{"id":27596,"date":"2026-08-04T18:24:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27596"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:24:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:24:27","slug":"midterms-actually-how-michigans-uncommitted-movement-shaped-a-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27596","title":{"rendered":"Midterms, Actually: How Michigan\u2019s Uncommitted movement shaped a Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"zephr-anchor\">\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Welcome to The Midterms, Actually. Every week I\u2019ll be writing about two things: <strong>one big idea<\/strong> or trend I see forming across the 2026 primaries, and <strong>one thing I\u2019m hearing<\/strong> from a voice on the ground. Let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p><h2 class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>One big idea: The Uncommitted movement has already won<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">During the 2024 presidential election, on the third night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, we recorded an episode of my election podcast <em>The Run-Up<\/em> that I still think about all the time. The premise was simple: I wanted to know whether Democrats were making a material change at the top of the ticket or just a cosmetic one. So we asked convention-goers a plain question \u2014 how would Kamala Harris\u2019s Democratic Party be any different from Joe Biden\u2019s?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The tone of the piece reflected the optimism of the room. The activists, down to a person, thought Harris was showing a newfound openness to the administration\u2019s critics. But underneath the hopium was a specific policy desire: that Harris would break from Biden\u2019s unconditional support of Israel\u2019s violent campaign in Gaza. That afternoon, I spent time with members of the Uncommitted movement, born in Michigan, who were trying to pressure the DNC into putting a single Palestinian speaker on the stage. They held press conferences with grieving families, and warned the party that the Democrats\u2019 Muslim and Arab base in particular <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy\/381550\/arab-americans-protest-vote-harris-gaza-palestine-israel\">would not forget being sidelined<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain made clear the confidence surrounding Harris at the time was tied to the belief her posture around Gaza would be different from Biden\u2019s: \u201cShe\u2019s made, obviously, a couple different comments on Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cWe called for a ceasefire in UAW back in November. And obviously, she understands the humanity issue of this. And I mean, my conversations I\u2019ve had with Kamala Harris have been very good, very fruitful.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">They didn\u2019t get one. Not the speaker, not the policy shift, not the break from Biden. Harris famously refused to distance herself from her boss, whether it was Israel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2024-elections\/383897\/harris-lost-debate-why-trump-won\">or anything else<\/a> \u2014 and likely lost because of it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">And while many of the most prominent voices of the Uncommitted movement (including current Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed) ended up publicly backing Harris in the end, some of Harris\u2019s most ardent supporters have repeatedly blamed left-wing activists for <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/4978480-torres-progressives-blame-trump\/\">undermining her campaign<\/a>. Haley Stevens, the Michigan representative who\u2019s running for the Senate as the party\u2019s establishment choice, has sought to make El-Sayed\u2019s support for Uncommitted <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HaleyforMI\/status\/2075364506058850809\">an issue in that race<\/a>, suggesting that the movement planted seeds of discontent ahead of a must-win presidential election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">I want to argue the opposite. Two years after the Uncommitted movement shook up the Democratic Party, its impact has never been more clear. Public opinion of Israel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/495736\/israel-democrats-polling-gaza-genocide\">has plummeted across the American electorate<\/a>, to the point where the movement\u2019s position is now a majority opinion. Per Quinnipiac, 77 percent of Democrats say they <a href=\"https:\/\/poll.qu.edu\/images\/polling\/us\/us08272025_ubru23.pdf\">believe Israel is committing a genocide<\/a> \u2014 an unthinkable number just two years ago. The Uncommitted movement also led to the growth and maturation of the Democrats\u2019 Muslim left, which has already molded prominent elected officials like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Even more, I think Uncommitted challenged the blame-the-voters framework that allows the establishment to avoid self-reflection. The movement was never only about a DNC speaking slot, but about the idea that every vote must be earned, not owed. It was a retort to \u201cvote blue no matter who\u201d \u2014 an argument that conditional support for the party is not only valid, but of moral importance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">In 2024, that posture got you branded a spoiler. Today it\u2019s just how Democrats talk. When I sat down with Hasan Piker \u2014 the most popular voice on the Democratic left \u2014 he told me he voted for Kamala Harris but pointedly refused to endorse her, and named exactly why:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<blockquote class=\"duet--article--blockquote _4s58nu0 pn04iq9\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _4s58nu8 pn04iq1\"><em>\u201cThe only reason for my refusal to openly endorse was because of\u2026a continuation of the genocide in Gaza.