Politics

Poll: McMorrow and El-Sayed Tied In Michigan U.S. Senate Race, Stevens Trails

April 16, 2026, 9:11 AM by  Allan Lengel


Mallory McMorrow, Abdul El-Sayed, Haley Stevens

A poll released Thursday shows state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Abdul El-Sayed tied in the Democratic U.S. Senate race, with Congresswoman Haley Stevens trailing the two by a sizable margin.

The poll, conducted by Emerson College Polling for WOOD TV8 and in Grand Rapids and Nexstar Media, between April 11 and 13, shows McMorrow and El-Sayed tied at 24 percent, with Stevens lagging at 13 percent. Another 36 percent are undecided.

Brian Stryker, a pollster for the Stevens' camp, issued a statement on social media disputing the results.

"This poll methodology is irresponsibly flawed, Emerson should be ashamed to put it out," he wrote on X. "It massively underrepresents the older, non-college Democratic primary voters that support Haley Stevens the most in every poll."

"Emerson put out an outlier poll last time in Michigan, were made aware of their errors, and then doubled down on them with an even more skewed poll. Their poll is an outlier because it’s badly done."

Camille Mumford, a spokesperson for the poll, did not respond to emails and a phone message for comment. 

The poll shows that support for El-Sayed has jumped by 8 percentage points since January and by 2 percentage points for McMorrow, while Stevens has seen a drop of 4 points.

Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a press release:

“There are clear generational differences in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary: voters under 40 support El-Sayed over McMorrow by a 17-point margin, 35 percent to 18 percent, while voters over 50 support McMorrow over El-Sayed by a 12-point margin, 29 percent to 17 percent. Meanwhile, 13 percent support Stevens.”

In a press release, El-Sayed said about the poll:

“We’re gaining ground because we’re talking about the issues that actually matter to Michiganders. This is about providing a vision for what we can have: standing up to corporations for the people to provide guaranteed healthcare, affordable housing, good schools and an economy that works for working people."

The sample of Democratic primary voters, 519, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. The sample of Republican primary voters, 452, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.

The poll shows Mike Rogers far ahead in the GOP U.S. Senate race with 55 percent, with 38 percent undecided.




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