In this episode

• Recap of the 2026 Democratic Endorsement Convention
• What stood out about the filing deadline?

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

According to the team, there were few surprises during this year’s filing deadline. One development that stood out to Oosting was Republican James Hooper entering the race against U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

“James Hooper announced that no one filed, so he was going to give it a go,” Oosting said. “It’s good for a candidate to have at least one challenger. Rashida Tlaib is a lock for reelection, but what if something happens?”

The 13th congressional district in Detroit probably had the biggest news with Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters jumping into the race to challenge Shri Tanadar. Oosting said Waters jumping in may take votes away from state Rep. Donavan McKinney who was already running. “For [McKinney] to be successful you need a small primary field. Mary Waters getting into the race complicates things”. 

The party primary elections will be held on August 4th. 

• More from WDET:
  MichMash: Michigan Democrats hold 2026 state endorsement convention
  
  MichMash: Will the Michigan Senate race forecast other critical races across the nation?
  
  Detroit Evening Report: Shri Thanedar questions validity of campaign signatures submitted by Adam Hollier

For the first time in decades, more people are seeking talk therapy over medication. 

The good news is there’s less stigma preventing people from accessing care. The bad news: A lot of people struggle to access therapy. Some clinicians argue that one of the big issues is private equity. 

Private equity investments in health care have grown to over $750 billion over the past decade.

Linda Michaels says that’s had devastating consequences for both clients and clinicians. People are less likely to get the therapy they need. And therapists are in a worse position to offer it. 

That’s the premise of Michaels’ talk this Sunday at a local fundraiser for a metro Detroit clinic. She is a psychologist in private practice in Chicago and a co-founder of the Psychotherapy Action Network. She spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

The Metro reached out to two big health insurance providers, United Behavioral Health and Cigna. We wanted their perspective on how their administrative systems have complicated work for therapists, and made getting therapy harder. We did the same for several private equity groups. None of them offered a comment.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

The Trump administration has cracked down on immigration. President Donald Trump has conducted more ICE raids, signaled tougher security at the border, and has prevented fewer legal immigrants from entering the country. 

The Trump administration is also trying to end humanitarian immigration programs. One of those is Temporary Protected Status or TPS. 

The administration has revoked deportation protections from about one million people in the U.S. Most of them are from Venezuela and Honduras. It’s trying to revoke TPS from other countries but the courts have blocked the attempt.

The Department of Homeland Security says many countries on the TPS list are no longer in crisis. But many representing immigrants in court say otherwise.

Megan Hauptman is a Litigation Staff Attorney for the International Refugee Assistance Project. She is fighting the Trump administration to keep TPS for over 6,000 people from Syria. Over 1,500 of them live in Michigan alone. 

What exactly is TPS status? And what would happen if more people were to lose it? Megan Hauptman spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent about this and more.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

Large groups of teenagers have been gathering in downtown Detroit organized on TikTok and Snapchat. It’s part of a national trend being called “teen takeovers.” Most of the kids were just hanging out. But some of these gatherings turned chaotic. There have been brawls, vandalism, and an attempted robbery on Woodward. On April 11, a gun was fired, though no one was hurt.

Two of the 16-year-olds who organized the first gathering sat next to Mayor Mary Sheffield at a press conference last week. Daveion Page said he did it because he was bored. Danasha’ Tidwell said the violence that followed was “harmful and very unacceptable.”

Where can Detroit kids go to be safe and have fun? And, what’s the responsibility of a city to help grow and develop young people? 

Jerjuan Howard is the first director of Detroit’s new Office of Youth Affairs. He’s also an Army veteran, founder of the Umoja Debate League, and the owner of a new bookstore on Puritan Avenue. He spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

The progressive wing of the Michigan Democratic Party made its voice heard over the weekend during the party’s endorsement convention.

Democrats gathered in Huntington Place in Detroit Sunday to endorse party candidates for some statewide offices, like attorney general and secretary of state. Party leadership said the convention hit record numbers, and nearly every candidate backed by the party’s progressive wing won their endorsement races.

Campaigns brought drums, photo backdrops, and people in orange jumpsuits and sunglasses to carry billboards, all to stand out from the field.

