DETROIT — Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official who harnessed Democratic frustration with the party establishment, narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan's U.S. Senate primary, setting up a crucial test for progressives in a key battleground state.
El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, in November in a race that will help determine control of the Senate. His first challenge will be unifying Democratic factions after a bitter primary that offered divergent visions for a party desperate for a path back to power.
The margin was extraordinarily close. El-Sayed walked off the stage at his Tuesday night election party without declaring victory, and the race was not called until early Wednesday, after nearly all ballots statewide had been counted. At the time The Associated Press declared him the winner, El-Sayed led Stevens by 14,893 votes — just under 1 percentage point — out of more than 1.5 million ballots counted, the most in recent state history.
The political significance of the result, however, extends well beyond the slim margin.
“Abdul’s victory was, in my opinion, the most extraordinary victory that I can think of in modern American politics,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders Wednesday, a leader of the progressive movement who was an early supporter of El-Sayed’s candidacy.
El-Sayed, 41, has never held elected office and entered the race seven years after losing Michigan’s Democratic gubernatorial primary by more than 20 percentage points. This time, running on an unapologetically progressive agenda, he overcame more than $60 million in outside spending and an opponent backed by many of Michigan’s top Democrats, including outgoing Sen. Gary Peters, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
“In the words of Muhammad Ali, we shook up the world,” El-Sayed said early Wednesday, standing before The Spirit of Detroit, a landmark bronze statue in the city’s downtown.
El-Sayed went from political wilderness to progressive breakthrough
El-Sayed was joined on Wednesday by state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a former opponent in the Senate primary, and Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. It was an initial step toward a unified front after a bitter primary, and it reflected El-Sayed’s extraordinary political trajectory in less than a decade.
After losing the 2018 Democratic primary for governor to Gretchen Whitmer, El-Sayed retreated into the political wilderness. He started a podcast, wrote a book and became a regular presence on YouTube and television, slowly building a following while waiting for a political opening he did not know would come.
It arrived when Peters made the surprise announcement that he would not seek reelection, creating an open Senate seat in one of the country’s most competitive states.
El-Sayed launched his campaign in April 2025 with a staff of four. In his victory speech Wednesday, he recalled the small rooms that defined its early months.
“Back in April, I remember talking to a room of five people,” he said. “It was an opportunity for us to share a honest conversation about pain and about purpose. And I’ve been able to have 500 more of those discussions over the past 15 months.”
El-Sayed said he visited 110 cities and hosted more than 500 events. His volunteer network grew alongside the campaign, eventually reaching 12,000 people, according to his campaign.
Julie Brink, a 29-year-old volunteer from the Detroit area, said the campaign still felt like an “underdog” when she joined in February. From there, she said, it was “gaining momentum really consistently.”
“It was a lot of little things along the way,” Brink said. “The field narrowed and Abdul had consistent showing in debates and public appearances where he just cuts through the bullshit all the time.”
The campaign also embraced a media strategy that reflected El-Sayed's years outside elected office, aggressively pursuing attention across traditional outlets, podcasts and online platforms. Some appearances, including multiple interviews with controversial streamer Hasan Piker, drew swift backlash.
A turning point came when an opponent dropped out
On July 5, McMorrow ended her campaign, leaving a two-person race between El-Sayed and Stevens. Soon after, El-Sayed stood before door-knocking volunteers in a Grand Rapids park and declared that "we have a chance of winning this election."
“More importantly, we have a chance at winning our politics,” El-Sayed said. “What we’re doing is building a movement of the many against the money.”
In the final days, El-Sayed leaned even further into the strategy that had helped build his campaign. He marched through downtown Detroit alongside social media influencers, then attended a private pool party with content creators, including Piker.
On Election Day, El-Sayed did three interviews with content creators at Detroit’s Eastern Market before doing three more with traditional news organizations, including The Associated Press and MS NOW.
Hours later, the campaign that had once struggled to fill small rooms packed Detroit’s Majestic Theatre for an election night party.
Progressives see a test of their movement
El-Sayed's victory gave progressives something they have been seeking — evidence that their politics could prevail not just in deep-blue cities and congressional districts, but in a Democratic primary in one of the nation's premier swing states.
“Abdul El-Sayed is now the tip of the spear for the theory that shake-up-the-system economic fighters can win in swing states,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, who campaigned alongside El-Sayed in the final days.
The November race against Rogers, Green added, is “put up or shut up time” for the movement.
El-Sayed campaigned on “Medicare for All,” ending military aid to Israel and campaign finance reform. He had support from progressive leaders including Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who framed the race as both a grassroots movement and a broader fight against the establishment and big-money spending.
Outside groups backing Stevens ultimately spent more than $60 million, including more than $30 million from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its affiliates.
“We took on a machine,” El-Sayed said Wednesday.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, another progressive leader who endorsed El-Sayed, said the victory “should be a wake-up call to the Washington Democratic establishment.”
The harder test comes in November
El-Sayed now has three months to prove the movement that carried him through the primary can win a general election. Failure could be a dramatic setback for progressives, who have insisted for years that their approach could be more successful in a political era defined by President Donald Trump.
The Senate Republican campaign arm has already reserved $45 million in Michigan advertising to support Rogers, a number likely to grow as Republicans make clear they prefer their chances against El-Sayed.
AIPAC, which spent more money on Michigan's primary than any other race, also signaled Wednesday that its involvement would not end, saying it would oppose El-Sayed and "his radical anti-Israel agenda" in November.
The narrowness of El-Sayed’s victory also complicates any sweeping conclusions about what the result says about the Democratic Party. Nearly half of Tuesday’s primary voters backed Stevens, who argued throughout the campaign that her more moderate approach and history of winning competitive races made her better positioned to defeat Rogers.
Stevens called El-Sayed early Wednesday to concede the race, with El-Sayed describing it as a “great conversation.” She pledged her support for him, and Michigan Democrats are expected to gather for a unity breakfast Thursday before a public rally Friday.
Hertel, the state Democratic chair, said the primary’s ideological fight was not itself a problem, arguing that voters — rather than party leaders — should determine their direction.
“I don’t think that having a robust discussion is a bad thing,” Hertel said Wednesday. “What I think is important is that we are united afterwards.”
“We will unite together, and we will win this race,” Hertel added, “because we have to.”
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Associated Press reporter Jacqueline GaNun contributed to this report in Detroit.
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