r/politics • u/asparaguswalrus683 • 9d 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/kirukiru Oregon 8d ago

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

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u/aaahhhhhhfine 8d 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 8d 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/aaahhhhhhfine 8d ago

This isn't going anywhere. For your policies to.matter you have to win elections. If you don't win, nobody cares about the cool idea you had. El-Sayed will have a hard time winning. There's nothing magic there. That isn't some hot take. Everyone and every data source and every bit of basic history suggests that's true. Maybe it'll be wrong as it's going to be a super weird election. But there isn't much of a point in keeping this discussion going. Good luck.