But the delegates seemed to care most about substance and the issues. Often, those issues involved progressive themes like limiting corporate and outside political spending, providing universal healthcare, and ending U.S. involvement in foreign wars.

Many delegates, like Dearborn Public Schools Board member Adel Mozip, wanted candidates who inspire them.

“We’re looking forward to electing people who are going to be working for the people and not paid for by corporations and interests groups,” Mozip said outside a meeting of the Michigan Democratic Party’s Yemeni Caucus Sunday.

Campaign spending

Around the convention, canvassers gathered petition signatures for a ban on some corporate political spending. Candidates bragged about not taking money from corporate political action committees while speaking to the main crowd and in smaller meetings.

Still, attendees worried party leadership hadn’t gotten the message.

Jessie Hishon and Susan Sylvester, first-time delegates from metro Detroit who attended the party’s Progressive Caucus meeting — which spilled out of a crowded room — said they felt the party didn’t trust progressive candidates enough to win against Republicans.

“I think there are too many people who don’t believe that it can happen,” Hishon said.

Sylvester said her top issue was the influence of outside spending on Michigan campaigns.

“All of the issues are important to me but we have to take the money out of politics so we can have representation in our so-called democracy,” Sylvester said.

Who takes the blame?

Democrats lost in 2024 because of splits within their traditional coalition of moderates, progressives, and racial and ethnic minorities. With Michigan possibly deciding control of Congress this November, party leaders want to change that story.

A few 2028 presidential maybes spoke at a pre-convention event on Saturday, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, and New Jersey Senator Corey Booker. He warned Democrats that not voting is what let President Donald Trump retake the White House.

“You let somebody get in office who is locking up our children. You let somebody in office who is taking away our healthcare. You let somebody in office who’s taking away workers’ rights. You let somebody in office who got rid of the Department of Education,” Booker said to a cheering crowd at the Women’s Caucus luncheon.

At the convention, some delegates echoed calls for unity and engagement, even though that often requires listening to dissenters.

Detroiter Michelle Broughton said she’s been coming to Democratic Party conventions for over four decades.

“Our message needs to come across to all of us, whether we’re a young Dem or an old Dem,” Broughton said. “They need to talk about tabletop issues: food, gas, education, affordability, housing.”

But old battle lines remained visible on the convention floor.

Tensions over Palestine-Israel conflict

Progressive U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed received massive applause during his speech that criticized outside spending in Michigan races from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Congresswoman Haley Stevens (D-MI 11), who is running against El-Sayed on a more traditional Democratic platform of affordability and re-shoring American manufacturing, followed and received boos.

In the University of Michigan regents race, incumbent Jordan Acker lost his reelection bid. Acker had faced criticism for his handling of pro-Palestine student protests — a fault line that’s grown increasingly fraught for Democrats in recent years. Amir Makled, a lawyer who represented one of those protestors, beat him.

During parts of the program, some attendees said they noticed some fellow delegates causing a disruption when a proposed resolution in support of Palestinians wasn’t taken up. Videos of the crowd appear to show a handful of convention members yelling at presenters.

Kalamazoo delegates Michelle Zukowski-Serlin and her husband Troy said they felt the jeering and booing of candidates crossed a line.

Both attended the party’s Jewish Caucus meeting. They said delegates at that meeting showed more respect to candidates that opposed support for Israel than supporters of those opponents showed pro-Israel candidates on stage.

“This is a bigger issue and that is mutual respect and acting with diplomacy, I would never boo one of their candidates,” Michelle Zukowski-Serlin said.

Could a primary fix the problems?

While many agreed the Democrats should learn from 2024, not everyone agreed on the lesson. Some want a wholesale change to how the party chooses nominees for statewide office, calling for a switch from party conventions to primary elections.

Oakland University political science professor David Dulio said Michigan is a rarity: most other states do use primaries for those down-ballot races — but there is no cure-all for messy nomination fights.

“I think there’s a temptation to think the grass is always greener and that isn’t always the case,” Dulio said.

States started moving toward primaries in the early 20th century to take power away from party insiders and test candidates’ ability to win elections, Dulio said.

“That has become the dominant form of candidate selection from within a political party, but that doesn’t mean the other options aren’t legitimate or that they can’t work,” said Dulio.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said he believes a primary would be better because it would be open to all voters who choose a Democratic Party ballot.

