Mallory McMorrow, the Democratic Michigan state senator who tried to cut a middle path between moderate and left-wing rivals, suspended her campaign for the U.S. Senate on Sunday amid poor polling numbers and advertising that did not keep pace with her two main rivals.
“Today, I’m announcing that I am suspending my campaign for United States Senate,” Ms. McMorrow said in a video posted on social media. She thanked her volunteers, donors and staff for their support.
Ms. McMorrow’s departure leaves Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary a two-way contest between Representative Haley Stevens, a moderate, and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official. Ms. Stevens is backed by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and pro-Israel groups, while Dr. El-Sayed has endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Ms. McMorrow did not make an endorsement in her announcement Sunday but said that she would support whoever wins the primary.
Ms. McMorrow’s argument to Michigan voters was that they did not have to choose between Ms. Stevens, a four-term congresswoman with deep ties to the party establishment, and Dr. El-Sayed, whose left-wing views have made some Democrats nervous about his ability to win a general election. He lost the 2018 Democratic primary for governor to Gretchen Whitmer, who subsequently won two general elections by wide margins.
“We are being presented right now with what I believe is a false binary choice” between “the status quo in Haley Stevens” and “a candidate who has never won a campaign before,” Ms. McMorrow said in a CNN interview last month.
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