Abdul El-Sayed has won the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s US Senate seat, defeating Haley Stevens in a bitter and closely watched race that became a referendum on the changing face of the Democratic party. He won by a single point, with fewer than 15,000 votes separating the candidates, according to the Associated Press, and will now face Republican nominee Mike Rogers, who ran unopposed, in a key battleground contest Democrats need to hold if they are to have any chance of reclaiming the Senate majority.
The result was still being finalized on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, with the Associated Press not formally calling the race while Wayne county, Michigan’s largest county, was still being counted. El-Sayed’s campaign, however, had already begun a victory lap and sent out emails saying he had won, while CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, also projected him the winner on Wednesday morning.
Why did this primary matter so much?
The Democratic primary became a proxy battle between the party’s establishment and progressive wings. El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former state public health official, was backed by many leaders on the left flank, while Stevens, a serving US congresswoman who flipped her district blue in 2018, received support from party leaders including governor Gretchen Whitmer and tens of millions of dollars in outside PAC funding from the pro-Israel lobby.
That spending became a central issue in the campaign. El-Sayed repeatedly highlighted it on the trail in Michigan, the birthplace of the uncommitted movement, which saw a sizeable portion of Arab-American voters refuse to support Kamala Harris in 2024 over the Biden administration’s stance on the Israel-Gaza war.
El-Sayed also argued that the race was about changing the way politics works in Washington. His campaign manager, Alia Kapasi, said in a statement:
“This was always going to be the many versus the money, and tonight, we have shown that Michiganders want money out of politics, money in their pockets, and Medicare for all. We are building a coalition that is fired up and ready to go beat Mike Rogers,”
El-Sayed posted on X on Wednesday morning:
“We won,”
and wrote that he was
“proud to be your Democratic nominee for US Senate”
. He added:
“Money out of politics. Money in your pocket. Medicare for All,”
a refrain he had repeated throughout the campaign.
In his address to supporters on Tuesday night, before the final outcome was known, El-Sayed also struck a more conciliatory note. He said:
“Whatever happens tonight, we have a responsibility to ensure that we unite, unite to make sure that [Republican] Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the US Senate.”
The son of Egyptian immigrants, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim US senator if he wins in November.
How did the candidates present themselves?
El-Sayed ran as a left-wing political outsider, pitching universal healthcare, abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and ending unconditional US military aid to Israel. He had sought office before, losing the Democratic gubernatorial race in Michigan in 2018, but said the anti-establishment coalition he now represents is larger than the one that rejected him eight years ago.
He said:
“I think people are sick and tired of the establishments on both sides of that, and I think we are having success because we’re speaking to that frustration,”
and added:
“And politics doesn’t have to suck, and you can build a politics that doesn’t suck.”
Stevens, by contrast, campaigned as a pragmatic problem-solver and a middle-of-the-road candidate who could appeal to undecided voters in November. She has represented Michigan’s 11th House district since 2019, after flipping the seat, and promised to help save manufacturing jobs in the state if elected.
Stevens said the race was close exactly as expected after the vote.
“We knew that this was going to be a close race, and that’s exactly what we’ve got,”
she said.
“I am feeling fired up, and you should be too.”
In a statement after the result, Stevens congratulated her rival and offered support for the general election. She said:
“I want to congratulate Abdul El-Sayed on winning the Democratic nomination for US Senate. He is a doctor, a community health official, a Rhodes Scholar, and a dedicated Michigander. I am proud to offer my support as he takes on Mike Rogers in the general election.”
Stevens’ campaign also benefited from tens of millions of dollars in outside spending from groups including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the pro-Israel lobbying organization.
How did Israel shape the race?
Israel was one of the clearest dividing lines in the campaign. El-Sayed spoke out against US involvement in the Middle East, including aid to Israel, and linked the Israel-Gaza war to broader questions of affordability and political accountability at home. Stevens, meanwhile, was staunchly pro-Israel and said she supported upholding US aid to Israel without conditions.
That divide helped turn the race into a test of how far Democratic voters in a battleground state were willing to move to the left. The issue was especially charged in Michigan, where Arab-American voters and supporters of the uncommitted movement played an outsized role in debates over the Biden administration’s approach to the war.
El-Sayed is an epidemiologist who served in health director roles in Detroit and its county, and has frequently connected foreign policy to economic issues in the United States. The BBC report added that he voiced support for left-wing causes such as universal healthcare and abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while also calling for ending unconditional US military aid to Israel.