Making that change would require voters to approve a constitutional amendment.

Michigan Republican Party Chair Jim Runestad said there’s little interest in the idea on his side of the aisle, arguing that convention nominations are less susceptible than primaries to big-money spending by outside interest groups.

Progressive surge

For some convention attendees, the lesson was to work within the current framework: support the Democratic nominees that they mostly agree with, even if the nominee is not their top choice. For others, it was that party leadership needs to get behind candidates who inspire, so voters want to support their nominee.

University of Michigan graduate student Nathan Kim said it’s not enough for the party to choose a “status quo” candidate.

“I think the Michigan Democratic Party and the party in general needs to face consequences. They need to know that they can’t get away with failing over, and over, and over again,” Kim said.

Likewise, Katarina Keating, another Michigan graduate student, said some candidates just aren’t worth supporting, even against Republicans.

“You need to draw the line somewhere. Right? If you’re going to vote for anybody if they’re in the right party, no matter what they’ve done or what they’ve said, what are you doing, what are you really voting for, what are you really trying to change?” Keating said.

At the end of the day, nearly every progressive-backed candidate won a party endorsement.

Both the upcoming August primary election, in which the U.S. Senate race remains close, and the November general election could show whether that support extends broadly outside of the convention walls — or if it’s a sign of progressive strength, just within the party’s base.

Originally posted by Michigan Public Radio.

WDET is starting a new series of Crossing the Lines reports Monday centering Highland Park.  The small city of about 8,500 residents has made a good deal of U.S. history through the decades.  It’s also seen hard financial times in recent years.  

WDET journalists have been out in the community for weeks—and will be out there for several more—talking to residents about what they want the rest of metro Detroit to know about their city.

WDET news director Jerome Vaughn is leading Crossing The Lines – Highland Park.  He says he decided to examine the city more deeply because of its central location.

“It’s a place a lot of people in metro Detroit travel through each and every day, but the majority don’t stop in Highland Park to shop or to get a bite to eat.”

Vaughn started researching the city, looking at census records, Highland Park history, and businesses, before heading out to tour the city over a number of weeks.

WDET will air stories on Highland Park through mid-May.  If there’s something about the city you think we should know, drop us a line at news@wdet.org.

In this episode

• Recap of the 2026 Michigan Republican State Endorsement Convention
• Who is running for Secretary of State and Attorney General for the Michigan Democratic Party?

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Michigan Democratic Party is holding their endorsement convention this weekend to determine the party’s supported candidates for critical positions. As part of WDET’s weekly series…MichMash…Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow and Alethia Kasben discusses what those positions are and which candidates have the best chances of winning. Party chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, Curtis Hertel, Jr. describes the convention will go and the status of the Michigan Democratic Party.

“We are prepared for a long day and shorter lines.” said Hertel. The party chair said this might be the largest convention in the history of the Michigan Democratic convention. The voting process is made easier with what Hertel calls a simple text and email based voting system. The voting is proportional voting.

Secretary of State and Attorney General are the biggest positions being voted on during the convention. “Everybody has a chance to run. What’s important is that we run a fair process. It’s going to be an organizing effort. Who can get their people and their votes to the convention floor” said Hertel.

The midterm elections will be held on November 3rd 2026

• More from WDET:
• MichMash: Michigan Republicans hold 2026 state endorsement convention
• US steps into war between Israel and Iran, strikes 3 Iranian nuclear sites

We’re in a moment of polarization. We’re struggling to see each other, to hear one another and to understand different perspectives. 

A 2024 Gallup poll found that 80 percent of adults believe we are greatly divided in our most important values. A more recent New York Times poll found that most voters don’t believe these divisions can be overcome. 

There are fewer and fewer people who have faith in one another. Many believe that our democracy will crumble because we are simply incapable of solving problems across the aisle. 

The folks working in interfaith dialogue think differently. 

Sam Corey spoke with a few of them to understand the promise and limitations of that work.

House Republicans want to eliminate Michigan’s clean energy law requiring 100% renewable power by 2040.

A second bill would also limit distributed energy sources, such as rooftop solar, to just 1% of a utility’s total energy sales. Democrats say that amounts to a ban on community solar programs like Ann Arbor’s Solarize, where neighbors group together to buy solar panels at bulk discounts.

