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Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate candidacy poses a critical test of Democrats’ ascendant progressive wing: Can an insurgent candidate, with unabashedly liberal positions, win a general election in a moderate state?
By Lisa Lerer
For months, the Democratic establishment had issued increasingly dire warnings that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive Michigan firebrand who had never won an election, would struggle to win a swing-state Senate seat that the party could not afford to lose.
The state’s governor, members of Congress and attorney general lined up behind his primary opponent, Representative Haley Stevens, a centrist from a swing district. They argued that she could win the kind of tough races that are a hallmark of this battleground state, where voters have twice voted for Donald J. Trump and twice voted for Ronald Reagan.
