Anthony Fauci; Abdul El-Sayed; Trump’s economy : NPR

Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.

Today’s top stories

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has won Rep. Haley Stevens’ seat in Michigan’s primary, setting the stage for a face-off with Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in the upcoming November midterms. They are competing for a Senate seat being vacated by Democratic Senator Gary Peters. This Senate race is seen as crucial for Democrats aiming to regain control of the Senate from Republicans.

• 🎧 No Republican has secured a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan since the ’90s, according to Michigan Public Radio’s Colin Jackson. El-Sayed, who campaigned alongside Bernie Sanders and AOC, built a younger coalition. Jackson notes that El-Sayed now needs to appeal to the traditional coalition that Stevens depended on, which includes Black, working-class, and Jewish voters. El-Sayed also faces a major fundraising challenge, as Republican groups have already pledged at least $45 million against him. Rogers, known for appealing to the Make America Great Again base, has labeled El-Sayed as a communist and extremist, claims which El-Sayed, an Egyptian-American, dismisses as baseless. For Rogers to succeed, he must attract MAGA Republicans while not alienating independents who oppose President Trump.

A Senate committee is expected to vote today on whether to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress. The retired health official, who led the U.S. government’s coronavirus response, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination last week during a hearing, refusing to answer lawmakers’ questions. Fauci has frequently clashed with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., over the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the hearing, Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci’s private diary entries, accusing him of concealing his uncertainty about the pandemic’s cause. The vote on Fauci comes a day after the Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency Fauci closely worked with during the pandemic.

At a Las Vegas event yesterday, Trump promoted his economic agenda, which has struggled to gain traction as prices have risen amid the U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran. Las Vegas, heavily reliant on tourism, finds that tipped workers say the president’s policies aren’t benefiting them. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that more Americans now favor Democrats over Republicans on economic issues for the first time in nearly a decade. Trump maintains that the U.S. economy is thriving under his policies, including no taxes on tips, while attributing high prices to conditions inherited from Democrats.