{"id":28577,"date":"2026-08-05T13:12:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28577"},"modified":"2026-08-05T13:12:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:12:24","slug":"el-sayed-stevens-go-down-to-wire-in-michigan-democratic-senate-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28577","title":{"rendered":"El-Sayed, Stevens go down to wire in Michigan Democratic Senate primary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/04\/Election_2_26_Michigan_Senate_25129_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The supercharged Democratic Senate primary between Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/haley-stevens\/\">Haley Stevens<\/a> and liberal favorite Abdul El\u2011Sayed was too close to call Wednesday morning, leaving the political world glued to slow\u2011trickling returns out of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/detroit\/\">Detroit<\/a> area.<\/p>\n<p>The polls closed at 9 p.m., but the wait for results stretched on, slowed by a lagging count in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/wayne-county\/\">Wayne County<\/a> \u2014 the state\u2019s largest and a critical source of Democratic votes \u2014 where officials were working through a heavy load of absentee ballots and reconciling precinct tallies before releasing numbers.<\/p>\n<p>Neither candidate had a clear lead early Wednesday though Mr. El-Sayed held an edge of 48.9% to 47.1% with 81% of the votes statewide counted.<\/p>\n<p>The wild card was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/wayne-county\/\">Wayne County<\/a>, which was lagging in the count with 65% of its vote tabulated, but giving Ms. Stevens a 7-point advantage thus far.<\/p>\n<p>Both candidates spoke to supporters shortly after 1 a.m. to confirm that the race was too close to call and to position themselves against the Republican nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. El-Sayed said that \u201cI wish I could tell you I was declaring victory right about now,\u201d and then joked about how \u201cit takes a long time to count the vote in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/michigan\/\">Michigan<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He called for party unity, saying that \u201ctomorrow we begin to mend fences \u2026 always magnanimity in victory\u201d in the name of beating Mr. Rogers.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Ms. Stevens spoke to supporters shortly before that, saying that, \u201cfriends, I am feeling good about this race,\u201d and noting the vote still outstanding in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/detroit\/\">Detroit<\/a> and Macomb County.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not gonna know the results for a little while \u2026 we gotta get some sleep or get some coffee,\u201d she said, after estimating that the results might not be known\u00a0until Wednesday morning or perhaps later in the day.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most closely watched primaries of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/2026-midterms\/\">2026 midterms<\/a>, the contest tested whether Mr. El\u2011Sayed\u2019s anti-establishment, populist worldview \u2014 backed here by Sen. Bernard Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio\u2011Cortez \u2014 could overcome the more traditional stances of Ms. Stevens in a purple state.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Stevens, a four\u2011term congresswoman, had the support of Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and a massive boost from outside groups, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/american-israel-public-affairs-committee\/\">American Israel Public Affairs Committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The pro-Israel group\u2019s United Democracy Project poured more than $30 million into the race, its largest single\u2011race expenditure ever.<\/p>\n<p>AIPAC treated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/michigan\/\">Michigan<\/a> as a must\u2011hold seat for Democrats aligned with its foreign\u2011policy priorities, arguing that Mr. El\u2011Sayed\u2019s calls to end U.S. military aid to Israel represented a sharp break from decades of bipartisan consensus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The scale of the spending \u2014 unprecedented even for AIPAC \u2014 underscored how aggressively the group was willing to intervene in primaries where it saw its influence at stake.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. El-Sayed is of Egyptian heritage and is running to become the first Muslim U.S. senator.<\/p>\n<p>His supporters said the same outside groups that have rigged the system were trying to buy the seat.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to calling for a rethink of U.S.-Israel relations, Mr. El-Sayed, former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/wayne-county\/\">Wayne County<\/a> health director and Rhodes scholar, also pledged to fight for Medicare for all, reroute U.S. foreign assistance toward domestic needs, and curb what they view as the corrupting influence of money in politics.<\/p>\n<p>He led most of the late polling, with particular strength among young voters \u2014 highlighting a generational divide that became one of the race\u2019s defining features.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Stevens ran on her record on manufacturing and the economy, calling her bid \u201ca love letter to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/michigan\/\">Michigan<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was hoping for strong support from Black and older voters.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Schumer, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and party leaders argued she was the more electable choice in a year when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/michigan\/\">Michigan<\/a> is expected to be central to the fight for Senate control.<\/p>\n<p>The stakes extend beyond the primary.<\/p>\n<p>The winner will face former Mr. Rogers, the unopposed Republican nominee, in November for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat who endorsed Ms. Stevens.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans see the race as a pickup opportunity, especially if Mr. El-Sayed be the nominee.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats likely need to defend the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/michigan\/\">Michigan<\/a> seat to have any chance of flipping control of the U.S. Senate, which will require a net gain of four seats.<\/p>\n<p>If Mr. Rogers wins, Democrats would then need five pickups, and the Cook Political Report lists just six Republican-held seats \u2014 Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas \u2014 as even being in play.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Rogers narrowly lost a 2024 Senate bid to then\u2011Rep. Elissa Slotkin, falling just 19,000 votes short.<\/p>\n<p>The result also will help set the tone for the 2028 Democratic presidential race, where an El\u2011Sayed win could give the left wing renewed confidence in its ability to win in battleground states.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/michigan\/\">Michigan<\/a> is expected to be the fifth stop on the Democratic primary calendar.<\/p>\n<p>The unresolved Democratic contest fed into simmering questions about the party\u2019s direction following left wing victories in blue areas, most prominently New York City.<\/p>\n<p>Liberals said the competitive nature of the race showed their message \u2014 particularly on Gaza and U.S. military aid to Israel \u2014 resonated with younger Americans and voters disillusioned with Washington.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The establishment wing of the party countered that the closeness reflected frustration with Washington more than a mandate for a foreign\u2011policy overhaul.<\/p>\n<section class=\"author-contact-section\">\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The supercharged Democratic Senate primary between Rep. Haley Stevens and liberal favorite Abdul El\u2011Sayed was too close to call Wednesday morning, leaving the political world glued to slow\u2011trickling returns out of the Detroit area. The polls closed at 9 p.m., but the wait for results stretched on, slowed by a lagging count in Wayne County&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/04\/Election_2_26_Michigan_Senate_25129_c0-228-5478-3423_s1200x700.jpg?fe3b4cbcb08a9b345f7c353cf05c8e19b59978f9","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}