After a tense and aggressive campaign, with Israel’s role at the center of the contest, progressive Abdul El Sayed won tonight the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan against centrist Haley Stevens, the current congresswoman in the House of Representatives. With 95% of the votes counted, Associated Press projected his victory when they were only 20,000 votes apart, by a margin of 0.90 points. The winner will face the Trumpist Republican Mike Rogers on November 3 in this contested state, where Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election by a narrow margin of 1.4%.
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A 41-year-old doctor, Muslim and son of Egyptian immigrants, El Sayed has managed to capitalize on Democrats’ discontent with the establishment of their party in Washington, which in a year and a half of far-right rule has been unable to articulate a solid political alternative at the national level. His victory represents the triumph of a rising sector within the party and could shape the Democratic strategy across the country.
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The candidate has promised “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, instead of a government of corporations, special interests, and billionaires” and celebrated a narrow victory in which his rival received 70 million dollars in donations: “They outspent us 11 to 1 and yet, here we are.”
El Sayed, who avoids the label socialist, also wanted to distance himself tonight from the left-right axis: “When I travel around the state, people ask me how they will be able to pay rent, buy groceries, or what will happen if they get sick and can’t pay,” he said. “We are not a purple state,” he concluded, anticipating what is expected to be a close battle in November between Democrats and Republicans: “But a state that needs a movement to reclaim its politics.”
The Michigan Senate race, a swing state, was the primary election that generated the most attention this Tuesday, in which citizens of Kansas, Missouri, Virginia, and Washington also went to the polls to choose their candidates for Congress and governorship, among other elections.
“We are not a purple state,” proclaims El Sayed, who avoids the definition of “socialist” and the left-right axis
The results show that the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party remains open. In Washington, moderate Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has defeated her left-wing rival. Similarly, in Missouri, the defeat of Cori Bush, a member of the Squad (the four progressive Democrats who arrived at the Capitol in 2018), stands out against Wesley Bell, who already beat her in 2024.
In Kansas, voters overwhelmingly rejected a referendum designed by the Republican legislature to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion, a setback for the majority party in this conservative state.
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In his speech while awaiting the final results, El Sayed showcased his flagship proposals, in line with those defended by democratic socialism, led by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani: universal public health insurance, high taxes on billionaires, the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and an end to military aid to Israel. El Sayed promised to work to combat the high cost of living, exacerbated by Trump’s global tariffs and his war in Iran, which have intensified the impact of five years of high inflation in the U.S. on citizens’ wallets.
“Money out of politics; money in your pocket,” El Sayed proclaimed tonight, reciting one of his campaign slogans, in front of a sign that read “Michigan is not for sale.” The progressive has received support from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Despite his markedly leftist speech, he is not part of the rising wing of the U.S. Democratic Socialists, like Mamdani.
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But El Sayed has not only focused his campaign on affordability, a strategy Democrats are using nationwide, but also on denouncing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Israel’s influence on U.S. domestic and foreign policy, and the astronomical military support to the Hebrew country.
His rival, Stevens, favored by party leaders, received the largest funding ever for a candidate from Aipac, the largest pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., which spent the astronomical sum of 30 million dollars on her campaign. However, the omnipresence of her TV and digital ads was not enough to overcome El Sayed’s effective social media strategy.
The traditional analysis in U.S. politics would say that Stevens would have had a better chance of defeating Republican Rogers in November because her moderate economic discourse is more attractive to the Republican voter tired of Trump. However, in times of polarization, El Sayed’s populist discourse can convince, especially in the second state with the largest number of citizens of Arab origin in the country.
The seat is considered essential for the Democratic hope of regaining control of the Senate in the midterm elections. Currently, it is held by a retiring Democrat, Gary Peters, and the last time a Republican was elected to hold it was in 1994. El Sayed, like other progressive candidates who have won their primaries around the country, now faces the challenge of winning the support of working-class voters who voted for Trump in this industrial Midwestern state.
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