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _4s58nu8 pn04iq1\"><em>\u201cI understand the harm reduction arguments\u2026but it\u2019s not a practical approach to winning elections, and demonstrably it\u2019s been a failure with Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Piker put the mechanism plainly. October 7, 2023, and its aftermath, he told me, were \u201ca seismic shift that gave a lot of confidence to the left, that as long as they stood by their positions\u2026people would actually see the truth.\u201d The movement didn\u2019t move Biden. It moved the electorate Biden\u2019s successors now have to answer to.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">And you can trace that shifted ground straight into this year\u2019s wins. In New York, Zohran Mamdani rode exactly this coalition into City Hall \u2014 a victory Piker described as the proof of concept he\u2019d been waiting for: \u201cthat\u2019s why I was so grateful for Zohran\u2019s victory\u2026I can just point to him.\u201d In Congress, progressives like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5aC3AwY2C3E\">Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York City<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/493863\/melat-kiros-defeats-diana-degette-dsa-israel-gaza\">Melat Kiros in Colorado<\/a> add to the growing evidence that acknowledging Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza as a genocide is now a litmus test for Democratic voters gauging the trust and credibility of their candidates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Which brings us to Michigan, where the whole thing started. It\u2019s easy to forget now, but the Uncommitted movement was born in the Michigan primary \u2014 and the general-election bill came due there, too. Kamala Harris got 36 percent of the vote in Dearborn, a city Joe Biden had carried with nearly 69 percent in 2020. She lost the state by about 80,000 votes. The voters the party told to fall in line didn\u2019t, and Michigan is where that refusal was most legible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Now look at who\u2019s competitive in this week\u2019s Senate primary. Abdul El-Sayed is running on the precise argument Uncommitted was making in the streets of Chicago \u2014 except now it\u2019s a statewide campaign with real money behind it, against a candidate backed by tens of millions in pro-Israel spending. He turns the foreign-policy question into a pocketbook one and refuses to soften the language. As he said on<em> America, Actually<\/em>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<blockquote class=\"duet--article--blockquote _4s58nu0 pn04iq9\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _4s58nu8 pn04iq1\"><em>\u201cThere is an electoral cost to backstopping genocide and apartheid.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _4s58nu8 pn04iq1\"><em>\u201cIf you can\u2019t call a genocide perpetrated by our tax dollars the moral abomination that it is, then at some point it\u2019s hard for me to believe that you\u2019re gonna fight for anything,\u201d he told me.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Whether or not El-Sayed wins today, the fact that a candidate running explicitly against AIPAC and unconditional aid is fighting for a Senate seat in a swing state is the clearest possible measure of how far the ground has moved since that convention floor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">In the coming months, it may be that the Democrats\u2019 moderate wing \u2014 think tanks like Third Way, party leadership, and those offended by the electorate\u2019s rising leftist tide \u2014 will adopt some of the same tactics they criticized. Already, Rep. Hillary Scholten, who is supporting Stevens in Michigan, has signaled she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.semafor.com\/article\/07\/30\/2026\/never-el-sayed-moment-in-michigan\">may refuse to support El-Sayed<\/a> in a general election, due to his association with Piker.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">It seems \u201cvote blue no matter who\u201d has its limits. For progressives. For centrists. For everyone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">With Michigan\u2019s primary set to conclude today, that leaves the Wisconsin governor\u2019s race as the next big election on the Democratic calendar. This week, I reached out to <strong>Dan Shafer<\/strong>, a reporter in Milwaukee who has been covering the race for months. Schafer writes for The Recombobulation Area, where he\u2019s political editor and writes a weekly opinion column.