Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has announced a last-minute endorsement of U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in her Democratic Senate primary battle against former Wayne County public health official Abdul El-Sayed.
The latter’s campaign rightly notes that “the corporate establishment has closed ranks and made their pick” — but that understates the Medicare For All context of the endorsement by Whitmer, who has close ties to one of her state’s most powerful health care corporations.
Remember: El-Sayed has devoted his adult life to championing Medicare For All — he literally wrote the book on it — and has based his Senate campaign around a promise to make it a reality. He is a huge threat to the private health insurance industry. Stevens, by contrast, is an opponent of Medicare For All. She is no threat to that industry.
And so with El-Sayed surging in the polls, Stevens is getting a lifeline from Whitmer — a politician with familial and campaign finance ties to a major health insurance corporation whose business could be limited or ended by Medicare For All.
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