UAW endorsement of Benson, El-Sayed shakes up gubernatorial, U.S. Senate races in final stretch

After a year’s worth of bolstering their labor support in their respective races for Michigan’s governor and the U.S. Senate, the powerful United Auto Workers organization sent a strong message when it on Friday endorsed Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and former health official Dr. Abdul El-Sayed.

The endorsement sent shockwaves through Michigan political circles and solidified Benson and El-Sayed as the main players in their separate hunts for the Democratic nomination in the upcoming Aug. 4 primary.

UAW’s support for Benson further clears the lane for her as the de facto frontrunner in the gubernatorial race. She still faces a challenge from Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson, who performed well and received strong reactions from UAW members at a recent debate that featured him, Benson and the independent candidate Mike Duggan, who dropped out of the race shortly after the May 19 debate.

That performance, which featured Swanson waxing his union credentials, was not enough to seal the deal with the union as a whole, and its members on Friday announced that Benson was their candidate of choice.

“More than ever, we need to elect a leader in Lansing that stands alongside the UAW against corporate interests — and we know what side Jocelyn Benson is on,” the UAW said in a statement. “As Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson has proved she’s not afraid to stand up against the most powerful billionaires in the name of working-class Michiganders across the state. UAW members need that kind of energy in Michigan’s Capitol.”

Similar ripples were being felt in Lansing and across the state as the UAW came in to support El-Sayed over U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak), El-Sayed’s rivals in the three-way primary race.

“UAW members in Michigan want a fighter in Washington, D.C. who isn’t afraid to push forward a strong working-class agenda with moral clarity,” the UAW said in a statement. “Having never taken a dime from corporate PACs, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is someone we can trust to have our backs, including when we need it most – like come May Day 2028. From Medicare for All to banning stock buybacks, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is ready, eager, and well-equipped to move our core issues in the U.S. Senate.”

The UAW’s support for El-Sayed puts considerable wind in his campaign’s sails with less than two months left to go in the primary race. While that’s still an eternity in the political realm, the endorsement slows down the momentum McMorrow gained during a debate on Mackinac Island during the Mackinac Policy Conference, and similar momentum Stevens got from the endorsement of former U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

For Andrea Bitely, a political consultant, communications expert and a former spokesperson for Duggan, the UAW’s support for Benson was somewhat surprising considering the way Swanson has been positioning himself as the worker’s candidate. That said, Bitely told Michigan Advance that the union likely wouldn’t have ended up supporting Swanson considering he has consistently trailed Benson in polling and fundraising efforts.

“This is a big deal. The writing is on the wall for Swanson,” Bitely said. “The UAW members really like him, he speaks their language. He probably understands the UAW members better than us, but there is no way they’re going to risk endorsing somebody who is, at the last poll, at 6%.”

Benson, on the other hand, by way of her name ID, existing role in government and being the Democratic frontrunner earned the coveted endorsement of the UAW, Bitely said.

The UAW’s endorsement of El-Sayed, Bitely added, was more surprising as she assumed the union would have endorsed Stevens due to her efforts to save the auto industry during the administration of former President Barack Obama.

“But I also know that Abdul has been working their members and spending time with their members, talking about more of the working man philosophy than the other candidates have,” Bitely said. “It’s hard to find people who are willing to go knock doors that aren’t associated with either a union or a church group. This has earned Abdul El-Sayed some ground troops.”

Where does that leave Stevens and McMorrow?

Although the union’s backing of El-Sayed certainly made waves, Bitely said the race is too far along for either McMorrow or Stevens to back out now. She expected both camps to plow ahead, finding ways to make up the lost ground.

One way out is by targeting the Michigan Education Association, the powerful union for teachers in the Great Lakes State, which has yet to endorse in the U.S. Senate race.

“Haley Stevens needs the MEA. That’s the best counter to the UAW; get the teachers,” Bitely said. “And, if in some bizarre twist of fate that Abdul El-Sayed gets the MEA and the UAW, everybody else is done. That’s the race, at least for the primary.”

Bitely isn’t counting Stevens out yet, noting her strong ability to raise money.