Ann Arbor solar installations jumped from 17 per year to 180 after the Solarize program launched. The 1% cap could hurt that growth.

Republican Rep. Pauline Wendzel says her bill puts “reliability and affordability first.” 

On the other side of the aisle, Democratic Rep. Tonya Myers Phillips points to utilities and their frequent rate increases as the problem behind high energy bills.

Reporter Kyle Davidson from Michigan Advance joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss the battle over energy costs.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

It’s a big election year in Michigan, with statewide races for Governor, Secretary of State and U.S. Senate. While consequential and highly publicized, those races are just the tip of the iceberg. 

Local elections and ballot measures, like one on zoning for data centers in Augusta, MI, or a measure that codifies a citizenship requirement for voting in the state constitution, make up over 95% of elected offices in the United States, according to Josh Altic from Ballotpedia.

“There are over 500,000 local offices that get very little attention, and don’t get the information that voters need.”

One step people can take is to look up their sample ballot, and continue their research from there. Oftentimes, it’s hard to know each candidate, and to see their track record or what they stand for.

One place to go for that information is Ballotpedia, a non-partisan organization that calls itself the “digital encyclopedia of American politics.” It compiles comprehensive election information for 32 states, and for 100 major U.S. cities. Curating that information requires savvy digital investigation, says Altic.

“We do a lot of looking in the deep, dark crannies of the internet for anything the candidate has said about their campaign priorities and what their issues are.”

So how does Ballotpedia do it, and what have they learned that can make you a more informed voter this election?

Josh Altic  is the Director of Content at Ballotpedia. He joined The Metro to discuss how Ballotpedia finds information on local elections, and what trends are emerging this election cycle.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

Michigan elects a new governor this year and WDET is talking to the candidates vying to replace term-limited Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.

One of those in the crowded Republican field for governor is former Michigan Speaker of the House Tom Leonard. He wants to lower taxes and reduce government spending.

But Leonard says he’s also running to protect the future for Michigan’s children, including his own kids.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Tom Leonard: There’s three very simple reasons why I’m doing this. And those are Hannah, Thomas, and Danny. That’s our nine-year-old, our six-year-old, and our now 20-month-old.

When you look at the state of our state right now, the unemployment, the lack of income growth, a quarter of our population right now suffers from some type of mental health issue. Half of them are not getting treatment. The list goes on.

We are doing this because the last thing that we want is for one of our kids to come to us in the next 15-20 years and say, “Dad, we’d love to stay in the greatest state in the country. But unfortunately we have to leave because there’s no opportunity for us here in Michigan.” That’s why we’re doing this.

Education serves as a foundation

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: If you were elected governor, how would you try to address some of that?

TL: There are so many things that we have got to get done to turn this state around. One of the biggest issues that I’m focused on right now is education. Fourth graders right now in this state cannot read at a proficient level. Quinn, that is our foundation, that is our base. And I can tell you as a former prosecutor, if somebody has to drop out of school because they’re illiterate, you have created a pipeline to a welfare check or a prison cell.

I believe we need to make Michigan a right-to-work state again. Growth states in this country are right-to-work states. I believe we need to phase out the income tax.

I hear many of these candidates out there gaslighting people across the state, saying that they’re going to eliminate the state income tax on day one. That’s despite the fact that the legislature isn’t even sworn in until nearly two weeks after the governor comes into office.

I would say look at my past track record and my history. That’s what we did when I was speaker. And when I’m the state’s next governor that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We’re going to get these big-ticket items across the finish line.

Mental health crisis

QK: You mentioned education. What other issues do you think are vitally important at the moment to Michigan?

TL: I seem to be the one candidate out there right now that’s talking about this mental health crisis. As I said, a quarter of our population suffers from some type of mental health issue. Half of them are not getting treatment.

I believe it starts with ending the stigma that comes attached when somebody is diagnosed with a mental health issue. Think about this for a moment. If you or somebody is diagnosed with something physically, what do they typically do? They go to their friends, they go to their family, they go to their place of worship, they ask for prayer, they start treatment.

Sadly, when people are diagnosed with a mental health issue, they are scared. They don’t know what to do. We’ve got to end the stigma that comes attached.

