Op-Ed: Michigan Democrats are not champions for auto workers
Brian Pannebecker, Founder of Auto Workers for Trump
Detroit News
February 13, 2026
Michigan’s Democratic candidates for Senate, Haley Stevens, Mallory McMorrow and Abdul El-Sayed, are all in Washington, D.C. this week, courting the United Auto Workers (UAW) leadership and talking a big game about standing with union families. However, their priorities could not be further away from those of Michigan’s proud auto workers. All three of them support the disastrous Green New Deal policies that threaten to decimate the very industry the UAW fights to protect.
Hours before the UAW went on strike in September 2023, Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham turned her back on Michigan’s auto workers by voting against the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act, advancing the Biden administration’s electric vehicle agenda and requiring new vehicles to have zero emissions. She even voted for Biden’s EV mandate, opposing legislation that would have blocked the EPA from limiting the availability of new vehicles based on engine type.
Sen. Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak is a known champion of Joe Biden’s disastrous clean energy policies and even said that Michigan’s auto industry is an “Achilles’ heel for us.” She introduced legislation to build a statewide EV charging network and to help support the growth of electric vehicles. McMorrow believes that if Michigan does not invest in electric vehicles, it will be left behind.
Then there is former public health official, Abdul El-Sayed, who believes that Biden’s EV mandates did not go far enough and wants to implement Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s radical Green New Deal. He is also one of the loudest of them advocating for Medicare for All, which would eliminate the UAW’s single most powerful bargaining chip: employer-provided health care. For generations, health benefits have been a cornerstone of union negotiations, allowing workers to secure better coverage. Give everyone universal government healthcare and the UAW is almost powerless to the big corporations.
The UAW itself has been openly skeptical of Democrats’ aggressive push for electric vehicles, arguing it would be disastrous for Michigan’s auto industry. These mandates are at least partially responsible for the auto layoffs in 2024 that ravaged Detroit. It is estimated that a forced transition to EVs could cost Michigan as many as 35,000 more auto jobs. EVs require fewer parts, less labor and dramatically different supply chains. That is not a “just transition” for workers who have spent decades building internal combustion engines, and in many aspects are the backbone of America’s economy.
Yet, these policies are the foundation of Democrats’ progressive agenda. No matter how hard Haley Stevens, Mallory McMorrow and Abdul El-Sayed try, they cannot run away from this reality and their history that paints a very different picture than the one they are trying to paint today.
They are out-of-touch with Michigan’s proud unionized auto workers and will sell them out the first chance they get.
In Michigan, “made in America” is not just a slogan; it is a way of life. It helps families put food on the table, gas in the tank and their kids through college. Michigan’s auto industry deserves a fighter in Washington who understands that, not a senator more concerned with pushing their radical Green New Deal agenda.
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