Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 37, is putting serious cash behind Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan run. "I want to announce that I will be transferring from our campaign in New York $1 million to the state of Michigan," she told supporters Friday at an El-Sayed event.
Her backing arrived in July, splitting from party leaders who had largely lined up with Democratic Representative Haley Stevens. Ocasio-Cortez has been a leading progressive since unseating an incumbent in a 2018 primary, and she represents parts of Queens and the Bronx.
This week she campaigned with El-Sayed across the Upper Peninsula and in southeast Michigan, a swing through mining towns and old timber communities that used to vote Democratic before many White, blue-collar voters moved to the GOP during the Tea Party era and under Donald Trump. She also plans to join a Friday-night rally in Detroit, the state's largest city and a hub of Black voters that El-Sayed had difficulty uniting during the primary.
Michigan has been one of the tightest battlegrounds in recent presidential cycles and will vote early in the Democratic presidential primary calendar. Ocasio-Cortez has long argued Democrats do not have to choose moderates to win in swing states, and she put it this way at a fundraiser in New York earlier this month: "If Abdul can win in Michigan, anybody can win anywhere."
Polling shows El-Sayed narrowly ahead. In the general election, Republican Mike Rogers has pushed hard to attract Black voters in Detroit and has appealed to Democrats who view El-Sayed as too liberal.
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Even if she never jumps in herself, moves like this build her profile as a progressive kingmaker akin to Senator Bernie Sanders, whose early nods boost liberal candidates. Ocasio-Cortez, a former Sanders campaign organizer, tends to endorse late to add momentum in the closing stretch, as she did in Michigan.
Asked repeatedly this week about 2028, she did not rule out a statewide run for Senate in New York or a presidential bid, while emphasizing she is focused on winning the midterms. The bottom line: if El-Sayed wins in November with her support, it would signal something about her standing in the 2028 conversation.
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