Energy policy reform

TL: Energy costs. This is a big one right now as I travel the state. I’m hearing more and more of people that can no longer afford their electricity bills. Frankly, we’ve got a broken system. We’ve got a Michigan Public Service Commission that no longer works for the people of this state. They work for two monopoly utilities. They sign off on every single rate increase that they ask for.

Enough is enough. We are the one campaign that has put forth a plan to not only bring choice and competition to the state and the utility monopolies, but also shake up the Michigan Public Service Commission.

Right now those regulators, who dictate our rates, are three unelected bureaucrats appointed by the governor. That is way too much power given to the governor. The governor should never control those appointments. Our plan calls for increasing the Michigan Public Service Commission from three to five members, only giving the governor two appointments.

The other appointments would be made by the attorney general, the speaker of the Michigan house and the senate majority leader. These are the types of bold solutions we are putting on the table to address the problems that the people of this state are facing.

Data centers feed into energy problems

QK: There’s been concerns raised by some people about the possibility of rate increases and energy or water problems from the advent of data centers across the state. From some of your past statements, it sounds like you’re not exactly a fan of data centers.

TL: The one being proposed right now that’s being built in Saline Township is 1.4 gigawatts. That is equivalent to the energy used by a million homes. There’s now one being proposed in Van Buren that’s nearly double that, with energy use equal to 2 million homes. Quinn, there are only 4.5 million homes in this entire state. Two industrial-sized data centers alone that they’re proposing would equal the energy for 3 million homes.

I don’t want these things driving-up our energy rates. We need to end the tax subsidies that come attached with these things.

The legislature a couple years ago passed legislation to give tens of millions of dollars to these big tech data centers. They should not be taking money out of our pockets and putting it in the hands of big tech to go out and buy up our farmland. So, end the subsidies.

We need to ban the use of non-disclosure agreements. You’ve got these local governments that are signing these NDA’s. The local citizens have no idea who’s going to be built in their area. They have no idea who’s going to be running these data centers.

These data centers do not create long-term jobs. Yet there is the risk that they are going to drive up our energy rates. And every time I push back on this energy issue, people say, “Well, they’re going to be regulated.” And then I ask the question, “Who’s going to regulate them?” “The Michigan Public Service Commission.” And I say, “So the same three regulators that have given us some of the highest electricity rates in the country, the same three regulators that refuse to tell DTE Energy and Consumers Energy ‘No,’ we are now going to allow to regulate these data centers?” I don’t think so.

I fear that they’re going to drive up our rates. We’ve already got the highest rates in the Midwest and some of the highest in the country. We cannot afford to pay more on our electricity bills.

What to do about political division

QK: It’s no secret how politically divided not only lawmakers but the country and the state as a whole are nowadays. Do you think it’s possible that anyone who would be governor will be able to bring people together at this point in time? Or is it just simply a matter of, “We’ve got to go forward with our policies and hope the other side comes along at some point?”

TL: I believe Democrats gave Republicans a playbook two years ago for what happens when you wake up every day and you have no vision and your only focus is hatred of one person. You lose. And I believe, as a Republican, if Republicans wake up every day and their only focus is hatred of Democrats, they will lose.

They’ve got to put forth a vision. That’s why every single day I’m focused on tackling problems, not people. I’m going to stay bold in my convictions, I’m a strong conservative. I don’t shy away from that. But there is nothing wrong with working across the aisle when it comes to accomplishing things for our state. We’ve actually labeled it the “Dan Campbell” approach.

You may recall when Coach Campbell became the coach of the Lions and he stood on that stage at the first press conference. He didn’t focus on six decades of failure. He didn’t cast blame. He didn’t point the finger. He just simply said, “We’ve got a problem here. And with a lot of grit, a lot of determination, working together with a positive vision every single day, we’re going to turn this program around.”

If Coach Campbell was able to turn the absolute worst sports franchise in the history of all mankind around with that type of vision, we can do the same thing for this state.

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield recently appointed Ali Abazeed as the city’s new Chief Public Health Officer, saying he would be a part of creating a “health in all policies” approach to government.

“We’re really excited to get up and going and also to continue the good work that the department has done over the years, but also to upgrade the software of what public health can look like in the city of Detroit,” he shares. 

