On August 4, both parties will hold primaries in five states: Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Virginia, and Washington. While there are many contests of great local interest, the national political focus will be on the Democratic primaries in Michigan and Missouri. These are the latest tests for the national progressive surge that emerged in earlier 2026 primaries (especially in New York and Colorado). In Michigan, we will get the first of several opportunities to see if a shift to the left can succeed in competitive as well as deep-blue territory. And in Missouri, a comeback attempt by a previously defeated Squad member will be a barometer for intraparty change.

Without question, the marquee August 4 primary is the Democratic U.S. Senate contest in Michigan to fill the seat current occupied by Democrat Gary Peters, who is retiring. Holding this seat is considered essential to Democratic prospects of flipping Senate control (or at least as essential as the endlessly scrutinized Senate battle in Maine). Republicans are set with former congressman Mike Rogers, who lost a close Senate race to Elissa Slotkin, even as Trump carried the state in 2024. But Democrats have one of those intensely polarized one-on-one contests loved by fans of “struggles for the soul of the party,” with former state health director Abdul El-Sayed facing (and favored over) Congresswoman Haley Stevens.

El-Sayed is not a member of Democratic Socialists of America, but he is being strongly backed by that controversial organization, which will add this contest to its list of claimed triumphs if he wins. He also has maximum support from progressive luminaries Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Elizabeth Warren. (The latter originally backed a third candidate, Mallory McMorrow, but her once-promising bid to offer a compromise choice for progressives and centrists didn’t gain much traction, and she suspended her campaign in July.) While El-Sayed has embraced the usual array of standard-brand progressive........

© Daily Intelligencer