New York Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez whirled through Michigan last weekend, stopping for selfies, giving impassioned speeches and stumping for gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

Ocasio-Cortez is a rock star in progressive circles, maybe only behind Bernie Sanders, who also endorsed El-Sayed and will rally his supporters this Sunday. She brought big ideas and fresh perspectives to a Democratic congressional primary in New York, toppling incumbent and longtime Congressman Joe Crowley.

More progressive Democrats - like those who supported Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016 - are hoping Ocasio-Cortez's win is emblematic of a progressive wave that sweeps the country. It's a hopefulness that's focused all eyes on Michigan, where national groups have pegged El-Sayed's candidacy as a strong indication of where the future of the Democratic party lies.

In conventional political thinking, the odds are stacked firmly against El-Sayed. He's consistently polled behind other Democratic gubernatorial candidates Gretchen Whitmer and Shri Thanedar, except in one poll released by his campaign. Both of his opponents outraised him in the most recent campaign finance reports. Traditional Democratic support has fallen solidly behind Whitmer.

But nationally, he's become a light of hope for the progressive cause. And the poll numbers don't intimidate him.

"The polling tells you nothing," El-Sayed said during a Flint stop with Ocasio-Cortez last weekend.

"All I'm saying is you saw the excitement there, you saw the folks who turn out for this movement, and our job is to excite people to believe in their politics again."

National help for El-Sayed

El-Sayed's Flint event with Ocasio-Cortez drew more than 300 people in a standing-room-only crowd.

One of them was Zach Goettel, 28, of Davison. He supported Bernie Sanders in 2016 and was excited to see Sanders endorse El-Sayed. What draws him to El-Sayed as a candidate is his more progressive views.

"I like that he's really strong when he comes out and says he supports Medicare for all," Goettel said.

Like Sanders did during the presidential election, El-Sayed has put out plans that favor of single-payer health care, affordable college and a $15 minimum wage.

And while local residents packed the audience in Flint, national media packed the press box. It's a race that's attracted a lot of national attention -- The New York Times recently profiled the race's progressive dynamic, while stories from The Intercept and Huffington Post have lauded El-Sayed and portrayed Thanedar, who is also running from the left, as a fake progressive.

His latest campaign finance report reflects a national enthusiasm for his campaign among an influential set; he counts Ben Affleck and Susan Sarandon among his donors.

He's been endorsed by Our Revolution, a national group that "supports progressive champions," according to its website.

People are watching the race to see if he pulls off the next upset like Ocasio-Cortez's, said Matt Grossmann, director of Michigan's State University's Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, who is currently on sabbatical.

"It's a search around the country for similar type races, and honestly, it's sort of a sign that there aren't that many," Grossman said, pointing to El-Sayed's lackluster performance in the polls.

And then there's the other problem: he's not the only candidate running as a progressive.

Field full of progressives

Every candidate in the race for the Democratic governor nomination identifies as a progressive. Every candidate supports increasing the minimum wage, increasing college affordability and addressing health care, though only two, El-Sayed and Thanedar, favor single-payer.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Brandon Dillon this week was dismissive of the notion that there was a progressive vs. establishment dynamic in the governor's race.

"My stance is every single Democratic candidate running for governor is a progressive candidate," Dillon said.

There's no guarantee Whitmer, widely considered the frontrunner, is susceptible to attacks from the left, said Grossman, because she's known as a liberal lawmaker.

"It's not that she was hand-picked by people in a smoke-filled room, she won the support of Democratic interest groups and politicians in a slow process," Grossman said.

House Democratic Leader Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, who is supporting Whitmer, hit back against the notion that Whitmer isn't the progressive in the race.

"I think it's almost comical. She has been the progressive. She's been the person fighting in the trenches with us all along," Singh said.

So why is everybody embracing the progressive label?

Wayne State University Associate Professor of Political Science Jeffrey Grynaviski, who studies voter behavior and political parties, said the motivated base for progressives is millennials who feel economically disenfranchised. They went to college and took on student loans with the expectation they would get white-collar jobs, and instead find themselves under-employed and in debt.

"I think a lot of the progressive ideals really resonate with that group of voters, because it's in their economic self-interest," Grynaviski said.

But El-Sayed is confident in his ability to differentiate himself as the race's most progressive candidate. Going into the primary, El-Sayed is confident about his chances against Whitmer. Michigan is a progressive state, he said.

"This state went for Bernie Sanders, then went for Donald Trump. What they don't have an appetite for is corporate-backed Democrats who give you nothing but the same," El-Sayed said.

Progressives seek systemic change

El-Sayed's candidacy isn't an anomaly nationally, and it's not an anomaly in Michigan. A number of candidates across the state are running on similarly progressive platforms.

Laurie Pohutsky is running as a progressive for the 19th House District in Livonia, where she will compete in the Democratic primary against Dan Centers on Aug. 7. She's a scientist, woman and survivor of sexual assault - three groups of people she saw as being attacked on the national level after the 2016 election. So she decided to run for office herself.

"The more I thought about it, the more I thought that the most meaningful thing I could do to make positive change was to actually run for office," Pohutsky said.

It wasn't one candidate or platform that inspired her. It was the idea that the political system had strayed from putting people first. She's been knocking doors for more than a year and met people who had never had a politician come ask what their concerns were before. She met people who felt like the government wasn't working for them.

"The most important thing to me that 'progressive' means is wanting government for the people by the people," Pohutsky said.

She thinks progressives running all over the state have put the Michigan Democratic Party on notice. If they secure wins, she said, the Democratic establishment will know it needs to take its progressive members more seriously.

A similar dynamic played out in the party's April endorsement convention, where Dana Nessel tapped into a progressive base to best Pat Miles, who was endorsed by the party's powerful labor caucus.

But Grossman warned against the comparison, saying a party convention vote was "very different than winning a gubernatorial nomination with a public primary vote."

But progressives are hoping it's not. They see the same energy and momentum that has preceded wins nationally.

Ocasio-Cortez is confident that her victory is part of a larger trend. Asked when progressives would comprise the majority of the Democrats, Ocasio-Cortez was upbeat.

"I think it's all possible this year and, you know, it all depends on midterm elections," she said.

In Michigan, the Aug. 7 primary will be a big indication.