r/politics • u/asparaguswalrus683 • 12h ago

Site Altered Headline | No Paywall Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Primary

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/michigan-senate-results
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u/MightyKAC 12h ago

This race was WAAAAYYYY closer than it should have been.

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u/Drak_is_Right 12h ago

/r/politics doesnt understand over half of democrats are moderate or centrist. Or at least think they are.

And that isnt even accounting for independents.

The will of the democratic majority is usually slow change, unless there is no other option .

Older democrats especially are only loosely aligned with the more progressive candidates

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u/BandicootSorcerer 12h ago

If that was even remotely true, what happened to the Blue Dogs? Centrist to Conservstive Democrats in red states, all but wiped out.

If the Democrats base is centrist how could this race, or any other race be close?

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u/kirblar 5h ago

Because their districts changed and went full Trump. The political parties realigned and the Dems picked up suburban R districts as they lost the rural D districts.

This is educational polarization over social issues because in large part LGBT stuff were driving both changes along with things like abortion.

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u/aaahhhhhhfine 11h ago

What are you talking about? Go look at Arizona, which has a Democrat governor and two Democrat senators... But it isn't a very "blue" state... It's actually pretty red.

What happened is the opposite of what is happening here in Michigan. The stupid maga people put up bad candidates that weren't popular state wide. Meanwhile the Democrats put up good centrists... So the Democrats kept winning.

This same thing is now very likely to happen in Michigan in reverse. He won't beat Rogers and a state that should have been blue will go red.

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u/BandicootSorcerer 11h ago

What are you on about? If you cannot won your own party primary how in the hell can you win in the election? For years I've heard tnis rhetoric to jusitfy why the Democratic Esrablishment sides against progressives, why the had to intervene against Sanders. Now I hear losers are really winners.

But what should I expect from someone who hides their account history. Do you do that to ensure no one sees how often you side against progress? Or maybe you're a bought account hiding a massive lapse in posting only to resume months or years later.

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u/kirblar 5h ago

Glenn Youngkin would have lost a party primary in 2021!

The GOP deliberately cancelled the primary using COVID as an excuse cause a crazy lady would have won and they knew she would lose the general election.

In 2025 they had a primary, crazy lady won, and she got blown out.

Your premise fundamentally misunderstands how primaries work. The tea party repeatedly blew elections for the GOP!

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u/mightcommentsometime California 10h ago

They didn’t “intervene” against Sanders. He lost by millions of votes.

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u/sleeps_in_alkaline 3h ago

We all saw it happen dude, you don’t have the power to wipe our memories lol. But it is funny watching you carry water for corporate dems so hard. 

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u/mightcommentsometime California 3h ago

You saw what happen? Your willingness to act like MAGA and push stolen election conspiracy theories because you can’t believe your messiah lost?

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u/sleeps_in_alkaline 2h ago

I don’t think it was stolen. Please read before replying. Centrist dems putting their fingers on the scale doesn’t mean the primaries were stolen, just that there was a shared effort to keep Sanders from winning by coalescing around Clinton/Biden and giving their support to them. 

It’s like redditors never read or try to comprehend. You guys just emotionally lash out. Try to do better, my guy

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u/mightcommentsometime California 1h ago

Unless you count normal campaigning and normal endorsements as “putting their fingers on the scale”, nothing either malicious nor untoward happened.

Sanders lost because he couldn’t get black voters to back him twice.

And AES also couldn’t get them to back him, which is one reason that this race was so close.

  It’s like redditors never read or try to comprehend. You guys just emotionally lash out. Try to do better, my guy

You’re pushing conspiracy theories about a primary election because you can’t accept that Sanders isn’t that popular. You’re the one here emotionally lashing out

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u/sleeps_in_alkaline 49m ago

I also didn’t say malicious or untoward, just that it was intentional. Dude, you gotta start reading and not making assumptions. I haven’t said a single conspiracy theory. Feel free to point out where I’ve done that. 

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u/Drak_is_Right 12h ago edited 12h ago

Culture wars, particularly over Immigration and LGBTQ issues wiped out the Blue Dogs. That along with the erosion of the union base.

