Abdul El-Sayed’s plan as he left his last polling place stop on Tuesday afternoon was to take the stage at the Majestic Theater on Woodward Avenue as early as 10 p.m. to deliver a speech he knew had to be more about reaching out. But he was also counting on a big win to answer every question about his chances of winning in November and why other Democrats needed to fall in line behind him.
Instead, El-Sayed had to wait until Wednesday morning to claim a sliver of a victory, by 15,000 votes out of more than 1.5 million votes cast.
“In the words of Muhammad Ali, ‘We shook up the world,’” he told reporters.
But he left many key Democrats in the state unconvinced, now that his promises of transforming the electorate had fallen well short after a primary campaign that became vicious, visceral and deeply personal.
At stake is a Senate seat critical to their party’s chances of winning control of the upper chamber for President Donald Trump’s final two years.
