{"id":28915,"date":"2026-08-05T19:42:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28915"},"modified":"2026-08-05T19:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:42:45","slug":"left-turn-in-michigan-tuesdays-primary-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28915","title":{"rendered":"Left turn in Michigan: Tuesday&#039;s primary takeaways"},"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:\/\/images.axios.com\/c_M8avwjNKYpmUutHAk69JFYtfA=\/0x0:4000x2250\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/05\/1785935088967.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Progressives scored their biggest win of the year Tuesday in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/05\/michigan-elections-dsa-wfp-uaw-progressives-win\" target=\"_blank\">Michigan&#8217;s Senate primary<\/a>, narrowly defeating the Democratic establishment in the clearest sign yet of how a populist surge is remaking the party.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>Left-wing outsider Abdul El-Sayed underperformed predictions, but his victory over moderate Rep. Haley Stevens was still a rebuke to party leaders in D.C. and Michigan, and to big donors who flooded Stevens&#8217; campaign with cash.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>El-Sayed was outspent 9 to 1 by Stevens and her allies \u2014 including AIPAC&#8217;s political arm. He ran on an unapologetically progressive platform to abolish ICE, support Medicare for All and staunchly oppose aid to Israel.<\/li>\n<li>In a bitter campaign, El-Sayed was painted as a sexist, an antisemite and critic of former First Lady Michelle Obama \u2014 much of it on the airwaves. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cut a slick video backing Stevens.<\/li>\n<li>It wasn&#8217;t enough.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Key takeaways from Michigan:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1.   Progressives lay the groundwork for 2028.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/05\/michigan-elections-dsa-wfp-uaw-progressives-win\" target=\"_blank\">Progressives<\/a> and democratic socialists have been eager to show that one of their own can carry a battleground state that will be crucial in the next presidential election. They&#8217;ll get a chance to prove that in November, now that El-Sayed has been nominated in Michigan.<\/li>\n<li>If El-Sayed succeeds in November, it&#8217;ll be seen as a boon for the prospects of a left-wing 2028 presidential contender such as New York Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/09\/19\/aoc-2028-democrats-president-senate\" target=\"_blank\">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>On the other hand, if El-Sayed were to stumble, AOC \u2014 who&#8217;s mulling a run for Senate or the White House in 2028 \u2014 likely would share some of the backlash. She&#8217;s been among El-Sayed&#8217;s top surrogates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2.   <strong>Bernie hands Chuck an &#8220;L.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>With the progressive movement he&#8217;d fostered for so long building unprecedented momentum, progressive icon and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders went on a mission to elect progressives up and down the ticket this year \u2014 often opposing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer&#8217;s favorites, including Stevens.<\/li>\n<li>Sanders backed El-Sayed on the first day of his campaign. Stevens&#8217; loss marks the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/10\/democrats-graham-platner-maine-senate-primary\" target=\"_blank\">second time<\/a> this year that Schumer failed to get his preferred candidate over the finish line in a Senate primary. The last time the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee whiffed in a major primary before this year was <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Robillard\/status\/2084750770792976459\" target=\"_blank\">in 2010<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>3<strong>.   Money isn&#8217;t everything.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>El-Sayed, a former a former Wayne County health director, compared himself to David going up against Goliath.<\/li>\n<li>The Biblical allusion made many moderate Democrats roll their eyes, but the spending disparity in the race was truly enormous: Stevens and her allies spent $65 million on ads compared to $7.5 million by El-Sayed and his supporters<strong>, <\/strong>according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.<\/li>\n<li>Stevens&#8217; loss is a large face-plant for AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby whose super PAC poured more than $30 million into the race against El-Sayed. The results could lead more Democrats to distance themselves from AIPAC money at a time when Israel&#8217;s image has nosedived among the party&#8217;s voters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4.<strong>   Republicans like the result, too. <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>El-Sayed has excited the left, but many Republicans are happy with his win as well. <\/li>\n<li>Recent polls have suggested that former Rep. Mike Rogers, the GOP&#8217;s Senate nominee, would fare better against El-Sayed than Stevens. Trump already has branded El-Sayed a &#8220;communist,&#8221; a theme voters can expect to hear from the GOP throughout the fall. (El-Sayed has said he&#8217;s a capitalist, not a socialist.)<\/li>\n<li>El-Sayed, meanwhile, faces the challenge of reuniting a deeply divided Democratic Party, wooing independent voters and trying to attract some Republicans. <\/li>\n<li>Many centrist Democrats are skeptical he can pull it off \u2014 and point to Tuesday&#8217;s closer-than-expected results as evidence he could lack enough big-tent appeal in November.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>5.   <strong>The left also shows its muscle in down-ballot races.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For progressives, it wasn&#8217;t just El-Sayed: Will Lawrence <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/05\/michigan-7th-district-will-lawrence-maasdam-brink\" target=\"_blank\">won<\/a> a battleground House nomination, and Donavan McKinney <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/22\/shri-thanedar-dsa-donavan-mckinney-detroit-mi-13\" target=\"_blank\">was threatening<\/a> to oust Rep. Shri Thanedar.<\/li>\n<li>Yousef Rabhi <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freep.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2026\/08\/05\/ann-arbor-mayor-race-yousef-rabhi-christopher-taylor\/91172554007\/\" target=\"_blank\">declared victory<\/a> over incumbent Christopher Taylor in the Democratic primary for mayor in solidly blue Ann Arbor. <\/li>\n<li>And Abbas Alawieh of Dearborn \u2014 cofounder of Uncommitted, a group formed to protest U.S. support of Israel \u2014 was ahead of state Rep. Erin Byrnes in the race for the Democratic nomination of a state Senate seat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\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>Progressives scored their biggest win of the year Tuesday in Michigan&#8217;s Senate primary, narrowly defeating the Democratic establishment in the clearest sign yet of how a populist surge is remaking the party. Why it matters: Left-wing outsider Abdul El-Sayed underperformed predictions, but his victory over moderate Rep. Haley Stevens was still a rebuke to party&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/c_M8avwjNKYpmUutHAk69JFYtfA=\/0x0:4000x2250\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/05\/1785935088967.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28915","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=28915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}