Washington — Former Michigan health official Abdul El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, CBS News projects, in a closely watched contest that represented the latest test of the party’s divisions.
El-Sayed, 41, ran on a leftist platform and secured the backing of prominent progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primary, which became a distinct choice between diverging factions of the Democratic Party after a third candidate, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, dropped out of the race last month. Stevens, a 43-year-old who has represented Michigan in the House since 2019, was recruited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and took a more moderate lane, securing an endorsement from outgoing popular Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last month.
The pivotal primary contest opened up after Democratic Sen. Gary Peters announced he wouldn’t seek reelection, setting up a competitive race in the state.
With the primary victory, El-Sayed is set to take on former Rep. Mike Rogers in November. Rogers ran unopposed in the Republican primary, after narrowly losing to Sen. Elissa Slotkin in the 2024 race for Michigan’s other Senate seat, giving him months to home in on his general election pitch while Democrats’ primary fight grew increasingly ugly.
Stevens congratulated El-Sayed on Wednesday morning, while offering her support as he prepares to take on Rogers in November.
“Donald Trump and Mike Rogers want us to come out of this primary tired and divided, so their billionaire backers can come in and let multimillionaire Mike Rogers walk away with this Senate seat,” Stevens said, while warning of the broader implications for the Senate should the GOP flip the seat. “I’m not going to let that happen.”
Addressing supporters and reporters Wednesday morning, El-Sayed called Stevens a “colleague and friend.” He said they had a “great conversation” and acknowledged the primary race ended bitterly.
“Whatever differences that we might have had in the primary, they pale in comparison to what unifies us: a recognition that so long as we want to keep our democracy, that democracy better be working for people, and that all of us have to come together to make sure that we never let Mike Rogers see the inside of the U.S. Senate,” he said.
Asked by CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe about concerns from Jewish voters after El-Sayed responded to March’s attack on a Detroit-area synagogue by saying, in part, that “hurt people hurt people,” he stood by what he said and reiterated his condemnation of the attack.
“What I mean is that hurt people hurt people, that maybe if we’re serious about ending the hurt, we should stop hurting people, that’s what I mean,” he said. “I condemn the attack. It was a vile, antisemitic attack.”
El-Sayed went on to criticize Republicans, who he said were “actively hurting people,” and said he stood in solidarity with Jewish people.
“We can condemn antisemitism, and at the same time, we can be talking about how we bring people together, and we can be talking about everybody’s pain, and I think anybody who does not want to do that is not serious about actually addressing the hurt that we see across the board,” he said.
El-Sayed added that his commitment to Jewish safety is the same as his commitment to his children. “That’s the highest commitment I can offer as a father,” he said.
Reuters/Rebecca Cook
The seat in Michigan is considered among the most vulnerable for Democrats this cycle in a state that has flipped between supporting Democrats and Republican presidents in recent elections. National Democrats, who backed Stevens, pitched her as the more electable candidate, citing El-Sayed’s more left-leaning views and arguing that they are out of step with the battleground state.
Asked about the dynamic, El-Sayed told O’Keefe ahead of the primary that “it’s always funny to me that people want to say that this state votes for moderates when it voted for Donald Trump twice.”
“It may just be that the better explanation is not that the state wants moderates, it’s that it’s so sick and tired of the establishment bought off by corporations on both sides of the political aisle, that it was willing to hold its nose and vote for Donald Trump twice,” he added. “Now, what happens if the alternative to the bought-off establishment happens to be instead of a narcissistic, megalomaniacal billionaire, a doctor who rebuilds health departments to eliminate medical debt and put glasses on kids’ faces? I’m willing to test that proposition.”
El-Sayed’s victory comes after a series of primary wins by insurgent Democrats in places like New York City and Colorado in recent months, as progressives and democratic socialists seek changes to the party. The dynamic has been a defining feature of the primary cycle so far. But how it will play in November — especially in battleground states like Michigan — remains to be seen.
El-Sayed, who is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America but has welcomed its members into his coalition, has run on progressive policies like Medicare for All, and he’s been an outspoken critic of Israel’s government and the war in Gaza. The issue has been central to the campaign in the Great Lakes State, which is home to the largest concentration of Arabs in the U.S. And he hammered Stevens throughout the campaign for receiving an influx of funding from pro-Israel groups, while receiving criticism himself for campaigning with left-wing podcaster Hasan Piker.
The seat in Michigan is among a handful that Democrats are defending this cycle, while they look to flip seats elsewhere to secure control of the upper chamber. With 53 Republicans in the Senate, Democrats need to flip four seats, while fending off GOP inroads in Michigan and elsewhere to take the majority.
Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, praised El-Sayed in a joint statement following his projected victory for running an “energetic campaign that inspired thousands of Michiganders across the state.”
“Democrats are united by a common purpose: putting a check on Donald Trump by defeating his Republican enablers and taking back the Senate,” the Democrats said. “We look forward to working with Abdul and Democrats across Michigan to win this seat in November.”