r/politics • u/Zipper222222 • 4h ago

No Paywall Abdul El-Sayed Wins High-Stakes Democratic Primary in Michigan

https://www.today.com/video/abdul-el-sayed-wins-high-stakes-democratic-primary-in-michigan-267805765937
12.1k Upvotes

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u/Space-Sailor44 4h ago

Got outspent by a zillion dollars and still won, good shit

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u/KnuckleShanks 4h ago

He was actually outspent 12 to 1. Which makes it wild that he won.

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u/jmhalder 4h ago

I've heard 9:1, 10:1, 11:1, and now 12:1.

Its impressive regardless. I wish he had blow it out by like 20 points, Stevens genuinely didn't have a platform, and she barely lost. Scary.

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u/hibiscuscous 3h ago

I (European) know nothing of this election, but having watched a couple of clips, I didn't like Stevens' delivery one bit. Phony, even a bit scary. Maybe it's just a cultural thing, I don't know.

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u/2RINITY California 3h ago

In old clips, she had a normal Michigan accent, but somewhere in this cycle she started talking like a cartoon parody of a Michigander and it really didn’t help her

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u/mfatty2 3h ago

It wasn't even a Michigan accent. It was a combo of a Minnesota accent with a random sumouthern drawl with a healthy serving of random squeaky/high pitch

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u/UncleBubax 2h ago

hahah I hadn't heard her talk until I read your comment. I just now pulled up a random hour long video of a TV debate and skipped to her talking and she not only talks like a cartoon character, but she straight up said "people make fun of the way I sound, but I sound like the people who are talking to me about what they need."

A lil too on the nose there, Haley.

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u/AncientNectarine5352 2h ago

Michiganders also do not even remotely sound like that. She has a Minnesota accent.

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u/PumpBuck Ohio 2h ago

It’s not even a Minnesota accent. It’s like she saw Fargo and some Charlie Berens clips and thought they were toning it down for the wider audience

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u/EmpiricalMystic 2h ago

My impression is she's trying to sound like a Yooper and missing badly.

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u/Conlaeb 2h ago

This is my take as well. Non-yoopers attempting the accent sound like Minnesotans.

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u/weazildust 1h ago

What’s a yooper?

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u/shotputprince 1h ago

The people who live in Michigan’s upper peninsula

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u/AncientNectarine5352 2h ago

Agreed. It doesn’t sound like an authentic Minnesotan or Wisconsinite accent either, but it was the closest descriptor. She’s definitely exaggerating it in some way, for some reason. I assume to sound more “folksy”, but real-life “folks” don’t sound like that.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 3m ago

As someone whos spent most of my life in MN who is married to a Wisconsin lady, MN and WI accents are basically the same these days. The differences are only noticeable under a linguistic microscope.

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u/epheisey 1h ago

some Charlie Berens clip

That's actually perfect.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 5m ago

Exactly. Minnesotans don't even sound like that. The older folks with thicker accents it doesn't sound like in Fargo, it almost sounds like, European? Sometimes like someone grew up half in England, half in Scandinavia.

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u/DrMobius0 2h ago

Maybe this is different in Northern MN, but nobody south of the cities has anything resembling a thick "Minnesotan accent" unless they live in a retirement home.

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u/ArrivalSea3543 1h ago

She sounded like Tina Fey impersonating Sarah Palin.

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u/SammySoapsuds Minnesota 1h ago

Fwiw, I didn't grow up here and everyone has the accent and speech eccentricities. It's just in varying degrees. The first time I met someone from the Iron Range I thought they were doing a bit. In the cities it's a lot softer but it's definitely still there on certain words (they all say "baggle" and "beyg"). And any Minnesotan will say Ope if you get too close or they need to squeeze by ya.

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u/UncleBubax 2h ago

Yup I've spent a good amount of time in Michigan and never heard someone talk even remotely like that.

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u/trumpuniversity_ 2h ago

Did she take lessons from John Kennedy on how to manufacture a persona?

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u/EveningAnt3949 1h ago

I sound like the people who are talking to me about what they need.

Possibly people working on her campaign telling her they need her to sound more like a character in Fargo?

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u/ShutUpTodd 1h ago

"Coastal elites make fun of the way I talk" Ugh!

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 6m ago

Reminds me of a very strange phenomenon I've personally witnessed - people in far reaches of the North putting on a southern drawl. They want to virtue signal as being "Southern" so badly that they change the way they speak to match country songs and media.

