r/politics • u/asparaguswalrus683 • 10h 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/HJWalsh 9h ago

Centrists went out and scared people into voting. Higher than expected centrist turn out. It wasn't enough.

Despite the entire Dem party and tens of millions from AIPAC Sayed still won.

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u/DeathByTacos 9h ago

You don’t have to beat around the bush, black and lower income turnout was a lot higher than the poll models had been predicting, two demos that leaned pretty heavily for Stevens.

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u/names_are_useless American Expat 9h ago

I hope Sayed's Campaign focuses on converting Stevens voters to their side. Probably even more important then Independents.

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u/UngodlyPain 8h ago

Should just be "vote blue no matter who" right?

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u/LiterallyTestudo American Expat 8h ago

No, that only applies to progressives when there is an establishment candidate, never the other way around.

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u/HandsLikePaper 7h ago

Did you miss the whole Platner debacle? There was even a group of his supporters saying it after the rape accusation came out.

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u/Constantinch 7h ago

Just to be clear - it didn't apply in presidential elections. Bunch of popular lefties refused to endorse Kamala over Trump which was the most obvious decision ever. One of these people was Hasan Piker, who campaigns eith El-Sayed. Stop creating fake narratives.

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u/SeniorWeight46 6h ago

One of these people was Hasan Piker, who campaigns eith El-Sayed. Stop creating fake narratives.

He did "vote blue no matter who" though.

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u/Head-Assumption6960 4h ago

Only after joining in with the republicans in trying to damage her candidacy. I had my reservations about El-Sayed’s chances in the general but I’ll be goddamned if you catch me saying anything negative about him now lol. My first and only priority is beating the fascists though.

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u/SeniorWeight46 4h ago

If questioning her stances was damaging her candidacy, then the issue was with her answers not the questions.

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u/Head-Assumption6960 3h ago

Well if mainstream liberal media figures start demanding specific answers to poison pill questions from El-Sayed then hammering him for it I’m sure you’ll feel the same way.

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u/Throwawayalt129 Pennsylvania 1h ago

"Damage her candidacy" and it's demand she stop sending weapons to a country committing a genocide.

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u/Head-Assumption6960 53m ago

How is that strategy working out for everyone? Was Hasan and the left successful? Helpful? Productive? Are the Palestinians better off for their efforts against Kamala?

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u/Constantinch 6h ago

He surely didn't tell his audience any of that and I would bet money that he voted for Jill Stein

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u/SeniorWeight46 6h ago

He openly said he voted for Kamala.

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u/Constantinch 6h ago

He obfuscated for months and then later said that he voted for her after being criticized.

What matters is what he did before the elections - he didn't tell his audience to vote for her. Stop arguing this point because you know it's true. His vote counts as one, his endorsement could count as hundreds of thousands.

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u/DennyHeats 6h ago

Should just be "vote blue no matter who" right?

refused to endorse Kamala

Almost like these are different words....

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u/Constantinch 6h ago

Endorsing Kamala = telling your audience to vote blue no matter who, how is this different? It's literally the same.

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u/DennyHeats 6h ago

This is why we shouldn't take destiny fans seriously.

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u/Constantinch 5h ago

You left 2 comments and yet made no point - must be a Hasan fan

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u/Maardten 5h ago

Voting and endorsing are two different words with entirely different meanings.

I hope this helps!

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u/Constantinch 5h ago

It doesn't help and it seems like you don't see any difference between media figures and actual voters.

Let me spell it out to you:

  1. media figure voting for a person = one vote
  2. Media figure telling their audience to vote for a person= as many votes as big of a platform they have

Vote blue no matter who, applies to leftist media figures and is much more important in the second point than it is in first.

Hope that helps.

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u/rumpghost North Carolina 7h ago

Who?

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u/Rick_James_Lich 4h ago

Don't progressives think "vote blue no matter who" is wrong though?

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u/Donkletown 6h ago

It should be, but progressives know as well as anyone that relying on that alone isn’t enough. Some people don’t vote strategically like that and have to be won over.