Abazeed previously created and led the city of Dearborn’s health department. He also worked as a public health advisor at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

Past policies shape today’s health issues

He says health is impacted by housing quality and environment. He hopes to work with the department’s staff of 280 people to create better health outcomes for Detroiters.

“The challenges that Detroit faces from a health perspective, those aren’t inevitable…  they’re created by decades, if not centuries of decisions made by man, policies that have been excluding people from opportunities,” he says.

Abazeed says the city focuses on a harm reduction approach by working with all city departments to connect the dots for people who live in the city. He says part of that will include having more health department officials out in the city.

“90% of your life expectancy happens in the communities where you live, learn, work, worship, play…  then it requires us to take that 90% collaborative approach across everything that we do at the city,” he says. 

Abazeed says Detroiters face health burdens like asthma, which he says require a multifaceted response. 

He says everyone is entitled to good health. 

“Understanding who has been disqualified, who has been sort of pushed to the side, and whether that’s… in Washington or Dearborn and now in Detroit, I think the work is relatively the same, even if it does take on a little bit of a different scale,” he says. 

The Michigan Democratic Senate Primary is heating up a bit. Polls largely show the trio of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, and State Senator Mallory McMorrow all within the margin of error of each other.

Stevens and McMorrow have been trading off the lead.

The race has simmered with the candidates not really taking shots at each other. That’s now changed.

Yesterday, El-Sayed rallied at the University of Michigan and Michigan State with left-wing influencer Hasan Piker.

Piker’s livestreams – and political commentary – have drawn over three million followers on Twitch.

In 2024, Piker was invited to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but was kicked out over his criticism of Democrats and candidate Kamala Harris – for their failure to stop or criticize Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The 34-year-old Piker has made some controversial statements and his inclusion by the progressive El-Sayed has drawn sharp criticism by centrist Democrats.

When the campaign stops were announced, McMorrow was quick to compare Piker to Nick Fuentes—a far-right white supremacist holocaust denier. Stevens and current Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin also criticized the move.

Detroit-based reporter Tom Perkins looked at the controversy for The Guardian.

He tells WDET’s Russ McNamara that this fight is indicative of an internal struggle within the Democratic Party.

A party divided

Tom Perkins: I think this is really part of the ongoing civil war between the sort of Hillary Clinton wing of the party and the more progressive Bernie Sanders / AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) / Zohran Mamdani wing of the party.

You have El-Sayed and Piker, who are very progressive, and Piker has campaigned or interviewed AOC, Sanders, Zohran Mamdani, etc. And while McMorrow is a little bit younger and more progressive than somebody like Hillary Clinton, a lot of her surrogates, her aides, etc., come from that camp. And so that’s sort of the broader dynamic here and worth keeping in mind.

Accusations of anti-semitism

TP: Piker has been highly critical of Israel. He’s criticized it over its genocide, its rampaging through the Middle East, its war crimes, its atrocities, and he speaks about it in very strong terms. So that’s that alone has drawn some criticism, but he’s also said some pretty controversial things.

[Piker] said Hamas is lesser of the two evils with the Israeli government. Hamas is 1000 times better than the Israeli government. And he said this in the context of looking at who causes more death in the Middle East. And while it’s a controversial statement, people have said, “Oh, well, that’s antisemitic.” But he’s defended himself and said, “No, that’s a criticism of the Israeli government. That’s not a criticism of all Jewish people.”

[Piker] called a sect of Orthodox Jews in Israel who are ethno-supremacists, “inbred.” And that ignited a huge controversy, and that’s been used against him. People have said, “Oh, well, he called all Jews inbred.” He’s, defended that, and said, “No, I use that term to describe Nazis. I use that term to describe ethno-supremacists and racial supremacists of all kinds.”

When I talked with him about it, he said, “Look, there’s a super cut out there of an hour long of me calling different groups inbred, and it has nothing to do with with Jewish people or Jews. It’s just a term that I use to describe supremacists.”

Arab American views

Russ McNamara: What do Arab American leaders say here in Michigan?

TP: For my story, I spoke with seven local and national Arab American and Lebanese American leaders. They all said some variation of the same thing, which is that these attacks on El-Sayed and Piker show that the establishment Democrats are making the same moral and strategic blunders that they made in 2024 that led to Dems electoral demise in Michigan and nationally.

