Third Way Announces $15 Million Campaign to Fight DSA After El-Sayed's Michigan Primary Win

Since Abdul El-Sayed's razor-thin primary win over Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan's Senate race this week, the intraparty fight over the Democratic Party's direction has escalated fast. Third Way, a centrist Democratic group, confirmed to Fox News Digital it's launching a $15 million campaign running through 2028 aimed at discrediting the Democratic Socialists of America.

Third Way co-founder Matt Bennett didn't mince words about why. "We believe the DSA poses a serious threat to Democrats," he told Fox News Digital. "Their ideas are dangerous and their politics are toxic. If we are to beat MAGA Republicans, we cannot allow our party to be defined by radicals."

The campaign will include opposition research on the DSA, polling, social media programs, and outreach to educate Democratic activists and party leaders, according to Fox News Digital's reporting. Third Way says the effort targets the organization itself, not individual candidates who've already won nominations this cycle.

El-Sayed and other DSA-aligned winners in two Michigan congressional primaries are now the party's actual nominees. Third Way going after them by name this close to the midterms would risk handing Republicans ammunition and alienating the voters who just picked these candidates. Going after the organization instead is a more calculated fight.

Why Now

El-Sayed's win wasn't an isolated event. It follows a string of primary victories for progressive and DSA-aligned candidates earlier this spring and summer, according to Fox News Digital. Moderate Democrats worry this pattern could repeat itself heading into the 2028 presidential primary, where progressive contenders could use 2026 momentum as a launching pad.

The concern from Third Way and allied moderates isn't abstract. Michigan is a genuine battleground state. Stevens was viewed by many establishment Democrats as the safer general-election bet against whoever Republicans nominate. El-Sayed's win, even a narrow one, means Democrats are betting a Senate seat in a swing state on a candidate well to the left of the outgoing losing side of that primary.

The Other Side

DSA co-chair Megan Romer pushed back hard on Third Way's framing. "$15 million to tell working class people that a better world isn't possible?" Romer told Fox News Digital. "We believe in people power, and our vision for a better future is winning. We will keep building our movement, and they will waste their money."

DSA-aligned candidates are making a core argument to voters: that establishment Democrats have failed to deliver on economic issues and that voters are choosing candidates who prioritize working families over what progressives call corporate interests. Colorado progressive Melat Kiros made a similar case regarding El-Sayed's race, arguing his win reflects real voter frustration with the Democratic establishment, not some fringe phenomenon.

Primary voters, not Third Way, picked El-Sayed. If Democratic primary voters in a swing state are consistently choosing further-left candidates over establishment-backed ones, that signals where the party's base actually stands, whatever national strategists think is electorally safer.

What's Unresolved

Whether El-Sayed can actually win the general election in Michigan is the question nobody can answer yet. Fox News Digital's reporting doesn't include general election polling for the Senate race, and no such data appears in the available coverage. The primary win establishes El-Sayed as the nominee. It does not establish that he beats his Republican opponent in November.

Third Way's $15 million bet assumes the DSA's rising influence is a liability that costs Democrats winnable seats. The DSA's bet is that authenticity on economic populism outperforms establishment caution with actual voters. Michigan will be one of the clearest tests of which side is right, and the results won't be in until the midterms play out this November.