Michigan Democratic Senate candidates Rep. Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed agreed on one thing during Monday’s primary debate: Stevens is not an ogre.

But Stevens used El-Sayed’s recent musings to donors about the national stakes of his victory to slam the progressive as being too focused on politics beyond Michigan.

“He said that he’s not going to be able to get much done. That he’s not focused on policy for the first two years that he is in the United States Senate. That he’s going to be focused on national politics,” Stevens said during the debate. “Michigan needs a workhorse.”

El-Sayed had told donors on a Zoom call that, if he were elected, he would back a primary challenge to Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman in 2028: “Ideally you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message,” he said, according to audio obtained and published by POLITICO on Monday.

The recording offered the candidates a fresh opportunity to trade attacks in what has been a bitter and ferocious primary, marked by accusations of racism and sexism and battles over Israel’s influence and outside spending. Some Democrats were quick to assume El-Sayed’s “ogre” comment was in reference to Stevens, and criticized his word choice.

In Monday’s debate, the final public face-off between the two candidates before the Aug. 4 primary, Fox 2 Detroit moderator Roop Raj asked El-Sayed if he regretted the remark.

“I was referring to a guy named John Fetterman, who’s a senator from Pennsylvania, who has done terrible things, got elected on a set of values, and is now completely throwing those values in the mud,” El-Sayed said. He also attempted to redirect questions about the audio by implicating Stevens in the race’s heightened rhetoric, blaming her for AIPAC-funded ads portraying him as chauvinistic.

Still, Stevens used the exchange to attack him for having higher political ambitions that could distract him from addressing the concerns of Michigan voters. Later in the debate, Stevens suggested El-Sayed is eyeing a future presidential run.

She did offer him a tongue-in-cheek olive branch, though.

“Thank you for clarifying that you didn’t call me an ogre,” she said.

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