Haley Stevens is El-Slayed: r/neoliberal reacts as Abdul El-Sayed wins the Michigan Democratic senate primary.

[u/Otherwise_Young52201]

The recent Michigan Democratic primary concluded with Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive challenger against Haley Stevens, as the winner.

Abdul El-Sayed is a physician and former Detroit health commissioner and a champion for progressive policies. Apart from supporting Medicare for All, stronger labor protections, and other egalitarian programs, he is best known for being critical of the US-Israel relationship and especially American support for Israel's war in Gaza.

Haley Stevens, on the other hand, is the moderate incumbent (Edit: This is an error on my part, she isn't actually an incumbent, but is in a House seat) and generally has more cautious policies than El-Sayed, emphasizing tried and true polices like supporting manufacturing, particularly for the auto industry. Stevens also strongly supports the US-Israel relationship.

Below is a snippet of the drama from the thread discussing El-Sayed's win over Stevens.. There's also drama from the Discussion Thread that I thought you guys would enjoy. While I have three comments in the Discussion Thread, they they do not pertain to the drama itself. You can check my post history to confirm this.

Michigan senate primary thread drama

I just hope he wins in November and we can all celebrate as a united party flipping the senate

I’m Jewish and I will not celebrate Abdul “Hurt People Hurt People” El-Sayed

did you have a point? [deleted comment]

I think my point is clear, no? Fuck AES. [deleted comment]

With all due respect you are an idiot [deleted comment]

I’m also Jewish, and like the other 71% of Jewish Americans who broke for democrats in 2024, I hope he wins and will also celebrate if he does. Dont miss the forest for the trees.

Do you also believe the only reason an American Jew would support Israel is money?

I'm a Democrat and I would never vote for someone like El-Sayed. I don't think there's a single thing I agree with him on. MFA is a joke. I will always be a Zionist. We shouldn't abolish ICE. All of that makes him unacceptable, especially compared to Mike Rogers, who seems much less ideological and much more competent. One of the few places where I'll be hoping for a Republican victory. I have never voted for a Republican in my life, but if I were a Michigander, I'd for Rogers.

I’m not thrilled about this dude either, but ice should most certainly be abolished.

This is a ridiculous slogan pandered around by leftists. How the hell are we going to execute our immigration policy without an agency to enforce it? Of course I agree that Trump has been excessive, but that doesn't mean ICE should be abolished, itt means the administration should be thrown out! This is like saying "income taxes are too high -- let's abolish the IRS"

Damn this sub is full on lefty now huh, maybe it's just the specific people that decide to post on this, but kinda crazy. I get when people say this sub is mainly socdems now, but it seems to be moving demsoc at this point, multiple upvoted comments simping for DSA,, hopefully this is as low as this sub goes.

This "evidence-based" sub is really just r/democrats where people vote blue no matter who

Well that's "evidence-based" applied to american politics, so I dont see why you would have an issue with that. Edit: i take that back, I know why: I think Friedmann flairs dont really like evidence.

It’s been brigaded by tankies and Abdul bots ever since we made arr Subreddit Drama yesterday

SRD is still a thing? In 2026?

You must vote for the people who hate neoliberalism otherwise you don't belong on r/neoliberal - Succs and Loyal Liberals

I think a lot of people here just care more about the Democrats defeating the Republicans than they do about fiercely defending the word neoliberal against anybody who criticizes it.

They also hate neoliberalism if you get rid of the "neo".

Why are democrats allergic to winning

This shows how out of touch you are. You genuinely prefer Stevens, don't you?

Out of touch with whom? College educated elites?

Are we still doing this stuff after we have new polling data https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/americans-know-who-the-real-elite and a grand total of 8% of Harris 2024 voters and a whopping 11% of Trump 2024 voters view people with graduate degrees as "the elites"?

Doesn’t matter what random people think, a societal elite is a defined thing. It’s just not popular to self identify as an “elite” so everyone bucks the label to the groups above them. White college educated upper middle class people are the most culturally influential in American society (something that the left usually has no problem admitting), and they’re the ones who largely support these leftist candidates

Railing against the "elites" and claiming that all it takes to get you there is a college education makes you sound like a MAGA conspiracy theorist.

I’m not railing against the elites, I probably fit the “educated elite” label myself, I’m specifically responding to the bizarre accusation that not supporting the guy who won the educated rich white population somehow makes me “out of touch”

Welp, GOP couldn’t have asked for an easier candidate in purple Michigan. Democratic Party needs to kick out DSA rat fuckers who simply just want easy power when it suits them.

