Abdul El-Sayed Challenges Haley Stevens in Aug. 4 Michigan Senate Primary
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 26
Abdul El-Sayed Challenges Haley Stevens in Aug. 4 Michigan Senate Primary
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 26
Summary
Aug. 4 will decide whether Michigan Democrats nominate Abdul El-Sayed, a 41-year-old epidemiologist and former public health official, over establishment-backed Representative Haley Stevens in a race now running essentially even.
Polls have swung sharply in both directions — one mid-July survey put Stevens up 7 points, while a tracking poll about 10 days later showed El-Sayed ahead by the same margin.
El-Sayed has built his campaign around anti-establishment frustration, Medicare for All and linking domestic affordability to U.S. war spending, while rejecting the socialist label and arguing he wants “capitalism that works.”
The contest has become one of the country’s costliest Democratic primaries, with pro-Israel groups led by Aipac spending about $30 million for Stevens as Schumer and retiring Senator Gary Peters also back her.
A win by El-Sayed, who lost Michigan’s 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary, would signal that a broader, younger coalition on the party’s left can overcome leadership resistance in a key Senate battleground.