Polls closed in part of Michigan as Democrats voted in a contentious Senate primary, and NBC News said the Justice Department was monitoring polling locations in 4 Michigan cities. William Lawrence, a Democratic candidate in Michigan's 7th Congressional District, said that presence “absolutely does raise concerns.”
Michigan Senate primary
The winner of Michigan's Democratic Senate primary is set to face former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers in November. Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed were the leading candidates in the race, with Stevens backed by retiring Sen. Gary Peters, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, while El-Sayed had endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Three recent public polls that showed El-Sayed leading also put the Black voter share at about 20% of the electorate. An earlier poll from Glengariff Group for the Detroit News and NBC affiliate WDIV of Detroit had Black voters at about 30% of the primary electorate and showed Stevens up by 7 percentage points. Stevens has consistently outperformed El-Sayed among Black voters.
Justice Department monitoring
Lawrence told News' Meet the Press NOW that his campaign had not heard reports of issues at the locations being watched. He said the effort looked like “a dry run and a fact-finding mission to interfere in a bigger way with the general election in November.”
Matt Maasdam, another Democratic candidate in Michigan's 7th Congressional District, said the Trump administration is “trying to inoculate people to thinking this is normal, and it’s not.” Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the department’s “primary monitoring efforts continue today as we seek to ensure free and fair elections nationwide,” and said it was devoting “extensive resources” to uniform and nondiscriminatory monitoring. She added, “We appreciate the cooperation of these jurisdictions in promoting trust and transparency.”
The monitoring question cuts through the primary because it affects how the race is being watched as the vote is counted. Lawrence and Maasdam framed the federal presence as a concern, while Dhillon described it as an election-integrity step tied to transparency in the monitored jurisdictions.
Other races unfolding
In Missouri, former Rep. Cori Bush was trying to reclaim the seat she lost to Rep. Wesley Bell in 2024. In Virginia, Shannon Taylor won the Democratic primary for Virginia's 1st Congressional District and will face GOP Rep. Rob Wittman in the general election.
Maryland’s Democratic-controlled Legislature voted today to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. The Maryland State House in Annapolis was pictured in the source.