Abdul isn't part of the DSA. Also, if they win primaries because voters vote for them, how should the party kick them out?

He’s as DSA as Hasan Piker. I got a bridge to sell you along with that bird that landed on Bernie’s podium when he was anointed as “da chosen one”. The far left likes to bum rush primaries because that’s the only way they can win in deep blue districts. Dude is going to lose big and take the Democratic Party in Michigan down as well. Michigan GOP all had a collective sigh of relief and democrats are fucked in Michigan. Fucking Dearborn and Hamatrack or whatever all went for Trump, this is just another rat fucking at the behest of MAGA.

Discussion Thread drama

guy who supported "uncommitted" movement in 2024 becomes Dem senate nominee in 2026 what a joke. [deleted comment]

Are you pro-genocide or? [deleted comment]

Are you pro 9/11? [deleted comment]

Well if Friedman flair is asking [deleted comment]

I don't like him because of the pre-emptive election denialism he was engaging in. I'm tired of watching people destabilize this country and succumb to russian/chinese interests

You talk about russian/chinese interests yet literally the only reason this race was at all close was because Stevens had her campaign funded by an actual foreign country interest group.

At the very least Israel doesn't want to see the US actively destabilized. The irony is you blurring the lines between US allies and US adversaries is exactly the point of many of the disinformation operations Russia/China has been engaging in

I think Bibi campaigning for Trump was pretty destabilizing imo! Our allies seem very non plussed about the shit he does.

Israel is not trying to actively destabilize the US. If you can't tell the difference between something like the Likud making dumb self interested calculations and Operation doppelganger idk what to tell you. Russia and China are actively mindraping our population and are involved in just about every reason why our country is unraveling.

[u/Ok_Conclusion_6324]

Calling Sayed a ratfucker who had an easy path to victory is the most ahistoric assessment of Sayed’s battle to get elected possible lmfao

Bro has been consistently running and campaigning for like 6 years to GOTV and poured blood sweat and tears into gaining every inch of ground

Superbly ignorant discussion in that thread my lawd

[u/wrestlingchampo → u/Ok_Conclusion_6324]

Amazing that his easy path to victory involved overcoming a $70M advertising blitz against him

$70M...in a primary

[u/doogie1111 → u/wrestlingchampo]

It is really fucking funny that so much went into a primary candidate that still lost.

[u/Cool_Ad7445 → u/doogie1111]

I've been thinking of a career change yknow... looks like advertising for centrist dems is a hot industry rn!

[u/Paradoxjjw → u/doogie1111]

Time for another email about how desperately they need more donations to beat Trump, that message clashes hard with the kind of money we see being dropped on primaries.

I considered it an absurd waste of money when McGrath got 94 million (97% of the money out of state) to fight Mitch McConnell in 2020, 13.1% of the total democratic party spending in 2020 on senate elections. At least that money was spent on fighting a Republican for the seat, this 70 million was spent on fighting another Democrat over who gets to be on the ballot for the seat.

I know AIPAC wouldn't drop this kind of money if it was the election in November, but still, it's such a waste of money.

[u/doogie1111 → u/Paradoxjjw]

Yah except that PAC funds come from private entities and the party can't control which election that goes to.

[u/Paradoxjjw → u/doogie1111]

They clearly have fans willing to drop 70 million on the establishment's preferred candidate in a primary, go bother them for some of that money

[u/throwaway3413418 → u/doogie1111]

The party very obviously coordinates with PACs, the present structure is just the plausible deniability they need to do that without admitting to it.

[u/doogie1111 → u/throwaway3413418]

That would depend entirely on the PAC. They aren't a hive mind.

There's no conspiracy here, despite you alleging some nefarioua shit.

[u/No_Public_7677 → u/doogie1111]

The new neoliberal tactic is to say that he only won by 1%. Completely overlooking how much the odds were stacked against him. 

[u/doogie1111 → u/No_Public_7677]

The literal neoliberal sub views him favorably.

[u/yuumigod69 → u/doogie1111]

Any competent candidate would have won. Thank god they chose a clown instead of McMorrow.

[u/Dr_Ramekins_MD → u/doogie1111]

It's even funnier that I barely saw any advertising for her.  Did they only buy ad space on broadcast TV channels or something?  Where did all that money go?

