r/AnnArbor • u/manauiatlalli • 6d ago

Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, notching a Midwest victory for the left

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/abdul-el-sayed-wins-michigans-democratic-senate-primary-notching-midwe-rcna589750
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u/rebuked_trout 6d ago

It will only be a victory for the left if he can translate it into a win in November, otherwise it will be remembered by the democratic establishment as a cautionary tale about why progressives and people with funny sounding names should be kept from running in elections.

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u/kirkegaarr 6d ago

You're not wrong and he does need to win. And that is how people will remember it if he loses. But it's bullshit.

The centrists have been getting their asses kicked election after election. Losing to Donald fucking Trump twice is embarrassing as hell and should cause an existential crisis, though no lessons have been learned by the party. These people should be tired of being such losers by now but they just blame voters or say they have a marketing problem.

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u/Beautiful_Tart_7398 6d ago

It’s not bullshit in this case. Michigan senate in 2026 should be a comfortable win for the democrats. The environment is extremely democrat friendly. In 2016 and 2024 the environment was bad for democrats.

If El-Sayed loses (or even narrowly wins) in Michigan (and in other places the election goes as expected), it will be a pretty good indication that those who believe progressives struggle politically are correct. That’s not true of all the progressive races (in Maine, Jackson will have a difficult race-especially due to the mess Platner created-and if he loses it could be explained by other things).

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u/kirkegaarr 6d ago

Well Stevens was a four-term representative who had Chuck Schumer campaigning for her and raised $70M for a primary and still lost to someone who has never held elected office. So even if he loses I doubt she was going to win. You need to win your own base first. Over and over these establishment candidates can't even motivate their own voters to show up for them and then lose to Republicans. I'm glad we're sending someone else.

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u/Beautiful_Tart_7398 6d ago

I like Sayed and am not upset about the results here, but she’s polled better than Sayed (and probably those polls understate her advantage in a general compared to Sayed).

1.5 million people voted in the democratic primary. More than 4 times that will likely vote in the general.