What happens next in November?
If officially confirmed as the primary winner, El-Sayed will face Republican nominee and former representative Mike Rogers in November. Rogers ran unopposed in the Republican primary, and the general election will help determine which party controls the Senate.
Democrats need to hold the Michigan seat if they are to have any chance of reclaiming the Senate majority, making the contest one of the most important races in the country this year. Michigan remains one of the crucial swing states: it voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 but for Trump in 2024.
Trump reacted to the result on Truth Social, where he declared the Michigan Senate outcome “Great news for the Republican Party”. He referred to the Democratic Party as the “Dumocrats” and said their “crazy policies will only get worse!”
The former president’s comment underscored the national stakes of the race. The November midterm elections will determine the balance of power in Washington for the last two years of President Donald Trump’s time in office, and the Michigan Senate race is expected to be a key part of that fight.
What else was happening on election night?
Attention in Michigan was also on the wider ballot. Voters in Michigan, Virginia and Washington state cast their ballots in Democratic primaries on US House of Representatives candidates on Tuesday.
Also in Michigan, Jocelyn Benson clinched the Democratic nomination in the governor’s race and will face John James, who won the Republican contest. Benson, the state’s secretary of state, will take on James, a congressman who received an endorsement from Donald Trump, to replace term-limited Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer in November.
Further down ballot, William Lawrence, a progressive, won a competitive three-way Democratic primary in Michigan’s seventh congressional district. Lawrence, who co-founded the , will now challenge Republican incumbent Tom Barrett, who has bucked his own party while in office, after Barrett flipped the key battleground district red in 2024.
Meanwhile in Washington state, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, the two-term centrist Democrat, advanced to the general election for her competitive US House seat. She will face Republican candidate and state senator John Braun, who is backed by Trump. The state votes on single ballots, meaning the top two finishers regardless of party advance to November’s contest.
In Missouri, Democratic congressman Wesley Bell won his primary in the St Louis area on Tuesday, ending the progressive former representative Cori Bush’s bid for a comeback. Bell’s victory blunted the momentum pro-Palestinian candidates have shown in recent elections, and in this deep-blue district he is also the favorite to win a second term in November.
Also in the Midwest, Cindy Holscher, a state senator, won the Democratic nomination in Kansas’s gubernatorial race after defeating two other Sunflower state politicians to advance to the general election. Ty Masterson, the Trump-backed Kansas state senate president, clinched the GOP nomination in a crowded race. The contest is expected to be fierce, as both sides are angling to retake the governor’s mansion from Democratic control.
Elsewhere in the election coverage, Republican congressman Max Miller was facing growing calls to resign and a congressional ethics committee investigation into allegations of domestic abuse. Late on Tuesday, when he arrived in Las Vegas, Donald Trump said he “felt badly” for Miller when asked about the situation by reporters traveling with the president.
Trump said:
“I hope he’s able to work it out,”
During a CNN interview on Tuesday, Miller said the president told him on Monday that
“it’s going to be a tough race”
but did not tell him to end his re-election campaign.
At the same time, Chuck Edwards, a Republican congressman from North Carolina, withdrew from his reelection campaign after the House ethics committee found that he had “fostered a hostile work environment and engaged in sexual harassment” by giving gifts and lavishing attention on two young female staffers.
Edwards said:
“After much prayer and reflection, I’ve decided to withdraw from my re-election campaign,”
and added:
“I will complete my current term. Serving Western North Carolina has been the honor of my life. Thank you for your trust, prayers, and support. God bless WNC and America.”
The bipartisan ethics panel began investigating Edwards earlier this year after receiving complaints. The report approved by Democratic and Republican committee members determined that there was “substantial reason to believe” Edwards broke House rules by singling out the two unidentified aides for special treatment that made them uncomfortable and harmed relations with other employees.
In Missouri, the state’s top election official rejected a citizens’ petition seeking a statewide referendum on a redistricting plan backed by Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported. Republican secretary of state Denny Hoskins said the petition was void because congressional redistricting plans cannot be subject to voter referendums and that “challenging a congressional map is unconstitutional under Missouri law”.
Missouri joined Texas last year in responding to Trump’s call to redraw congressional districts to the GOP’s advantage. The new map dramatically reshapes the Kansas City-based fifth congressional district, long held by Democratic representative Emanuel Cleaver. Under the new map, the district stretches into rural central Missouri, giving it a Republican tilt.
