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Poll: Haley Stevens holds seven-point lead over Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan Senate primary

The survey follows a contentious Senate debate in which El-Sayed accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee of shaping U.S. foreign policy on Israel’s behalf.

Haley Stevens
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.). Credit: Courtesy of Haley Stevens for Senate campaign.

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) is holding a seven-point lead over Abdul El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, in the Democratic Michigan Senate primary, according to a Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll released on Wednesday.

The survey of 500 likely Democratic primary voters, conducted July 8-11 by The Glengariff Group, found 48.2% backing Stevens and 41.4% supporting El-Sayed, with 10% undecided. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Among voters who said they had firmly decided, the race was virtually even: 34.1% said they would definitely vote for Stevens, compared with 33.7% for El-Sayed. Stevens led among less-committed voters, with 14.1% saying they would probably support her, compared with 7.7% for El-Sayed.

The poll follows last week’s head-to-head debate, during which El-Sayed accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee of exerting outsized influence over U.S. Middle East policy and said the pro-Israel lobbying group was a leading source of outside spending against his campaign. AIPAC has endorsed Stevens.

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