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El-Sayed edges Stevens
Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, defeating Rep. Haley Stevens by 48.5 per cent to 47.5 per cent as counting continued after hours of counting on Wednesday, with the result projected after 99% of estimated votes were counted.
“El-Sayed led Stevens 48.5% to 47.5%”
NBC News projected El-Sayed’s win in a close race over Stevens, and the contest set up a November matchup against Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers, who claimed the GOP nomination without opposition Tuesday.
Al Jazeera said the narrow race was called on Wednesday more than 12 hours after polls closed, with El-Sayed holding a one percent lead with nearly all votes counted.
The Christian Science Monitor described the closeness of Tuesday’s result as “projected to win by less than a percentage point,” and said the seat is open because Sen. Gary Peters is retiring.
Party unity and attacks
After the primary, Democrats quickly coalesced around El-Sayed, with Sen. Gary Peters saying the “stakes could not be higher” as he urged the party to rally so “Mike Rogers never sees the floor of the U.S. Senate.”
In a Wednesday post on X, Peters added that if elected, “Mike Rogers would be a rubber stamp for Donald Trump,” and he warned it would mean cuts to taxes for billionaires and health care becoming more expensive.
El-Sayed faced immediate pushback from Republicans and pro-Israel groups, and the Al-Monitor report quoted Trump calling El-Sayed “a Communist loser who hates Jews and Israel, is the projected winner in his race with the Socialist.”
Al Jazeera also framed the result as a blow to AIPAC, saying it led the effort to defeat El-Sayed by backing Haley Stevens with more than $30m, and it reported that El-Sayed would face Mike Rogers in November.
What’s at stake in November
The Al-Monitor report said Democrats’ uphill battle to win a Senate majority would be nearly impossible with a Michigan defeat in November, and it described the contest as a test of whether the progressive wing could carry its anti-establishment message into a statewide swing-state race.
“Democrats' uphill battle to win a Senate majority would be nearly impossible”
Al Jazeera said the Michigan result could determine which party controls the chamber for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term, and it added that if El-Sayed wins in November he would become the first Muslim senator in US history.
The Christian Science Monitor said the primary’s closeness might give progressives a reality check in statewide races, while also noting that the seat is open because Sen. Gary Peters is retiring and that Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin called for party unity.
In the lead-up to the general election, NBC News reported that El-Sayed said in an interview Wednesday morning on MS NOW that “both Congresswoman Stevens and I had committed to bringing the party back together,” as he focused on defeating Mike Rogers in November.