Republicans already hold six of Missouri’s eight congressional seats. People Not Politicians, the group sponsoring the referendum drive, had submitted more than 300,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office in December calling for a statewide referendum on the plan, and said it would contest Hoskins’ decision in court.
In separate non-primary news, Max Miller, the beleaguered US Republican representative from Ohio, has vowed to defy a rising groundswell of resignation calls from his own party over domestic abuse allegations after his ex-father-in-law, Bernie Moreno, a GOP senator, said he was unfit to serve in Congress.
Miller, who married Emily Moreno at Trump’s club in Bedminster, New Jersey, in 2022, has been accused of holding a gun to her head and scalding her with boiling water. Their toddler daughter, who was born in 2023, is also said to have suffered a broken collarbone due to his actions.
Why did the Democratic result draw national attention?
The Michigan result drew national attention because it tested whether progressive candidates could beat better-funded establishment-backed rivals in a major battleground state. It also carried symbolic weight for Democrats after a series of high-profile debates over how the party should respond to the war in Gaza, economic frustration and the rise of left-wing challengers.
El-Sayed’s victory, if confirmed, would also add to the profile of candidates who have combined anti-establishment messaging with criticism of US policy in the Middle East. His campaign has framed the result as proof that voters want a break from traditional fundraising and lobbying dynamics, while Stevens’ backers had argued that her experience and broader appeal made her the stronger general-election candidate.
The race was especially important because the seat is being vacated by retiring Democratic senator Gary Peters. The last time a Republican senator was elected in Michigan was in 1994, adding to the stakes for both parties in November.
Haley Stevens, who is currently trailing in the Michigan Senate primary, cast herself throughout her campaign as a pragmatic problem-solver and workhorse. She has represented Michigan’s 11th House district since 2019, after flipping the seat, and drew endorsements from senior Democrats including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, governor Gretchen Whitmer and Gary Peters, the retiring senator whose seat she was seeking.
Her campaign also benefited from tens of millions of dollars in outside spending from groups including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the pro-Israel lobbying organization.
El-Sayed, meanwhile, is the progressive former public health official who was leading the race for the Democratic nomination for Senate in Michigan. An epidemiologist who served in health director roles in Detroit and its county, El-Sayed has frequently linked the Israel-Gaza war, which he unflinchingly calls a genocide, and other conflicts involving the US to affordability at home.
He had sought office before, losing the Democratic gubernatorial race in Michigan in 2018. But he said the anti-establishment coalition he now represents is larger than the one that rejected him eight years ago.
“I think people are sick and tired of the establishments on both sides of that, and I think we are having success because we’re speaking to that frustration,”
El-Sayed said.
“And politics doesn’t have to suck, and you can build a politics that doesn’t suck.”
What does the result mean for the party’s direction?
The race highlighted the tension between Democrats who want a centrist, broadly electable message and those who argue the party should move decisively left on economics, foreign policy and money in politics. With Michigan set to be one of the most important battlegrounds in November, the winner’s coalition and message may influence how both parties frame the race going forward.
For El-Sayed’s supporters, the result suggests that voters are receptive to a candidate who is explicit about universal healthcare, anti-establishment politics and opposition to unconditional support for Israel. For Stevens and her allies, the near-upset or close finish underscores the competitiveness of the state and the importance of a candidate who can appeal across party lines.
What comes next in the counting?
Wayne county was still the outstanding area when the Associated Press had not yet formally called the race. At that point, 88% of the votes in the county had been counted.
As of the latest Associated Press count used on election night, Haley Stevens was trailing Abdul El-Sayed by fewer than 15,000 votes. With 96% of the votes counted, the race remained extremely tight, and El-Sayed’s campaign had already begun a victory lap and sent out emails saying he had won.
Key Facts
- Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s US Senate seat by fewer than 15,000 votes.
- El-Sayed will face Republican nominee Mike Rogers, who ran unopposed, in November.
- The primary became a proxy battle between Democratic establishment and progressive wings.
- Haley Stevens had backing from Gretchen Whitmer, Chuck Schumer, Gary Peters and Aipac-aligned outside spending.
- Wayne county was still being counted when the Associated Press had not yet called the race.
- CBS News projected El-Sayed as the winner on Wednesday morning.
- Stevens congratulated El-Sayed and said she was proud to offer her support in the general election.
- El-Sayed posted on X: “We won,” and said he was “proud to be your Democratic nominee for US Senate”.
