Why AOC was in a deep-red part of Michigan: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, Jonathan Allen digs into Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Plus, Allan Smith rounds up the battleground Republican candidates who are distancing themselves from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

— Adam Wollner

Why AOC was in a deep-red part of Michigan

Analysis by Jonathan Allen

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign swing with Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed today was about much more than boosting him on Election Day in November.

It was about all the Election Days after that, too.

As a leader in the socialist-inspired wing of the Democratic Party, and one who is weighing a bid for the presidency, Ocasio-Cortez is eager to find evidence for the case that progressives are as good as centrists at persuading swing voters to pick Democrats — maybe even better.

It’s a counterintuitive argument and one that is central to the left’s strategy for winning primary fights — including the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. In higher-turnout elections, party voters often reject more liberal candidates at least in part because they believe those candidates would lose to Republicans in general elections.

The left hopes an El-Sayed victory would persuade the broader Democratic Party to reverse that behavior.

“What we do is that we break open the entire political calculus in America — period,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a New York fundraiser this month. “Because if you can win, if Abdul can win in Michigan, anybody can win anywhere.”

For AOC and El-Sayed today, anywhere was Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The 320-mile-wide rural strip, most of which is closer to Duluth, Minnesota, than Detroit, has long been an emblem of rural Republican strength. By campaigning there, El-Sayed and Ocasio-Cortez want to demonstrate that they are reaching out to red-area voters and later that they were successful in winning converts.

But while the UP votes reliably with Republicans at the national level, there are plenty of progressive voters. In areas dominated by one party, often the people who remain in the other party are committed to ideological orthodoxy.

El-Sayed did well in the Upper Peninsula in his primary, defeating centrist Democrat Haley Stevens in all three of the counties AOC was set to visit today. Without converting a single Republican, he should be able to expect tens of thousands of votes from the region.

Kamala Harris even won one of the counties AOC traveled to — Marquette — 20,866 to 17,459.

Maybe El-Sayed will swipe some swing voters from the UP, but the real value of AOC’s presence is bringing out as many of those Democrats as possible. If she can do that, the left will contend that its candidates are a better bet for the party in general elections. In fact, they’re already starting to make that case before the votes are in.

Some Republicans in key races break with Trump over tariffs

By Allan Smith

In a handful of battleground races, Republican candidates are trying to distance themselves from one of President Donald Trump’s signature policy initiatives: tariffs.

So far, three GOP Senate nominees and two of the party’s picks for governor are trying to cast themselves as seeking a middle ground on what has been Trump’s marquee economic policy, particularly with the cost of living rating as a top voter concern.

The battleground Senate candidates are Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, former Sen. John Sununu in New Hampshire and former Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan. Rep. John James of Michigan and Pennsylvania state Treasurer Stacy Garrity have also highlighted their disagreements with Trump’s tariff policies in their gubernatorial contests.

“So, of course, nobody, I don’t think, agrees with the president 100% of the time,” Garrity said at a debate last week when she was asked for specific areas of disagreement with Trump. “In fact, who agrees with anyone 100% of the time? And tariffs would be a perfect example. While some tariffs have helped manufacturers, some have not.”

The maneuvering is taking place as Republican candidates across the map try to figure out where they can safely distance themselves from Trump without offending him or his dedicated base, which they must turn out to the polls next month.

Trump has spent years reorienting the Republican Party from a position of supporting mostly unfettered free trade to having a protectionist bent. What makes the splits over tariffs interesting is that they’re taking place mostly in states — Michigan and Pennsylvania — that were supposed to reap some of the biggest benefits from those policies through a return of manufacturing jobs.

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That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Lauren Zola.

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