“Part of that is AIPAC money, but you know what? All money is green, and you can spend any money you want as long as it’s American,” Bitely said. I’m interested to see what this does for Stevens’ fundraising.”

El-Sayed has come out against accepting both corporate political action committee donations and individual contributions from corporate actors, and has been the foremost candidate in Michigan calling out the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, for spending big on pro-Israel candidates. 

Bitely said she was struggling to see a clear path forward for McMorrow, who despite having a strong debate performance on Mackinac Island got boxed out by the UAW on Friday.

“It’s not because McMorrow is any less qualified than them,” she said. “She and Abdul have kind of been occupying the same lane for a long time, and he’s just a little bit more dynamic than she is. When you’re getting into progressive circles, that matters.”

GOP takes full aim at El-Sayed

Should El-Sayed prove victorious, Republicans are ready to pounce.

In statements issued Friday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP’s Senate Leadership Fund and the Michigan Republican Party each called El-Sayed the new frontrunner and aimed their messaging cannons at the broadside of his rising ship.

Senate Leadership Fund Executive Director Alex Latcham noted that the UAW hasn’t lost a Senate primary endorsement in Michigan’s modern history.

“Abdul El-Sayed is gaining momentum and Republicans must take seriously his threat to the GOP majority and his radical support for President Trump’s impeachment, Medicare for All, and defunding ICE,” Latcham said in a statement.

NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell said that the UAW’s announcement was a snub to both McMorrow and Stevens. Cantrell chalked that up to an off-hand comment McMorrow made about how the state of the auto industry decides Michigan’s economy, and Stevens’ support of the Biden-era electric vehicle mandates.

“Telling auto workers to take up beekeeping or supporting job-killing EV mandates will continue to haunt Mallory McMorrow and Haley Stevens in this race,” Cantrell said. “Abdul El-Sayed’s momentum cannot be underestimated, and Republicans will fight tirelessly to make sure his radical agenda stalls out in November.”

Greg Manz, the senior communications advisor for the Michigan Republican Party, called the UAW’s support of El-Sayed a “stunning rebuke” of both Stevens and the Democratic establishment as a whole.

“This endorsement confirms what many Democrats have feared for months: Abdul El-Sayed’s radical agenda is gaining traction inside a party that continues its lurch to the left,” Manz said. 

A potential bridge building moment for the Michigan Democratic Party

Mike Radtke, a Sterling Heights City Council member, activist and political consultant, told the Advance that it was notable that the UAW bound its endorsements for both Benson and El-Sayed together in one package.

“I think the combination of them will excite members across the different, I don’t want to call them factions, but the different groups there,” Radtke said. “Benson is very much considered the base of the party. Abdul is more of an outsider. By uniting them both on the same endorsement package, I think you’re going to see a lot more engagement from members across the spectrum. They’re not just going to engage on one race or the other, but they’re going to engage on both.”

Radtke agreed with Bitely that the endorsement meant more ground power — more people to man the phones and work the doors.

“Any UAW member who is carrying Abdul literature this fall will also be carrying Benson literature,” he added. “It unites both of them into a shared future for the party.”

As to whether that builds a bridge between the often contentious establishment and progressive wings of the party, Radtke said that El-Sayed still needs to win the primary for that logic to bear out. 

“At the end of the day, I think there are a lot of stories that are overwrought right now about one side of this party versus the other,” he said. “What I would say is that … I think you can have an honest disagreement.”

Absentee ballots go out to voters later this month and there are already a sizable number of voters locked in for either El-Sayed, McMorrow or Stevens. A great portion of the electorate, however, is still undecided.

What Stevens has going for her, Radtke said, was her presence on TV with ads already.

“The only person voters see on TV is Haley Stevens, and that can’t be discounted,” he added. “I’ll be clear that I haven’t endorsed anyone in the U.S. Senate race, but I think Abdul has a clarity to what he’s running on. A very clear, spoken clarity, and I think that matters a lot to the UAW and their members. He’s not trying to play all the sides. He’s saying ‘this is what I stand for; stand with me or don’t.’”