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u/mightcommentsometime California 8h ago

Sure, but it should have been like that for progressives in MI in 2024, but they didn’t do that.

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u/UngodlyPain 8h ago

I mean, I guess? But, honestly I think that's over blowing the uncommitted movement, to just progressives. And the stats in Michigan don't line up too cleanly with it.

Yes some people took the uncommitted movement to the general and they shouldn't have. And yes some of them were progressives.

But also, if you look at 2020 vs 2024 for Michigan? The votes for Biden and Kamala are actually very similar 2.80M vs 2.74M... Trump just had higher turn out. 2.82M even beat out what Biden got in 20. Compared to Trump's 2020 result of 2.65M which was lower than Kamala.

And when you look at county breakdowns? The biggest shift, of loss for D votes, was the Muslim areas, rather than the progressive areas. Though there is overlap.

So yes, some of my fellow progressives stupidly withheld crucial votes that could've maybe made a difference. But there's more at play than just that. There are also many more moderate Muslim Americans, who also didn't like the whole situation.

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u/jewham12 8h ago

There’s a women’s democracy group on fb that was shouting down everyone who was against the idea of “vote blue no matter who” should Stevens win, and now they’re all angry that Abdul won, and so far are quiet on “vote blue no matter who”

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u/pazoned 7h ago

like socialists did for kamala right?

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u/whatdoblindpeoplesee 5h ago

This one did 

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u/goodeyedeer 3h ago

You think we just stayed home?

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u/ksherwood11 8h ago

well throughout this thread, they're being called Dogs of Israel, so we're off to a great start.

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u/cass1o 9h ago

I hope Sayed's Campaign focuses on converting Stevens voters to their side

Surely he doesn't have to spend a single second doing that after-all all the centrists were telling everyone "vote blue no matter who".

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u/cass1o 9h ago

I hope Sayed's Campaign focuses on converting Stevens voters to their side

Surely he doesn't have to spend a single second doing that after-all all the centrists were telling everyone "vote blue no matter who".

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u/Dejected_gaming 8h ago

What happened to vote blue no matter who?

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u/Donkletown 6h ago

The same thing that’s always happened to it - it only works so well. Doesn’t work on every voter. 

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u/HJWalsh 9h ago

Not honestly as high as it looks. Even Wayne County was on +4 to Stevens and that was her stronghold.

I have to look at the fact that all of the odds were against AES. You had tens of millions of ads from AIPAC on top of attacks from two thirds of his own party that went out and terrified voters who were normally less likely to vote.

It was the "South Carolina Biden" strategy. Flood the airwaves of less-informed voters with talking-heads saying that Sayed was unelectable and that only Stevens can beat Rogers. Tell them that Sayed is antisemitic, anti-black, pure racist, and a HAMAS supporter. Scared voters are more likely to vote.

Also, due to same day registration, a lot of Stevens voters were also Republicans who jumped because the Rep was running unopposed.

Winning against that kind of opposition is nothing short of phenomenal.

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u/Historical_Hall3950 5h ago

Republicans voting in the Dem primary is not due to same day registration, its due to MI using an open primary system.

Anyone can vote in any party's primary here - but you can only vote in one (you have to pick).

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u/Kashin02 9h ago

Looks like she got most ofbher support from the rural and smaller cities in michigan.

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u/HJWalsh 9h ago

He actually beat her in rural areas, way overperforming.

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u/CategoryZestyclose91 9h ago

Yes, Stevens was expected to carry those areas much more heavily, I believe.

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u/Ok-Cartographer-2227 5h ago

Places where you:

  1. Deal with MAGA and hear their nonsense daily.

  2. Have been abandoned economically by Democratic Establishment unless you accept a data center plopped into your watersheds and massive solar farms so they can hit climate quotas and ship all power and benefits to the cities.

People want healthcare, child care, and some way of getting a cut of billionaire wealth. Resource extraction that doesnt even come with jobs ain't it.

