His campaign launched a new TV ad, touting his role as “the first Muslim American leader to endorse Kamala Harris for president.”
Whether it’s enough to overcome enduring skepticism is an open question.
“The bottom line is, he’s been a little cute with that. He was with the ‘uncommitted’ during the primaries when it was convenient,” said Keith Williams, the chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus who is backing the congresswoman. “He was a part of the movement in the beginning. So to me, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.”
Darius Jones, the founder and president of the National Black Empowerment Action Fund, said El-Sayed is “going to continuously have work to do to repair that breach.”
“It definitely didn’t do anything to benefit people from my community in the Midwest,” he said. “And I think this was a situation where the political judgment of people who were in the leadership of that movement should be called into question, and Black folks have real questions around that strategy.”
Other Black Democratic leaders in Michigan said they don’t think the “uncommitted” movement will play a major role in the outcome on August 4.
Virgie Rollins, the Democratic National Committee’s Black Caucus chair and a Michigan power broker who has not endorsed in the Senate race, pointed to El-Sayed’s ultimate support for Harris.
“I had 50 Arab leaders in my house, and he came in to talk. He talked to them in order to support Kamala,” she said. “I don’t see a big issue with uncommitted with Abdul. I think it’s an issue, but it’s not a big issue.”
She added: “If he wins the nomination, everybody will be behind him, 100%. I can guarantee that.”
Wayne County Commissioner Martha Scott, who appeared in a pro-El Sayed ad, also downplayed the role any lingering resentments over the “uncommitted” movement will play but acknowledged the 2024 loss is “on all of our minds.”
“You know, we just keep working at it and hope things change for the better for people,” Scott said.
Online, Stevens’ heavy Michigan accent — on display in a recent viral clip in which she told a crowd she was campaigning with “a little bit of stick it to ‘em” — often is the target of mockery. In person, though, it plays much differently.
The word Black voters most frequently used to describe Stevens in interviews with CNN was “fighter.” Those who had met her said she came across as more genuine than most politicians.
“I vibe with her,” said Kelly Garrett, the former mayor of Lathrup Village, just northwest of Detroit, shortly after a Stevens rally in Detroit Friday night attended by Whitmer and Clyburn.
Garrett said she got to know Stevens when the congresswoman called her after Garrett’s 21-year-old son died from sickle cell anemia in 2021. About a month later, she said she was surprised when she received a package from Stevens’ office containing a flag that flew over the US Capitol.
The two have become close since, and Garrett — who spoke to CNN minutes after electrifying the crowd at the rally — said they often talk when Stevens “needs to be pumped up.”
“The person you saw on stage is the person you see at home, and is the person you see out. That’s who Haley is. There is no different person,” Garrett said. “And if she sounds like she has a twang, I’m down with it.”
In Detroit and Pontiac, many people — including those who are not active in politics — said they’d met Stevens not just once, but several times.
At El-Sayed’s gathering Sunday in Pontiac, an elderly woman who asked not to be named said she appreciated that El-Sayed showed up, but said she’d met Stevens four times over nearly a decade, and that the congresswoman had been to her apartment complex.
At the Soul Day Festival, Anita Moncrease, a 70-year-old retired physician in Southfield, said she’d met Stevens in Washington during a group trip to discuss health care issues. She said she backed Stevens, even though both she and El-Sayed have “positive stands” on health care policy.
“I like the energy and I like the availability,” Moncrease said of Stevens. “It’s the little things that make the difference.”
Supporters of El-Sayed have also highlighted the impact of an on the ground presence in their community.
Keyon Green, a 52-year-old automotive factory manager in Pontiac, said he voted for El-Sayed because he felt he’d been a regular presence in the community — even though he doesn’t have any problems with Stevens.
“He’s always around. He shows up a lot,” Green said of El-Sayed. “People tend to vote for people that they that they see or you know have some type of connection to.”
But for Katanya Johnson, a 58-year-old retired postal worker from Redford who is backing Stevens, it comes down to experience.
“I’m not interested in anybody that’s flying by the seat of their pants and trying to run our country in any way,” Johnson said.