AP Photo/Paul Sancya
NBC News has projected that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed will win the U.S. Senate primary in Michigan after enduring a mind-bogglingly expensive ad campaign against him by one of the most powerful lobbies in the U.S.
As of this writing, El-Sayed leads Stevens 48.8% to 47.2%, with 93% of the expected votes in.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent more than $30 million in ads to boost Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who has been an ardent supporter of Israel, stating in 2023, “Israel comes to me in my dreams!” El-Sayed, meanwhile, has said he wants to end U.S. aid to Israel.
About a half-dozen outside political action committees spent $62 million on ads supporting Stevens, giving her a nine-to-one spending advantage over El-Sayed.
AIPAC did not officially spend money on campaigns prior to the 2022 election cycle, when it spent $29 million. In the 2024 cycle, it spent $46 million. This cycle, which still has several months to go, has spent $67 million so far, and nearly half on the Michigan primary, which is now the most expensive Democratic Senate primary in history.
As polls consistently showed El-Sayed, a former Michigan public health official, with a lead in the waning days of the campaign, Stevens told her opponent that “you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans.”
Stevens, who is not Jewish, offered no evidence for her claim, but did quote-tweet a video of El-Sayed daring AIPAC, “Come for me.” In the video, El-Sayed also called Stevens “the least capable candidate in America.”
Stevens has been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his role in lobbying President Donald Trump to start the Iran war in February. In an interview with CNN in early July, Netanyahu criticized Stevens on CNN, baselessly claiming, “She’s trying to probably excuse anti-Semitism.”
As Politico noted at the time, Netanyahu may actually have been trying to help Stevens with his comment.
“Netanyahu’s remarks gave Stevens a crucial opening to distance herself from the pro-Israel stances that have fallen sharply out of favor with Democratic voters,” the publication stated.
The post Abdul El-Sayed Fends Off $30 Million AIPAC Ad Buy to Win Michigan Primary, NBC Projects first appeared on Mediaite.