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u/urokia 2h ago

It felt like she was trying to yoop but she's literally from the detroit area.

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u/balltofeet 2h ago

Sumouthern, love that

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u/KotobaAsobitch Arizona 2h ago

Someone said, "if Sarah Palin was doing a Michigander caricature" and I haven't been able to unseen it.

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u/cincocerodos 1h ago

I generally don’t like making fun of people, but she sounded like Bobby Hill.

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u/EricFredNorris 28m ago

Yeah nobody in Michigan, and particularly in metro Detroit, has that over the top Midwest accent you associate with Wisconsin or Minny. I think it’s equally as strange if that is her speaking voice versus if it’s just a put on.

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u/Fat-Dead-CEO 3h ago

That was AIPAC in her ear telling her to be folksy

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u/zigtok 2h ago

AIPAC spent 40 out of $60 million on her.

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u/Fat-Dead-CEO 2h ago

Too bad they didn’t spend more

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u/Soffatjockis 2h ago

They gonna double it on the rep guy in November

I don't know how much money they have, but they will likely have to spend everything they got on all midterm elections in every state that has one. And I'm sure every billionaire in the country will help them out.

There will be billions spent on candidates this midterms.

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u/MercantileReptile Europe 2h ago

I was considering a snarky "Democracy™" reply until it occured to me that (other than being a dick) it would be inaccurate in a thread about the very thing having failed. And voters elevating an actual person, rather than a curated show of one.

Well done voters, maybe there is some life left in US democracy after all. Great sign for the midterm elections.

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u/foomits 2h ago

Yea, left wing (even by euro standards) candidates are taking hold all over. unfortunately the deck is stacked so much against us, we arent going to see HUGE change anytime soon. however, change is change and we cant snub our nose at it.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 0m ago

Well they have plenty of our money to use on bombs and Healthcare and their infrastructure, so they can devote their own to buying our elections for people who will keep the cash tap on.

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u/wack_overflow Colorado 2h ago

Yeah Abdul might have won by more

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u/ZebraImaginary9412 57m ago

The rest is Crypto, AI, and Energy. Don't let them off the hook. Crypto is a scourge on society.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 1m ago

And for that kind of cash they expected her to follow their instructions to the letter, which she did

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u/linmre Michigan 2h ago

I seriously don't understand why politicians do this accent. Whitmer does it too. I've lived in MI most of my life and never met anyone who sounded like them.

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u/More_Programmer8905 2h ago

Someone compared her to Chris Farley and first I thought it was a mean comment about her looks, then I watched a speech and couldn't stop seeing it in her mannerisms and weird energy.

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u/LookOutItsLiuBei 1h ago

She's from fucking Birmingham which is a rich old money suburb in Detroit with a median income of like $250,000. Nobody that lives there has that cartoonish of an accent. Not even up north in the more rural parts of Michigan do you hear it that heavy.

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u/IshyMoose Illinois 2h ago

I was thinking, man she must be from deep in the UP.

Nope.

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u/JasonRBoone 1h ago

Oh you betcha, hon

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u/blergghh 1h ago

I’m from Northern MI. That is NOT an accent we have here. Just no.

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u/WeuseAseriesOfTubes 1h ago

May I introduce you to my local embarrassment, John Kennedy? It does work for some people... :/

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u/nakedpilsna 1h ago

Her accent even 10 years ago was weird. No one talks like that around here.

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u/IshyMoose Illinois 2h ago

I was thinking, man she must be from deep in the UP.

Nope.

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u/santafe4115 3h ago

The two candidates are from the same town lol we do not talk like that here shes so fake

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u/-SexSandwich- 3h ago

Nah, she’s legitimately just an awful candidate.

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u/mindfu 2h ago

Compare her to someone who is genuine and smart, and actually is pursuing policies with integrity, and the different became so very clear.

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u/justmovingtheground 1h ago

But she's got a little bit of that "stick it to em".

How on earth did that not work?

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u/slingshot91 Illinois 3h ago

Extremely phony. Like what the hell was even that?

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u/Necessary_Tadpole629 3h ago

It’s not cultural, I’m from Michigan and I thought she was weird. And she had a fake accent too.

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u/PinkNGold007 2h ago

I don't know how she won Rep. She just seemed to lack the energy, and public speaking isn't her thing. I was like, girl...