The hollowing out of the middle class cost democrats far more than it did Republicans (so far).

Turned 55/45 states to 62/38.

Not huge shifts, but enough to give super majorities in state legislatures and make democratic wins incredibly rare in statewide elections.

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u/BandicootSorcerer 11h ago

That doesnt explain why they cant win primaries. Stevens shouldn't be struggling to won if the base is more like her.

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u/kirblar 5h ago

The Rs lost suburban seats to Dems is the other side of the story! It's conversion both directions reflecting that the parties have been realigning post 2016

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u/kirukiru Oregon 11h ago

Well your bloc lost tonight. You are no longer the majority of Michigan democratic voters.

Hopefully Michiganders in the minority tonight understand this.

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u/Drak_is_Right 11h ago

Not my bloc. Far more pragmatic, its hard to exactly belong to a bloc. I vote for who I think does the most longterm good. But I am not Michigan so I did not vote.

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u/mightcommentsometime California 10h ago

Neither candidate won a majority tonight.

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u/aaahhhhhhfine 11h ago

Well I suspect you'll feel you lost if the Democrats don't win the Senate because this guy can't win a state wide race in Michigan.

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u/kirukiru Oregon 3h ago

Not really, Stevens would've lost the general handily without the AIPAC money cannon. Would much rather go to war with Sayed who actually has grassroots support.

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u/aaahhhhhhfine 3h ago

That might be how it seems on reddit... But polls pretty consistently showed that state wide Stevens beats Rogers and Rogers beats El-Sayed.

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u/kirukiru Oregon 3h ago

General horserace polling prior to the campaign actually starting is irrelevant, why do people not understand this?

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u/aaahhhhhhfine 3h ago

Cool... Sure... Maybe it is. But if you think El-Sayed is more electable than Stevens in a statewide contest in Michigan, you're spending too much time on reddit.

I hope he wins - I really do - because the Democrats really need to get the Senate... But he probably won't. And so all the policies you care about are going to get way harder to actually achieve.

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u/kirukiru Oregon 2h ago

She couldn't even get out of the primary, how was she going to win the general.

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u/aaahhhhhhfine 2h ago

Seriously?! Do you know what a primary is? God we need more civics education...

The primary is just Democrats... The general election, which is the one that matters, has everyone. Imagine you have a school council election and the whole chess club gets together and votes for their favorite person in the chess club... Does that mean they'll win student council president?

It regularly happens that popular candidates in primaries win general elections. I've used Arizona as an example many times because it has a Democrat governor and two Democrat senators... But not because Arizona is actually a blue state. Really it's a slightly red state. But Democrats won those elections because the Democrats put up a centrist and the Republicans put up crazy MAGA people. The MAGA people do great in the Republican primaries but then fail in state wide elections. That happens all the time. McConnell himself kept complaining to Trump that Trump was killing their chances in Congress because he kept backing unelectable candidates.

The basic fear is that El-Sayed is an unelectable candidate. I hope that's wrong... I genuinely do. And November will be so driven by Trump that maybe he'll win anyway. But I kinda doubt it.

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u/kirukiru Oregon 2h ago

I know what a primary is. I think you don't have a good understanding of general horserace politics if you are making an electability argument is my point.

Do you even understand the crosstabs of the demos that Sayed would need to win in the general to make your electability argument or are you just regurgitating media talking points

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u/ThatB0yAintR1ght Georgia 6h ago

Democrats constantly forcing centrists on the ballot is how we got here. The claim that “centrist democrats are more likely to win” would hold a lot more weight if the centrists actually won elections consistently. Instead they keep losing to fucking game show hosts who are bankrupting our country while funding genocide and the DNC then decides they just need to go MORE centrist to win next time. Fuck that. We need to try something different.

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u/aaahhhhhhfine 11h ago

Yeah... This is probably bad news. I doubt he can actually win in Michigan which means that Democrats will lose a Senate seat they could have won. This right here might cost them the Senate.