Abdul El-Sayed wins Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, a big victory for the left in a key race
NBC News · LC · trust 57/100
El-Sayed overcame a nearly $65 million onslaught of outside money and an establishment that had rallied around Stevens. Popular Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Stevens late last month — a move seen as a last-ditch effort to stop a rising El-Sayed.
El-Sayed, a former public health official, goes on to face former Rep. Mike Rogers, who claimed the Republican nomination without opposition Tuesday. Their race in November is expected to be one of the most competitive in the country, and it could determine which party controls the Senate.
Whoever wins will succeed Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat who decided against seeking a third term and endorsed Stevens in the primary.
Republicans have 53 seats in the chamber, and Democrats are going after some red states to flip the four seats they’d need to swing the majority. But Democrats also have to defend seats in several battleground states, including Georgia and Michigan.
President Donald Trump, whose early endorsement of Rogers helped clear the GOP primary for him, won Michigan in 2016 and 2024 and lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
Rogers and national Republicans had signaled that they consider El-Sayed an easier opponent than Stevens. The National Republican Senatorial Committee went so far as to produce a digital ad emphasizing El-Sayed’s progressive credentials and endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. — a move many viewed as an effort to boost him into the general election.
From left, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Abdul El-Sayed and Bernie Sanders in Detroit on July 18. Nic Antaya / Bloomberg via Getty Images file Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., barnstormed the state for El-Sayed , whose push for “Medicare for All,” condemnation of money in politics and criticism of Stevens for supporting aid to Israel were central to his campaign. The primary was seen as a test of whether an insurgent populist movement that had scored victories in primaries in blue states like New York and Colorado could take root in a purple battleground in the industrial Midwest.
Like other Democrats who have run to push the party to the left in recent years, El-Sayed accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. That’s a particularly relevant position in Michigan, with its large Muslim and Arab American populations.
El-Sayed also frequently blasted Stevens over the money she accepted from corporate PACs and the TV air cover she received from big-spending allies, including more than $30 million from a group affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel group known as AIPAC.
Haley Stevens after casting her ballot at Baldwin Public Library on Tuesday, in Birmingham, Mich. Finn Gomez / Getty Images While many of the group’s ads made a positive case for Stevens, some of the messaging attacked El-Sayed. Overall, Stevens and her allies spent nearly nine times as much on advertising as El-Sayed and his allied groups did, according to AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm.
“If you need a $60 million crutch, you probably can’t be elected on your own terms,” El-Sayed said at a debate last week in Detroit.
Stevens, a four-term congresswoman, aligned herself closely with the Democratic establishment, including not only Whitmer and Peters in Michigan, but also Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. And while El-Sayed marshaled support from national figures on the left like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, he also scored an endorsement from the United Auto Workers, a major presence in the state given its car-making pedigree.
The closing month of the primary grew increasingly hostile, especially after a third Democrat, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, dropped out last month. McMorrow had tried to cut a path between Stevens and El-Sayed, running as a compromise candidate who could appeal both to moderates and the progressive left.
McMorrow was first in line to endorse El-Sayed and call for unity after the race was called.
“I’m proud to give Abdul my full endorsement and support as we head to November together as a unified party,” McMorrow said an emailed statement. “Take it from me — this was a brutal primary. But whatever differences there were between the candidates in this race, those differences are nothing compared to the contrast in November.”
The flood of TV ads on Stevens’ behalf and the energy around El-Sayed’s Sanders-backed campaign left little room for McMorrow, and the differences between the two remaining Democrats became even more pronounced once their mutual rival exited.
Guests attend an election-night rally hosted by Abdul El-Sayed at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit on Tuesday. Scott Olson / Getty Images Stevens often accused El-Sayed of focusing too much on national politics and not enough on Michigan. The July 24 endorsement from Whitmer, who beat El-Sayed in the 2018 Democratic primary for governor, helped underline Stevens’ argument. So did a recent call El-Sayed held with donors.
On the call, audio of which leaked to NBC News and others, El-Sayed said a victory for him in Michigan could reverberate into 2028 and encourage primary challengers against the likes of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who has fallen out of favor with the left. He characterized such a move as putting “an ogre on a pike” — rhetoric that some Democrats believed was targeted at Stevens, though El-Sayed had described Fetterman as an “ogre” in the past.
Stevens, who spent the closing days of the race simultaneously shrugging off and leaning into social media snark about her Upper Midwest accent and appearance, used the episode to reinforce her message.
“These folks are making fun of the way I sound,” Stevens said at last week’s debate. “But yet, I sound like the people who need help, who are talking to me about what they need.”
El-Sayed rarely deviated from his core message.
“This is about whether or not you deserve a politics of the people, by the people and for the people,” he said at the debate, “or of the…
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