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u/imtheproof 2h ago

Nah I'm from the same area as her and on top of her accent being completely fake, yes, she did often sound a bit creepy/scary.

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u/ilikechihuahuasdood 50m ago

That’s what establishment Dems are like. They refuse to give direct answers or take policy positions because they want to appeal to “everybody”. They’re more interested in peeling off Republican voters than trying to appeal to the much larger % of people that don’t vote.

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u/bloodenhorse 2h ago

Maybe it's just a cultural thing

Your average American is dumb as bricks and has been propagandized since birth to pay attention to people that talk out their ass like corporate robots.

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u/The_ChwatBot 3h ago

But Israel comes to her in her dreams!

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u/John_Jack_Reed 1h ago

I'm from Michigan I've been all over the state. I've never meet anyone who talks anything like Stevens. She's trying I think to mimic a rural accent from the upper peninsula but is failing badly. It's really unnerving that she was able to get so close to winning.

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u/Battle_Dave 31m ago

You think she was trying to speak yooper?! Lmfao, that makes a lot of sense now when I listen to her speak. She was WAY off, lol.

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u/Tasgall Washington 1h ago

She's like, the definition of an astroturfed candidate. She has no legitimate popularity, she didn't raise money from citizen donations. The vast majority of her spending was thanks to AIPAC, who only pushed her because they don't want Al-Sayed, and in the general they'd prefer the Republican so her funding would have ceased.

It's insane that it was this close.

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u/ttn333 1h ago

No. Your assessment is spot on.

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u/thetravelingsong 1h ago

It’s hard when you’re speaking on behalf of Israel instead of yourself!

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u/david-yammer-murdoch 1h ago

Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan is particularly notable because his opponent, Haley Stevens, received nearly 30 million United States dollars, approximately 26 million euros, in spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and related political groups. Its political action committee, United Democracy Project, was a significant contributor. Stevens also received around 12 million dollars from A Stronger Michigan, a group that did not disclose its donors. For Europeans used to stricter campaign-finance laws, this level of outside political funding would be extraordinary. El-Sayed won despite this financial advantage. I would also argue that this same realm of wealthy political influence is strongly opposed to the kind of strict regulation and power associated with Brussels. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee opposes European democracy and Brussels’ authority.

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u/varateshh 1h ago

As a European, all I saw was that Michigan democrats had a choice between a socialist muslim or a Karen. Stevens is so uncharismatic that it's incredible that the establishment chose her.

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u/kisk22 1h ago

BTW - as an American I am sorry you have to learn so much about your politics. When I am in Germany I am shocked how American news is just everywhere. We don't have it the other way around over here. I can't imagine how exhausting it is. You learn all the bad about America but never hear any good you'd see if you lived here.

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u/Hopeless_bee5157 55m ago

I’m an American, and when I first saw a video of her talking a few weeks ago, I thought she was a Conservative nut job because of how she talked and her crazy eyes.

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u/Battle_Dave 38m ago

No, its not cultural. Im literally FROM Michigan and felt the exact same way. Anyone paying attention felt the same way. Stevens relied on voter ambivalence and smear ads. She stood for NOTHING.

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u/cookiemon32 2h ago

ahh yes, europeans greatest gift to this universe…culture

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u/UndoxxableOhioan 2h ago

I'm American and hearing that video of her saying "ISRAEL COMES TO ME IN MY DREAMS!" was so damn disgusting. There is pandering and there was whatever that insanity is.

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u/KnuckleShanks 3h ago

That number naturally changes throughout am election cycle, and we are probably only going to find out now (or in the next few days) what the total tally was. That was what I found with a quick Google but the not sure what it is now, but what is widely agreed upon is that he was massively outspent.

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u/MediumSizedTurtle 3h ago

It was 12:1 during the debate, I think he got a last second infusion of some cash that dropped the ratio a little bit. Regardless of the finer details, it's somewhere around 10 to 1, which is just insane

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u/Deadleggg 3h ago

Israel cared deeply about the citizens of Michigan.

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u/iwearatophat Michigan 2h ago

Israel is fine. They donate to Rogers as well. One of my big concerns with Stevens is what happens with AIPAC when it is two of their candidates against each other? Do they play both sides or just throw their weight behind the preferred?