They say this is an attempt to censor criticism of Israel, and they say that it shows the anti-Arab bias that imbues the political establishment. McMorrow in her criticism of El-Sayed and Piker said, “Well, you know, Piker shouldn’t be here, because this happened in the wake of the Temple Israel Synagogue attacks,” which she said that Jewish people are suffering from that. Which is true that Jewish people are suffering from that, and that should be acknowledged, but she doesn’t acknowledge the suffering of the 120,000 Lebanese American people in Michigan.

Their families are from southern Lebanon. Israel has invaded Lebanon, virtually every one of these 120,000 people, either have a family member, a loved one, a friend who has been killed by Israel, or displaced by Israel. A million people are displaced right now in southern Lebanon. Many, many people from Michigan have family members who are suffering. That suffering is reverberating across Southeast Michigan, and that is not being acknowledged by McMorrow or centrist Democrats or establishment Democrats.

RM: How much impact will this actually have on the Democratic Primary?

TP: One of the one of the folks I spoke with for the story was Abed Ayoub, who’s the spokesperson for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), an Arab American civil rights group in Dearborn.

He said to me: “Look, Republicans are making inroads here. If there’s somebody like McMorrow, if there’s a Democratic candidate who’s not considering us, who’s not thinking about our suffering, who’s telling us to be quiet about Israel, then the same things that happened in 2024 are going to happen again. People are going to vote for a Republican. They’re going to stay home, they’re going to vote third party. So yes, if you want to win in Michigan, you might want to acknowledge this suffering. You might want to acknowledge that this is happening.”

I should stress that everybody I spoke with said some variation the same thing, which is the suffering of both people can be acknowledged at the same time. We don’t have to exclude one or the other.

President Donald Trump and Republicans want to transform the election process.

Recently, the president signed an executive order that seeks to change how mail-in voting works, placing it under the oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. Trump and Republicans are also trying to pass the SAVE Act, which would ensure voters provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of registration and a photo ID at the time of voting.

All of this is happening as the president has called to “nationalize the elections,” and as MAGA influencer Steve Bannon has asked ICE officials to patrol polling locations in November. 

What should we make of all these efforts? How secure are voting systems? 

Republican Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent about this and more.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

When President Donald Trump took office, he promised to crack down on immigration. He’s done that. 

Since January of 2025, at least 2,400 immigrants were arrested in Michigan alone. But President Trump and immigration officials are not following an orderly process. Officials are often skirting the law, or violating it. 

This was visible months ago in Minneapolis, when masked ICE agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti and thousands took to the streets. Here in Michigan, the work of ICE is harder to spot. But due to action in the courts, we’ve been learning more. 

Federal judges recently ruled that hundreds of people in Michigan were unconstitutionally detained as they never had a chance of being released on bond. 

For its part, the administration says it’s detaining the “worst of the worst.” But in many cases, non-citizens without a criminal record have been detained. 

So, what do ICE arrests and detentions look like in metro Detroit? What are the stories of those who’ve been detained? How are local police involved in the work? And, who’s fighting back? 

Violet Ikonomova is an investigative reporter for the Detroit Free Press. She spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

The State of Michigan and the City of Romulus have sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to stop them from converting a warehouse into an ICE detention center.

This week on MichMash, Gongwer News Service’s Alethia Kasben talks with Attorney General Dana Nessel to discuss her concerns about the department’s actions and much more.

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode

• Why did the State of Michigan and the City of Romulus sue the U.S. Department of Homeland Security?
• Attorney General Nessel’s take on Pres. Trump attending Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship.
• Data centers in Michigan
• What Attorney Nessel plans to do after leaving office this term. 

Nessel felt that the legality of the Romulus warehouse purchase was in question, and even pointed out the irony of the DHS operation.

“They are taking people who mostly have no criminal records of any kinds and [saying] that these people didn’t come into the state properly so we are going to detain you or deport. Well, DHS didn’t come in to Romulus properly. They are not abiding by the laws. So I think it’s a bit of hypocrisy by the federal government.” 

Nessel said they filed a preliminary injunction so that DHS could not proceed with the project while the legal battle evolves. 

More from WDET:

• Detroit Evening Report: Michigan and city of Romulus file lawsuit to halt ICE detention center

• The Metro: Data centers, coming to a community near you