Anti-Israel Democratic candidate El-Sayed nearing victory in Michigan Senate primary
Times of Israel · LC · trust 48/100
Progressive, anti-Israel candidate Abdul El-Sayed was leading a tight race for Michigan’s Democratic US Senate nomination against moderate US Rep. Haley Stevens in the early morning hours of Wednesday, with early tallies showing El-Sayed with a small lead as some outlets called the race in his favor.
Both addressed supporters, saying the vote count could continue well into the day.
“We knew that this was going to be a close race, and that’s exactly what we’ve got,” Stevens said. “I am feeling fired up, and you should be too.”
The bitter and expensive campaign attracted national attention not just because the general election for the seat will help decide which party controls the Senate. It also became the most notable proxy battle between the Democratic Party’s establishment and progressive wings, with positions on Israel and the Middle East at the forefront of the fight.
The winner will face Republican Mike Rogers in November in a race critical to Democrats’ hopes of regaining control of the US Senate.
With 93 percent of the votes counted by early Wednesday morning, Politico showed El-Sayed with 48.7% of the vote and Stevens with 47.3%.
NBC called the vote in favor of El-Sayed, but most US outlets said the race was still too close to call.
The mood started out jubilant Tuesday evening at El-Sayed’s election night watch party at a concert hall in Detroit. Over 200 supporters cheered as a large projector displayed his early lead in the race, though only single digits of the results were in. But as more of the mail-in vote was tallied, the crowd started to boo as his lead eroded.
Scattered figures throughout the crowd wore keffiyehs and other pro-Palestinian gear. One supporter clad in a campaign shirt for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani also sported a red “Make Palestine Free Again” hat, styled in the manner of a pro-Trump “Make America Great Again” hat.
“Whatever happens tonight,” El-Sayed told a thinned but still energetic crowd, “we have a responsibility to ensure that we unite, unite to make sure that Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the US Senate.”
The contest has emerged as one of the clearest tests yet of the direction of the Democratic Party, pitting El-Sayed’s campaign against Stevens, an establishment-backed moderate supported by Democratic leaders and pro-Israel groups.
El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health director, campaigned on “Medicare for All,” finance reform, and ending military aid to Israel. Stevens, a four-term congresswoman, focused on manufacturing and the economy. She stressed her past victories in tough races, saying she would be best positioned to beat Rogers.
The pro-Israel lobby AIPAC and its affiliates have spent more than $30 million supporting Stevens, a stalwart backer of the Jewish state. El-Sayed and his backers have seized on the group’s intervention as an example of the problems of big money in politics.
Meanwhile, as El-Sayed and Stevens battled it out for the Michigan Senate nomination, a Jewish LGBTQ Democrat easily picked up the party’s nomination for Stevens’ House seat.
Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss, who has spoken out against antisemitism from the state house floor, netted the Democratic nomination for the state’s 11th District.
The Associated Press called the race for Moss after 74% of the vote had been counted, with him taking 49.2% of the vote, far outpacing his next-closest rival, pro-Palestinian attorney Aisha Farooqi, at 32.9%. The district is located in Oakland County, a suburban Detroit region with a high concentration of Jews, and includes Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, which was heavily damaged in an attack earlier this year.
On Tuesday night, Moss expressed appreciation to his supporters via X. “Thank you Oakland County! It’s the honor of a lifetime to be your Democratic nominee.”
Many of Stevens’ most prominent Jewish supporters — some of whom have vowed to fundraise for Republican candidate Mike Rogers if she loses her primary race — also expressed their support of Moss.
But Michigan’s progressives did not come away empty-handed in the House races, with an outspoken pro-Palestinian progressive, William Lawrence, besting two establishment-backed picks for a battleground district in the state on Tuesday.
Lawrence, a co-founder of the climate advocacy group Sunrise Movement, took the Democratic nomination in the state’s 7th District, with the Associated Press calling the race for him Tuesday night. With 58% of the vote in, Lawrence had around 43% of the tally in the three-way race.
His opponents, Bridget Brink, a former US ambassador to Ukraine, and former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam, two centrist candidates who boasted military and foreign policy backgrounds, effectively split the establishment vote and opened a lane for the progressive.
At the time the AP called the race for Lawrence, another House candidate backed by El-Sayed, state Rep. Donavan McKinney, was awaiting results in his challenge to the incumbent in Michigan’s 13th District.
As with several other victorious Democratic House candidates this primary cycle, Lawrence made pro-Palestinian advocacy a central plank of his campaign. He was the only Democrat in his race to accuse Israel of genocide, and at his rally with El-Sayed in Lansing, the candidate had called for America to “stop arming Israel.”
In Missouri, moderate Democrats picked up a win as incumbent Rep. Wesley Bell registered a resounding victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary against Cori Bush, a prominent Democratic socialist and ardent critic of Israel.
The Associated Press called the race just an hour after polls closed, at 8:02 p.m. local time. By the time 99% of the vote was counted, Bell had garnered 59.2% to Bush’s 36.9%.
The primary is a déjà vu moment for St. Louis. The same pair of candidates vied just two years ago to represent the state’s 1st Congressional District.
Bell prevailed in 2024 to oust Bush in a clash that was largely defined by a $9 million influx of AIPAC…
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