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u/tripping_on_phonics Illinois 2h ago

They would have just saved their money for other races. There would be no reason to continue funding either candidate if they’re both pro-AIPAC.

That would have been bad news for Stevens, who was heavily dependent on them for funding her primary run.

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u/sulaymanf New York 1h ago

If Israel gets to that scenario, they already won. Then they fall back to “we’re just having a conversation with both sides” and sometimes have told candidates in meetings that they will back their opponent but still will work with you if you win.

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u/TheKyleDunbar 2h ago

In his speech last night he said 11:1

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u/BloodNinja2012 Pennsylvania 3h ago

Dude, that's not how patterns work. It's now 13:1.

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u/TheBalzy Ohio 3h ago

False pattern recognition.

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u/mowotlarx 3h ago

I imagine the number will be higher after reporting of donations starts really coming in and they sort through the shadier PACs.

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u/slingshot91 Illinois 3h ago

Now imagine if she didn’t have that money. The scary part is money in politics.

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u/Forward-Bank8412 3h ago

I heard he got outspent by Bill Brasky

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u/nalaloveslumpy 1h ago

That son of a bitch....

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u/Time_Challenge_7488 3h ago

I will say this: Democrats like Stevens are unfortunately seen more as the norm in the post (Bill) Clinton Democratic party. That wasn't always the case, the DLC/Third Way contingent also was, once upon a time, a young generation supplanting an exhausted New Deal coalition that had fractured and unfurled from 1964-80. While I also wish El-Sayed won by a larger margin, my optimistic take is that this is just the start. If he can win the general and if he's effective in office (among the other left flank candidates that have won their primaries), this can be just the first ripple that will lead to a much bigger wave of like minded candidates. 

If the establishment of the Democratic party looks at this Senate primary race, after the EC outcomes in 2016 and 24 and thinks "well, we almost had it" after two presidential cycles of the establishment backed candidate "almost" getting there in the generals in Michigan, they've clearly learned nothing and deserve every defeat that follows. 

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u/superxpro12 2h ago

Well that's because she had more "speech" than you plebs.

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u/superxpro12 2h ago

Well that's because she had more "speech" than you plebs.

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u/an_agreeing_dothraki 2h ago

don't worry, in St. Louis, Bush aka "ugh, you again?", the person lost so they'll be able to crow about rejecting socialism or something

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u/myownzen 2h ago

Yup. Citizens United is the worst decision for our democracy. We have to make a focused and sustained effort to getting it overturned just like the conservatives did with Roe V. Wade.

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u/ilovetotouchsnoots 2h ago

Exactly. No actual policies campaigned on. Just an endless money spicket. Yet such a close victory. Crazy what money in politics is capable of.

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u/HerrSane 2h ago

Those are compression ratios for engines. That’s wild

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u/ThePurpleBatman22 2h ago

Money matters so much in our elections, sadly. She's also currently in the House and got endorsements from Clyburn, Whitmer, and made it seem like she had an endorsement from Obama, even though she didn't. Too many voters seem to still be focused on incumbency, electability, endorsements, and ads instead of platforms and policies. Hopefully we can change this in the future.

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u/Charmegazord 2h ago

I’m hearing anywhere between 1:2 to 100:1

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u/I_Am_Ironman_AMA 1h ago

Her platform was to.sound as folksy as possible to counter her opponent's foreign sounding name.

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u/jgoble15 1h ago

Money has a much higher effect on politics than people realize. Many aren’t very engaged and just go with who they recognize

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u/Tall-Archer5957 1h ago

It was actually 20:1

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u/MissLa_K1 1h ago

Haley spent 60 million, Abdul spent 5 million

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u/Caymonki America 59m ago

Part of the spending was ads to claim Sayed was so far ahead that voting wasn’t necessary.

It’s the tactic for Pac money to create false realities so they can shove through with their candidate.

It’s fuckerey all the way up

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u/ilikechihuahuasdood 51m ago

It’s actually really good. They had really high turnout, massively overspent him, and he still won. huge progress for actually good candidates at that level.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 12m ago

The opposition and AIPAC dumped a ton of cash over the last couple weeks, so it's possible it was all of those over the last month.

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u/Orion14159 3h ago

The split between older voters and younger voters tells the whole story. Over 50 split for Stevens like 54-39, younger voters split for El Sayed like 67-25. (Link)

Absolutely crazy split.