What Was on the Minds of Michigan Voters? Many Cited the Economy and Trump.

The hard-fought Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, which pits Dr. Abdul El-Sayed against Representative Haley Stevens, has often been described as a battle over whether the Democratic Party should move to the left or the center as well as a referendum on Israel.

But what was on the minds of voters on Tuesday as they cast their ballots?

Pre-primary polling on which issues have been motivating voters, while limited, pointed to a Democratic primary electorate that was deeply concerned about the economy and President Trump. Issues related to Israel, Gaza or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which opposes Dr. El-Sayed and has spent heavily on the race supporting Ms. Stevens, were not cited among top concerns.

Nineteen percent of likely Democratic primary voters listed opposition to Mr. Trump and Republicans as the main motivation for their vote in a recent Detroit News/ WDIV-TV poll. Effectively tied for first place, at 18 percent, were concerns about the economy and the cost of living. A small but sizable share — 12 percent — said they were focused on electing Democrats and taking back control of the U.S. Senate.

Here are the issues that some voters said they were motivated by:

Health care

Sarah Swider, 54, a professor at Wayne State University, said she was concerned that too many people lacked access to health care and that she was voting for Dr. El-Sayed. “We are one of the richest nations in the world, if not the richest,” she said. Ms. Swider added that in other countries she has lived in, “they all have health care for all.”

The economy and the cost of living

Delilah Reynolds Fields, a 56-year-old bakery owner in Detroit, said the price of gas and other rising costs of living were having a “very direct” effect on her business and were the biggest factor in her voting decisions.

“I feel the impact,” she said, adding, “I think it’s affecting everyone.”

She has voted for Democrats and Republicans, she said, noting that she feels “politically homeless” and that the Democratic Party takes voters like her for granted. But she voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, she said. This year, she added, she has a “pretty strong sense” that she will vote for Democrats in November. She declined to say whom she voted for Tuesday.

Opposition to President Trump

Regina Mines, 61, of Detroit said her biggest concern was a sense that Mr. Trump was “humiliating” the United States internationally and dividing the country domestically. His second term has, in her view, been far worse than his first, she added, citing his politicization of the Justice Department and the war with Iran, among other issues.

“We look really bad around the world, and the office is not being upheld like it should be,” said Ms. Mines, a retiree who had worked in health insurance. “I’m embarr***ed about his language. The way he carries himself. The way he talks about people. It’s just embarr***ing.”

Ms. Mines said she voted for Ms. Stevens for Senate because of how she had helped the auto industry under the administration of Barack Obama, her favorite president.

Data centers

Jack Gruszczynski, 34, a museum educator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, said he was focused on one issue: limiting data centers in Michigan.

“I really feel like Gretchen Whitmer, who’s a governor who I’ve loved for most of her time here, has really failed Michiganders in the last few months of her time by allowing data centers to come into the state,” said Mr. Gruszczynski. (Ms. Whitmer pushed for a law that offered tax incentives for data centers.) He said he was voting for Dr. El-Sayed on Tuesday, but that in November he could be open to supporting a Republican for the first time if one had a strong stance against data centers.

Israel and AIPAC

While Israel and Gaza did not necessarily show up as particularly motivating to voters in polling results, that may be a reflection of the polling landscape in this primary. Most polls did not even ask voters about their top issues, and the ones that did so asked in a limited fashion.

AIPAC spent more than $30 million on ads and outreach to promote Ms. Stevens, who has been supportive of Israel, over Dr. El-Sayed, who has said he believes that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza.

But for many Democratic primary voters in Michigan, affiliation with AIPAC can be a liability. A majority of the state’s likely Democratic primary voters viewed the organization negatively in a poll conducted by Data for Progress, a Democratic polling firm. However, 40 percent of voters had not heard of the organization.

Mira Hughes, 22, of Hamtramck, said she was supporting Dr. El-Sayed because “he’s going to get into office and make sure that our tax dollars don’t go to Israel to bomb children.”

Nada Chamoun, 49, a real estate agent in Dearborn, Mich., said after voting, “I don’t want this war.”

Ms. Chamoun, who voted for Dr. El-Sayed, said she typically splitted her ballot in general elections, voting based on individual candidates. But this November, she said, she planned to vote only for Democrats because of the “state of the world we’re in right now.” She is concerned about how the conflict is affecting the cost of living, she said.