Democrats look to key Senate race to define party – but ‘fed-up’ Michigan voters just want change

Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed, who are running for the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan. Photograph: Getty Images

In Macomb county, Michigan – a blue-collar Detroit suburb that twice voted for Barack Obama before backing each of Donald Trump’s three runs for the US presidency – residents are exhausted.

Time and again, township trustee Shannon King, a Democrat still making up his mind, hears similar complaints. “You’re going backwards in your paycheck. You’re going backwards in your healthcare,” he said. “You go to work every day. You might have a side hustle. Your significant other has a side hustle, too. And you’re still struggling to do childcare.”