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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Surge, Slate’s weekly politics newsletter for closely monitoring the horse race between Trump’s approval rating and the Washington, D.C., temperature in Celsius. It’s neck and neck.

You simply would not believe the amount of politics that happened this week. Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general is in limbo, but that is not hampering his ability to still serve as attorney general. Anthony Fauci went to the Senate to get yelled at. Plus, a dead man makes Surge history.

But first, let’s begin with a couple of entries checking in on the socialist advance in the Midwest.

1. Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens

Prepare for an earthquake.

The most-watched Senate primary in the country finally concludes this coming Tuesday, as Michigan Democrats choose between progressive insurgent Adbul El-Sayed and moderate Rep. Haley Stevens to go against GOP former Rep. Mike Rogers this fall. The Surge wrote about this race at length (but it reads briskly!) in a separate piece this week. If El-Sayed wins, it would be a shocking change in Democratic politics, with typically cautious Democratic voters nominating a leftist in a critical purple-state Senate race. And then we would just see have to see how that would go in November! If he were to win the general, it would prompt more risk-taking from Democratic primary voters down the road. If he were to lose, Democratic voters would quickly revert to nominating cyborg ex-Marine prosecutors selected by Chuck Schumer.

A couple of polls late this week have made it clear that El-Sayed is the front-runner heading into election night. Tavern Research, which previously had Stevens up by a point in a head-to-head poll, now shows El-Sayed up by 11. And Emerson’s survey showed El-Sayed up by 15. This aligns with the developments in the race, as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who was loath to get involved in the race, jumped in to endorse Stevens late in the contest. Either the polling is wrong—that does happen sometimes—and Stevens takes on Rogers in the fall, or Michigan’s Senate contest this fall will be a fascinating test of progressive populism’s appeal in a swing state.

Next socialist stop: Wisconsin.

If you have not been paying attention to the Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary, allow us to introduce you to one of the Democratic establishment’s more baroque messes of this cycle. The establishment initially rallied around Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, particularly after two of her competitors dropped out to endorse her. A couple of weeks ago, though, Rodriguez dropped out due to........

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