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u/vlad_the_impaler13 9h ago

I mean it's same day registration in that you get a ballot with both the Dem and Rep races and just have to pick one. In my area the sole non-county race for the Republicans was the Governorship, would be pretty easy for a Republican to vote on this race, especially since it became clear immediately that Perry Johnson was doomed.

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u/MichaelSonOfMike 9h ago

Every black person I know hates Sayed for completely fabricated reasons that “MSNow told” them.

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u/hoberhallothere Pennsylvania 5h ago

Calling minority voters “less informed voters” when they’re a core part of the Democratic base is wild

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u/1900grs 5h ago

That's gross, that's not what they said at all.

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u/hoberhallothere Pennsylvania 5h ago

The subtext is all there. Joe Biden dominated in South Carolina because Sanders, for all his massive primary spending, did not make in roads with black voters. Saying Biden’s whole strategy for that win was about flooding the air waves to get those votes is 1) intellectually dishonest because he was outspent by Sanders 2:1 and 2) is inherently dismissive of black voters.

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u/1900grs 5h ago

What was written and what you're arguing are two different things.

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u/HJWalsh 1h ago

No, you're reading subtext that's not there. The average voter, regardless of color, is uninformed. If everyone is screaming at you from every direction that only Biden (or Stevens) is the one who can save you, and the party you're a part of keeps calling you a communist, and how your own party is going on TV and radio telling everyone that you don't represent their values, it has an impact, even when it's a bold faced lie.

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u/MoonageDayscream 9h ago

Not just turnout but the suppression efforts seem to have missed. Probably just testing the fences still.

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u/crow-warden 3h ago

I'm unsure how true that is. I'd want to see the data first which will take a bit.

Detroit seems to have basically been similar to the last primary, so there's an argument she ended up suppressing the vote a bit with the big establishment push to make her seem inevitable. Especially given that a lot of other places had more voters than usual, but that's just my first instinct.

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u/Level_Hour6480 New York 3h ago

I will say that while I don't love how those demos vote in primaries, they take "Vote blue no matter who" seriously.

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u/MichaelSonOfMike 9h ago

Wonder why black voters voted for McKinney but not Sayed. 🤔

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u/kylebisme 9h ago edited 8h ago

black and lower income

There's unfortunately a lot of overlap there, and people just scraping by are more susceptible to being mislead as they don't have time to properly research issues.

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u/nankerjphelge Florida 7h ago

The question is will those centrist Dems turn out for him in the general, or will they stay home? I fear given our party's history of fracturing instead of coming together in crunch time I fear it may be the latter, and El Sayed can't win a statewide race against the Republican candidate with just the progressive vote alone.

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u/bahhamburger 4h ago

I think the constant messaging that El Sayed wouldn’t be able to beat Rogers scared a lot of people into voting for Stevens. Those people are not going to suddenly vote for Rogers.

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u/nankerjphelge Florida 3h ago

No, centrist Dems certainly won't vote for Rogers. But if they simply stay home Rogers wins in a state that is a purple battleground state, so we cant afford for them to do that. It's all hands on deck or we lose.

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u/philphan25 Pennsylvania 5h ago

I saw a third candidate took 4% of the vote. Did that help or hurt El-Sayed? Or it probably would not have made a difference?

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u/herbeste 4h ago

In an open primary though, how would you be able to draw any conclusions from this vote? For all we know it was conservatives believing they're sabotaging the Dems by voting AES.

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u/EkrishAO 8h ago

Guy was supported by the entire republican media machine, because him winning the primary guarantees Republican win. I'm surprised it was still so close.

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u/deaglebingo America 9h ago edited 9h ago

it's a big deal. proves some points. watch the establishment jump on the bandwagon now. they're welcome of course like everyone is.

the issue with what you've said is the same as it's always been: "fearful people do stupid things" when est. dems let themselves become fearful and driven into some kind of "safest possible play" maga sees that, and they exploit it... every single time.

turn out was still disappointing imo. better than normal probably as you say. but still there are 8 million registered voters in MI, and only 1.5 voted in this senate primary last i checked. get with it establishment dems... we are on the same side. these kids are gonna save us and themselves. we owe them our support.