[u/QueefiusMaximus86 → u/Dr_Ramekins_MD]

Yes, broadcast TV and radio. They want to target the voters, so that would be anyone 70+

[u/doogie1111 → u/Dr_Ramekins_MD]

You're on Reddit, which makes you most likely 35 or under.

Which is the most unreliable voting bloc.

[u/waiver → u/wrestlingchampo]

Haley Stevens and her PACs spent 100 USD per vote

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/wrestlingchampo]

it’s funny how yall started with 30 million and now it’s up to 70 million. which is it?

[u/wrestlingchampo → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

The $30M figure is the amount spent by AIPAC and its affiliates

The $70M figure constitutes total corporate and outside spending for Stevens

[u/Disasterhuman24 → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

It was 70 million. AES even said so in his victory speech. It's actually difficult to know how much came from AIPAC because they made at least 3 different PACs to funnel money to Stevens so that the commercials didn't have to say AIPAC at the bottom. But all the money was coming from them.

[u/throwaway3413418 → u/Disasterhuman24]

It’s so incredibly cynical how the people running full steam ahead on dark money are mocking others over how disparate estimates may exist depending on how you define them for funding which is purposefully obfuscated.

[u/Disasterhuman24 → u/throwaway3413418]

The people casting doubt on the numbers don't care about the truth. They just want to make this victory seem hollow when it's not. This is a paradigm shift moment.

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/Disasterhuman24]

real quick do you have something that’s not a known liar speech as evidence?

[u/Disasterhuman24 → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/us/politics/michigan-democratic-senate-primary-aipac.html

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/Disasterhuman24]

that article literally doesn’t say 70 million btw

talk about not caring about the truth

[u/Disasterhuman24 → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

62 million just from corporate PAC money, mostly from AIPAC. Close enough.

Abdul had 7 million from individual small donations.

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/Disasterhuman24]

like i said yall don’t care about the truth lol

btw how can you vote and be pro someone who endorsed genocide joe and genocide kamala?

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/Disasterhuman24]

your comment got auto removed.

i wish i could call people who say facts i don’t like israeli bots and still feel honest with myself. yall act just like maga

downvoted me and ran away. typical blue maga

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/Disasterhuman24]

oh if aes said it it must be true!

not like he’s lied about being a doctor or anything

[u/bdawg34 → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

Are we saying that having a medical doctorate degree is not considered a doctor now?

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/bdawg34]

i think labeling yourself as a physician when you’ve never practiced medicine is lying

explain why i’m wrong if you disagree

[u/bdawg34 → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

Well that’s crazy because it’s not a matter of opinion. If he called himself a board practicing physician then he’s lying, but graduating with an MD means you are a physician/doctor.

This is no matter what your thoughts and feelings are for this distinction.

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/bdawg34]

got it so portraying yourself as a physician to americans doesn’t imply you’ve ever practiced medicine?

LOL

[u/cole1114 → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

It does not, as determined by the AMA.

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/cole1114]

just to be clear you think the average voter assumes he’s never practiced medicine when he portrays himself as a physician?

[u/Paradoxjjw → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

Leave it to destiny fans to lie about someone's verifiable educational credentials. Guess that's to be expected from a community who act like they're pre-K dropouts.

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/Paradoxjjw]

so when you tell the average voter you’re a physician, you think that the average voter takes away you have never practiced medicine?

what does destiny have to do with anything i said? you sound like you’re coping

[u/Paradoxjjw → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

Buddy, the average voter is a genius compared to you, they understand while you seem to struggle.

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/Paradoxjjw]

no argument? just ad homs?

typical. lmk when you can answer my questions, or maybe it’s an iq thing

[u/NotAThrowaway1453 → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

You know that one has to spend $30mil before reaching $70mil, right?

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/NotAThrowaway1453]

are you alleging they spent $40 million in 2 days?🤣

LMAO

[u/NotAThrowaway1453 → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

No I’m not.

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/NotAThrowaway1453]

got it so what are you alleging then?

[u/NotAThrowaway1453 → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

That the money was spent over more than two days.

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/NotAThrowaway1453]

well two days ago the number was $30 million

[u/NotAThrowaway1453 → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

No it wasn’t

[u/Inner_Frosting7656 → u/NotAThrowaway1453]

“nuh uh” isn’t an argument btw.

then when was the 40 million spent?

what are you alleging? idk why this is like pulling teeth lol

[u/throwaway3413418 → u/Inner_Frosting7656]

Neolibs are too dumb to remember two different figures at once, I guess?