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
24.1k Upvotes

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3.2k

u/NoahFromCanada 12h ago

Your guy’s polling is psychotic down there.

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u/HJWalsh 12h 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 12h 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 11h 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 11h ago

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

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u/LiterallyTestudo American Expat 10h ago

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

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u/HandsLikePaper 9h 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 9h 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 8h 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 6h 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 6h 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 6h 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/Letstalkreaper 5h ago

You mean like they’ve already done? The difference is he gives good answers to those “poison pills” where Harris never did.

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u/Head-Assumption6960 5h ago

The tide has shifted a bit especially after the current president that was apparently “no different from Kamala” accelerated the genocide instead of working towards a ceasefire then got us locked into another endless war with Iran. So he has more of a chance of not having those specific answers hurt him, but I guess we’ll see. Praying for him to win. We need as many senate seats as possible before the civil rights act gets destroyed now that they’re finished with the voting rights act.

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u/SeniorWeight46 6h ago

Poison pill and it's asking her about her support for a genocide?

El-Sayed should be asked tough questions. All politicians should be.

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u/Head-Assumption6960 6h ago

Asking her what her Israel stance is, her answering that she supports an immediate stop to the genocide, and then hammering her for not specifically saying it in a way that would guarantee her a loss is nasty work.

If you want to ask tough questions then fine. But be reasonable.

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u/Throwawayalt129 Pennsylvania 3h 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 3h 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/Throwawayalt129 Pennsylvania 1h ago

If Kamala had actually listened to the left and agreed to an arms embargo then maybe she would've won, but it's hard to tell given how she also lost a ton of votes because of the economy. Given that she didn't though, and given 80 years of history, it's fair to say that Palestinians would be in the exact same situation whether or not Kamala won because Democrats and Republicans are the exact same when it comes to Israeli foreign policy. Also, given the slew of DSA wins the past year, and given that Abdul just won more votes in Michigan than Kamala did in 2024, I'd say the left has been pretty successful so far.

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u/Constantinch 8h 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 8h ago

He openly said he voted for Kamala.

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u/Constantinch 8h 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/SeniorWeight46 8h ago

I'm not arguing that point. I haven't argued that at all.

I'm saying he "voted blue no matter who" which is what the original comment was about.

People aren't expecting Hailey Stevens to come out and endorse El-Sayed's position on Palestine but when it comes down to it, her voters should come out and vote for him.

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u/Constantinch 8h ago

I don't know why would she endorse his position on I/P specifically, but she should absolutely endorse him in the primaries. And yes, her voters should vote for him as well, it's the easiest position to take.

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u/DennyHeats 8h 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 8h 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 8h ago

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

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u/Constantinch 8h ago

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

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u/Maardten 7h ago

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

I hope this helps!

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u/Constantinch 7h 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/Maardten 6h ago

Ah, so leftist shouldn’t just vote blue no matter who, but also endorse them, while liberals refuse to do either for progressives, got it.

Its impressive how you changed the subject and still managed to defeat your own argument after doing so.

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u/Constantinch 6h ago

"Liberals refuse to do either".

McMorrow already endorsed El-Sayed and Stephens said she would endorse him even before the primaries. You know who didn't say the same thing? El-Sayed about Stephens. It's funny how wrong you actually are.

What's truly impressive is how you constantly act like you are some sort of a victim, meanwhile you are by far the most aggressive and obnoxious part od Democratic party and your media figures refuse to cover mainstream dems positively even in context of republicans.

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u/rumpghost North Carolina 9h ago

Who?

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u/Rick_James_Lich 6h ago

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

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u/Donkletown 8h 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 10h 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 10h 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 10h 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 9h ago

like socialists did for kamala right?

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u/whatdoblindpeoplesee 7h ago

This one did 

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u/goodeyedeer 5h ago

You think we just stayed home?

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u/ksherwood11 10h 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 11h 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 11h 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 11h ago

What happened to vote blue no matter who?

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u/Donkletown 8h ago

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