In the race for Senate in Michigan, multiple party fights are colliding for Democrats

In the race for Senate in Michigan, multiple party fights are colliding for Democrats

DETROIT — After two years in the political wilderness, Democrats are feeling cautiously optimistic about turning the tide in the midterms. That has only intensified debate about the direction of the party.

Nowhere is that debate more fraught now than Michigan, where Democrats are weighing two millennial candidates for an open Senate seat.

One is Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist firing up progressives by embracing "Medicare for All" and ripping the influence of corporate money in politics.

The other is Haley Stevens, a four-term congresswoman who flipped a suburban House district and pledges to fight President Trump while still practicing a more moderate brand of politics.

It does not help that the race has become a proxy for so many debates Democrats are wrestling with: Establishment versus insurgent. Progressive versus more moderate. New media versus old.

From a lawn chair in the shade during a free outdoor concert in the exurbs, Joan Italia says she voted for Obama twice, before backing Trump all three times.

Italia wants corporate money out of politics, but is also deeply skeptical of far-left policies on policing and immigration. El-Sayed describes himself as a capitalist and is not endorsed by the Democratic Socialists, but shares a similar policy platform to many of their candidates, such as abolishing ICE. Many pundits see Michigan as a test case for how candidates on the left can fare in battleground states.