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\"><strong>It looks like Francesca Hong, the DSA-aligned state assemblywoman, has a commanding lead in the Wisconsin governor\u2019s primary. This would\u2019ve been a shock a year ago. How did this happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The short answer is that Francesca Hong has simply run the best campaign. She has run circles around the consultant-brained conventional approaches of her opponents, and has found success by doing things decidedly differently.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">From the very beginning, I characterized her as the \u201cwild card\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.therecombobulationarea.com\/p\/a-too-early-breakdown-of-the-2026\">in the race<\/a>. And while I certainly did not envision her having a commanding lead in the polls in the final stretch in the primary, I knew that, given her background in the restaurant and hospitality industry, she wouldn\u2019t let anyone out-work or out-hustle her on the campaign trail. Her relentless ground game and digital organizing energy essentially issued a challenge to every other campaign to step up. The rest of the field failed that test.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">She\u2019s also absolutely dominating this primary with younger voters. In the <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/poll\/\">Marquette University Law School Poll from last week<\/a>, the data showed her with the support of 66% of likely primary voters in the 18-29 age group, and 51% in the 30-44 age group. No other candidate was even in double digits. I write a breakdown of every new Marquette poll, and these are just preposterous numbers. For Gen Z and millennials, she is <em>the<\/em> candidate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\"><strong>Hong has made data centers and AI backlash a centerpiece of this race. How important is this issue specifically in this race?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">I think it\u2019s been the No. 1 issue [since] she\u2019s taken off in this primary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">She backed a data center moratorium in January, and began running on this issue early. It\u2019s been a very animating issue in Wisconsin, first for all the reasons the anti-data center backlash is coming to so many Great Lakes states, but also because of the failed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/04\/12\/nx-s1-5359422\/what-wisconsins-foxconn-plant-can-tell-us-about-the-future-of-manufacturing-in-the-u-s\">Foxconn project in Racine County<\/a> that happened during the first Trump administration under then-Gov. Scott Walker. It came with the promise of thousands and thousands of jobs, Trump called it the \u201ceighth wonder of the world,\u201d and it\u2019s just been a miserable failure on so many levels. Hong just filmed her most recent ad at the Foxconn site \u2014 a project the Republican nominee Tom Tiffany voted for while in the state Senate at the time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Politically, though, what really helped Hong on this issue is that no other candidate running backed a data center moratorium. One of the most significant moments of the primary happened in a June 3 candidate forum focused on working-class issues, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JTCestkowski\/status\/2062250479921291406?s=20\">where moderator JT Cestkowski asked a yes-or-no question<\/a> on whether the candidates back a data center moratorium. Only Hong said yes. If any other candidate had said yes, that would have given the anti-data center voter options in the primary. Instead, they <em>all<\/em> went to Hong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\"><strong>There is an assertion that Hong is a weak general election candidate. Is there evidence for this? <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">This is Wisconsin. Anyone pretending a statewide election in this of all states should be considered anything other than a toss-up is kidding themselves. Many have argued that her likely Republican opponent, Tom Tiffany, is a uniquely weak general election candidate in his own right. But it can\u2019t be denied that there would be a whole lot of risk involved with her as a general election candidate: The \u201csocialism\u201d of it all will undoubtedly be a challenge. But Francesca Hong continues to be a wild card, and she might have what it takes to play a winning hand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to The Midterms, Actually. Every week I\u2019ll be writing about two things: one big idea or trend I see forming across the 2026 primaries, and one thing I\u2019m hearing from a voice on the ground. Let\u2019s get into it. One big idea: The Uncommitted movement has already won During the 2024 presidential election, on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/platform.vox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/gettyimages-2288799190.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.756483404927%2C100%2C78.487033190145&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}