Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate on Wednesday by 14,893 votes, narrowly defeating U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens after a race that drew more than $50 million in outside spending and became one of the country’s biggest tests of outside money.
The numbers tell the story before the speeches do. More than 1.5 million ballots were counted, and El-Sayed’s lead was just under 1 percentage point when The Associated Press declared him the winner after Wednesday morning updates in Wayne and Oakland counties showed Stevens didn’t have enough votes left to catch him. The contest will now send El-Sayed, an insurgent former public health official, into a November race against Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, in a fight that will help determine control of the Senate.
Who Has the Power
El-Sayed said after his victory, “In the words of Muhammad Ali, we shook up the world.” That line landed after a campaign that openly challenged the machinery around him. He campaigned on “Medicare for All,” halting military aid to Israel and campaign finance reform, while Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez framed the race as a grassroots movement and a broader fight against the establishment and big-money spending. Sen. Chris Van Hollen called the result “a wake-up call to the Washington Democratic establishment.”
The establishment had plenty riding on the outcome. Stevens, a four-term congresswoman, won election to Congress in 2018 after serving as chief of staff to President Barack Obama’s auto task force, which helped oversee the federal rescue of General Motors and Chrysler. Her campaign focused on manufacturing and the economy, and she argued her record in tough races made her best positioned to beat Rogers. After conceding defeat, she pledged her support for El-Sayed. Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said, “We have got to work together to take this country back.”
Who Pays for the Machine
Outside groups backing Stevens spent more than $50 million, including more than $30 million from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which AP said was the largest investment ever from the organization that supports pro-Israel candidates. El-Sayed said, “We took on a machine.” AIPAC said Wednesday it would oppose El-Sayed and “his radical anti-Israel agenda” in November’s election. The money came in hard, loud, and early. The voters got the bill in the form of a race shaped by outside power.
Support for Israel split the Democratic primary. El-Sayed called for ending military aid to Israel, while Stevens maintained strong support for the relationship. The candidates’ differences were clear to voters, and the choices reflected that divide. Kenneth Woodside, 87, of West Bloomfield, said he voted for El-Sayed because “the nation is ready for someone who wants to take some more action rather than on the road we are now, which is on the road to an oligarchy and authoritarianism.” Nessa Fuller, 51, of Birmingham, said she voted for Stevens because she will “fight to get the right things done, and she’ll work with other people, which is really important to me.”
Detroit’s Seat, Detroit’s Fight
In Detroit, state Rep. Donavan McKinney defeated Rep. Shri Thanedar in Michigan’s 13th District, adding another incumbent loss to a year of progressive primary wins. Justice Democrats helped recruit McKinney and spent nearly $1 million on his behalf. McKinney also had the backing of a number of progressive House Democrats, including some members of the Congressional Black Caucus who bucked party leadership. Party leaders had stood behind Thanedar in the district.
McKinney argued that Detroit should once again have a Black representative in Congress. After Thanedar won election in 2022, Detroit had no Black representation in Congress for the first time since the early 1950s. That absence didn’t happen by accident. It came through the usual channels of party power, candidate selection, and a system that leaves whole communities waiting for representation that fits the district on paper but not the people living there.
Some of Thanedar’s colleagues were also frustrated by his effort to force a vote on impeaching President Donald Trump last year, an effort he later backed away from. Politico said Thanedar’s district was a safe seat for Democrats and that McKinney is expected to win easily in November. The safe seat, the party backing, the outside spending, the rescue-state politics, the machine language — it all points to the same arrangement. Power sits at the top, and everyone else is told to pick a side.