Abdul El-Sayed wins Democratic Senate primary in battleground Michigan
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Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a rallyin Detriot on Aug. 3. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Abdul El-Sayed, a left-wing outsider, won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary in a rancorous and wildly expensive match-up against moderate Rep. Haley Stevens.
Why it matters: The November election to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is widely seen as one of the most competitive contests in the country.
- For Democrats to regain the Senate majority, El-Sayed will almost certainly need to hold the blue seat amid an unfavorable national map.
- The Associated Press called the race for El-Sayed about 10 am Wednesday.
Driving the news: El-Sayed's victory is the biggest achievement yet for the insurgent left this year, capping off a string of primary victories for progressives in House races from New York to Colorado.
- A charismatic former public health official, El-Sayed prevailed even as establishment-oriented Democrats and their allies pulled out all the stops to defeat him.
- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Peters backed Stevens, and El-Sayed was vastly outspent by outside groups supporting his opponent, including AIPAC's political arm.
- El-Sayed, for his part, boasted the support of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Detroit-based United Auto Workers — along with a ragtag crew of left-wing activists and new media voices like controversial Twitch streamer Hasan Piker.
Now comes an even tougher fight: El-Sayed will face former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, who lost by only a fraction of a percentage point to now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024.
- El-Sayed must unite a fractured party after a nasty primary, in which Stevens said that El-Sayed wants "to blame all of [his] problems on Jewish Americans." Attack ads also suggested he's sexist.
- El-Sayed took shots at Stevens as well, saying during the primary that she can't "string two coherent sentences."
- As for the criticisms against him, El-Sayed has vowed to fight antisemitism and denied that he is sexist.
What's next: A recent poll by EPIC-MRA of 600 likely voters found Rogers leading El-Sayed by three percentage points.
- Many centrist Democrats say they're terrified that El-Sayed cannot win because he's too far- left.
But El-Sayed has pushed back against that argument, saying that he has built a grassroots movement despite a huge cash disadvantage.
- "When most people say I'm not electable, what they're pointing at is my name and my faith in a state that elected Barack Obama twice," he told The 19th.
- "Turns out, electable candidates actually have to build movements, and the fact that she has not and is making up for it with the $60 million in character attacks that AIPAC is driving into our politics says a lot about who's more electable in a general election," he said of Stevens.
The intrigue: Some on the left are already floating El-Sayed's name as a potential 2028 presidential contender, though he has said he's ruled that out.
