Abdul El-Sayed won a hard fight in Michigan’s Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate against Rep. Haley Stevens. He eked out a win by 15,000 votes, or about 1% of the almost 1.5 million votes cast during the election on Aug. 4, 2026.
El-Sayed had a consistent populist message during the primary campaign. He told The New York Times, “I can walk into almost any room, and I can say: ‘Money out of?’ and everybody’s like: ‘Politics.’ ‘Money in your?’ ‘Pocket.’ ‘Medicare for?’ ‘All.’ People know what we’re about.”
Now El-Sayed, the former director of the Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services of Wayne County, has to shift his effort and messaging to a general election campaign against Republican Mike Rogers.
I am a political scientist who studies campaigns and elections, both nationally and in the key swing state of Michigan where I live and teach.
El-Sayed ran a prototypical primary campaign, positioning himself as a progressive outsider against a moderate insider. Like Stevens, he appealed to specific segments of the Democratic electorate in an attempt to assemble a winning coalition.
