In the first debate since Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary became a two-person race, Abdul El-Sayed and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens repeatedly turned policy disagreements into a fight over campaign funding and outside spending.
The pair split over health care policy, with El-Sayed, a former public health official, promoting a single-payer, national health insurance program covering all Americans, and depicting Stevens as representing “politics as usual.”
Stevens, who has served in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District since 2019, described herself as a “workhorse” who has delivered tangible wins for Michigan. She pointed to her work on President Barack Obama’s 2009 auto industry crisis response task force and her votes for a Biden-era semiconductor manufacturing bill and a bill bringing STEM grants to Michigan schools.
Throughout the July 7 debate hosted by WOOD-TV Channel 8 in Grand Rapids, the candidates attacked one another over campaign finance, criticizing what they painted as each others’ questionable funding sources. We fact-checked some of the major points.
El-Sayed: “There’s a group called Center Forward that happened to pay for a flight for the congresswoman and her mother to Portugal. I want to understand what she promised them in return.”
In June 2024, Stevens joined nine other lawmakers in Lisbon, Portugal, on a trip paid for by Center Forward, a group funded in part by pharmaceutical and other corporate interests that says it seeks to foster “centrist” politics. The five-day trip included three days of policy meetings and two days of travel to and from the U.S. According to a House ethics disclosure form filed by Stevens and Center Forward, the flights, hotel and meals cost $15,500 per person.
While there, the attendees met with military, diplomatic and political leaders, discussing healthcare, trade, clean energy, manufacturing, national security and economic development, Center Forward told PolitiFact.
In addition to Stevens, the trip included four House Democrats and five House Republicans.
Riley Kilburg, Center Forward’s executive director, told PolitiFact that the lawmakers were not asked for “promises, commitments, or anything in return.”
“We do not endorse legislation, we do not lobby, and we do not condition participation on any legislative action or policy commitment,” Kilburg said. “The purpose of these conferences is simply to provide members with information, perspective, ideas, and relationships that help them govern more effectively.”
Stevens: El-Sayed “has a super PAC that is run by his father-in-law that has spent millions of dollars on his behalf.”
El-Sayed’s father-in-law is a major donor to Fighting for Michigan PAC, a super PAC founded in September to support El-Sayed’s campaign. But the group says it is run by political strategists, not El-Sayed’s relative.
A super PAC, also known as an independent expenditure-only political committee, is a political action committee that is allowed to raise and spend unlimited money in support of or against candidates in an election. The committees cannot give directly to candidates and they cannot coordinate spending with a campaign.
Jukaku Tayeb, a Michigan nephrologist whom WLNS 6 News identified as El-Sayed’s father-in-law, is the second-largest donor to the PAC, according to Federal Election Committee records.
Tayeb gave $200,000 to the PAC, out of the $478,125 raised through the end of March. He is one of six donors listed in FEC records.
The PAC said in a June 8 press release that it was launching a “multi-million-dollar independent expenditure campaign” to elect El-Sayed. The PAC had spent more than $1.28 million as of July 4.
The PAC is run by Connor Farrell and Hannah Fertig, political strategists who have organized for other progressive candidates, Farrell told PolitiFact. The group’s organizing filings list Peter Sarasohn as the treasurer and custodian of records.
Farrell said the assertion that Tayeb runs the super PAC is “absolutely false” and that he has no role in the organization’s strategy, operations or spending decisions.
People who give major donations to super PACs are sometimes involved in strategy, but sometimes their support ends with the donation, said Michael Beckel, director of money in politics reform at Issue One, which tracks campaign finance.
“When a family member is the major financier behind a super PAC to support a politician’s campaign, questions might arise about whether firewalls intended to prevent coordination between candidates and outside groups truly exist,” Beckel said.
Stevens’ campaign didn’t provide information showing that Tayeb is directly involved with the PAC’s operations.
“If a donor contributes a large sum and isn’t involved with setting the strategy for how to spend the money, then it would be a stretch to say that donor runs the super PAC,” Beckel said.
El-Sayed:”Big AI has huge super PACs. Huge super PACs that guess who they’re funding, not me, the other person on this stage.”
There are two major artificial intelligence industry super PACs involved in the 2026 midterms: Leading the Future and Public Action First. Neither group has been involved with any Michigan Senate race spending, nor have any other significant AI-industry super PACs. The most dominant PACs’ June FEC filings — and multiple sites tracking AI industry super PACs — show no major AI-promoting super PACs have been spending in the Michigan Senate primaries, so far.
Stevens has received corporate PAC donations from Microsoft and Google, totaling $7,500, according to FEC data. A corporate PAC donation is different from a super PAC spending on behalf of a candidate. Corporate PACs are established and administered by corporations using voluntary funds from a restricted class of employees (executives, administrators, stockholders, and families). They are allowed to donate directly to campaigns, but only up to $5,000 per primary election.
Stevens: “The GOP is spending thousands of dollars to prop up (El-Sayed’s) campaign because they think they will make it easier for Mike Rogers to win if you are the nominee.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee launched an anti-El-Sayed ad June 25 spotlighting his position on abolishing ICE and adopting Medicare for All, ending with Sen. Bernie Sanders’s endorsement. It is unclear how much the NSRC spent on the ad.
Jessica Taylor, an editor for the Cook Political Report, told PolitiFact that the ad looks like a standard general election attack, but its primary-timed release reveals the real intentions: Republicans would prefer El-Sayed to Stevens against Rogers in the general election.
Even if the preferred opponent doesn’t win the primary, the ads allow the GOP to get a head start on attacking that candidate early in case they do emerge as the nominee, Taylor said.
Republican and Democratic meddling in primaries is not new. Ads often involve language suggesting the candidate is too conservative or too radical, as also seen in the El-Sayed NSRC ad.
El-Sayed: “AIPAC has spent tens of millions of dollars in attack ads against me or ads lying about the congresswoman’s record.”
United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Political Action Committee, has spent millions of dollars on the Michigan Senate race to back Stevens.
Recent spending reports from the super PAC show it has spent more than $10.9 million between pro-Stevens and anti-El-Sayed ads.
The committee has released ads endorsing Stevens’ work with Obama on protecting the auto industry, her response to increased immigration enforcement in Michigan, and her support for legislation capping insulin at $35 a month for Medicare recipients. It has also released an ad accusing El-Sayed of “disrespecting women.” (The Detroit Free Press fact-checked it.)
El-Sayed’s campaign pointed to another group, Center for Democratic Priorities, as connected to AIPAC. The opaque pro-Stevens group dropped more than $5 million in advertising in May. It has not yet registered with the FEC, but The Detroit News reported ad-buy paperwork listed an officer who was connected to a 2024 Michigan group that had ties to AIPAC. The group shares a vendor with AIPAC-linked groups, The Detroit News reported.
This story originally appeared on PolitiFact
