Republican Michigan Senate candidate and former Rep. Mike Rogers said the Democratic Party's embrace of socialist candidates is evidence that the party has moved "so far to the left" that everyday Americans are now starting to notice.
What the Left Is Saying
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has campaigned on policies similar to those promoted by New York City's winning candidates, including universal healthcare and criticism of U.S. partnership with Israel over humanitarian concerns during the war in Gaza.
"I think that the Democratic Party walked away from working and middle-class Americans a decade ago," Rogers said, paraphrasing progressive arguments about economic policy. "In Michigan, people are starting to wake up to this notion that we can't continue to do this and expect our kids to stay."
Progressive candidates have pointed to polling showing support for policies such as Medicare-for-all and addressing cost of living concerns as evidence of broader appeal beyond traditional Democratic base voters.
"These three Democrats are talking about shared misery," Rogers said, characterizing the progressive platform. "We're gonna share our misery with everybody in the state."
What the Right Is Saying
Rogers pointed to recent primary results including New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's victory and down-ballot wins by Democratic Socialists of America members as evidence of a leftward trajectory.
"Welcome to the modern Democratic Party," Rogers told Fox News Digital. "This is not your dad's Democratic Party. It's not your grandmother's Democratic Party. This thing has veered so far to the left, and Michigan is at the epicenter of that."
Rogers cited Graham Platner's Senate primary victory in Maine as evidence voters are rejecting the party's direction despite controversies surrounding his candidacy.
"But people see a guy in Maine, Nazi tattoo, communist in 2019 espousing," Rogers said. "You see the candidates in our race who are flirting with all that Democrat socialism."
What the Numbers Show
Rogers is running in Michigan's Republican Senate primary, while El-Sayed will face fellow progressive state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., in the Democratic primary.
Both primaries are scheduled for August 4 to determine who will fill the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
Sanders won Michigan's 2016 Democratic presidential primary, which Rogers cited as evidence of a progressive faction within the party.
The candidates have campaigned on platforms centered on abolishing ICE, universal healthcare, affordability and criticism of Israel.
The Bottom Line
Rogers is competing in a Republican primary field while Democrats will choose between multiple progressive candidates in August.
Michigan depends heavily on manufacturing jobs, which Rogers argued would be threatened by socialist economic policies that "don't allow those jobs to grow."
"That's why our message is resonating, and that's why we're doing as well as we are on the ground," Rogers said of his campaign's focus on economic policy contrasts.