Much of the dynamics were familiar: a populist outsider running against the establishment, eye-popping outside money. But as my colleague Noah Lanard writes, what distinguished Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in the Michigan Senate primary is “the stakes and the scale of the effort to defeat him.”
Because El-Sayed’s win, though razor thin, represents a colossal shakeup for the Democratic Party; it also sets the stage for a major test in the upcoming midterms. Here’s more from Noah:
The general election will provide a rare chance to help answer a question that is often litigated online but rarely tested offline: Can progressive populists win a swing state like Michigan? A loss by El-Sayed, on the other hand, would likely lead to many warnings from moderate Democrats about what kind of candidate the party should nominate for president in 2028. Republicans have not won a US Senate election in Michigan in more than three decades; the seat El-Sayed is running for has been held by Democrats since 1979—five years before the 41-year-old candidate was born.
So what’s next? President Donald Trump and Republicans are already seizing on El-Sayed’s win to launch the usual racism and “communist” fear-mongering. You know, familiar dynamics.
—Inae Oh
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