Left-wing Democrats are riding high – but can they win voters back?

On Saturday night in Michigan, the sky still darkened from the smoke of Canadian wildfires, hundreds of voters packed into Detroit’s 104-year-old opera house, rose from their seats and cheered as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took the stage.

As the two leading men on the American left, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders were there to defeat Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed — a doctor running on a global health care platform.

The supporters wore shirts bearing El-Sayed’s slogan “Medicare for all” and calling for an end to immigration enforcement and US aid to Israel.

But they weren’t the only ones.

Voters and politicians across the country are waiting to see if El-Sayed can win the Democratic nomination to run for Senate in November’s midterm elections. His opponent — Congresswoman Haley Stevens — is a seasoned politician with deep pockets, thanks in part to big corporate campaign donations.

The two represent divisions within the Democratic Party as it seeks to regain control of Congress. On the one hand, it is a central institution supported by traditional power players. On the other side is the left wing of the party, represented by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, as well as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

But as left-wing Democrats see a wave of primary victories this summer — including in New York and Colorado — what remains to be seen is whether they can wrest support from disillusioned working-class voters who flock to President Donald Trump in 2024.

In Michigan — which voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 but Trump four years later — an open Senate seat should be won by Democrats.

The seat was up for grabs, and they’ll need to hold it if the party hopes to make gains in the Senate and stop Trump’s agenda. Whoever wins the Aug. 4 primary will face Trump running mate Mike Rogers come Nov. 3.

At Saturday’s rally, Ocasio-Cortez promised El-Sayed that he represented the “politics of the future,” and some in the crowd were hopeful.

But miles away, other voters were less convinced of Stevens’ ability to win — or to secure a victory for Democrats on policies like health care for all and opposition to Israel’s military operation in Gaza.

“This may not be a time for progressives,” said Colleen Houlihan, 74, of Ferndale, Michigan, who is voting for Stevens. “I want a radical change in the country, but we have to start with this administration and it must be a candidate who can be elected to bring power back to sanity.”