Abdul El-Sayed wins Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, a big victory for the left

Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan's slugfest of a Democratic Senate primary, NBC News projects, clinching the nomination in a close race over Rep. Haley Stevens and establishing a Midwest beachhead for a progressive left on the march this midterm cycle.

El-Sayed overcame a nearly $65 million onslaught of outside money and an establishment that had rallied around Stevens. Popular Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Stevens late last month — a move seen as a last-ditch effort to stop a rising El-Sayed.

El-Sayed, a former public health official, goes on to face former Rep. Mike Rogers, who claimed the Republican nomination without opposition Tuesday. Their race in November is expected to be one of the most competitive in the country, and it could determine which party controls the Senate.

Republicans have 53 seats in the chamber, and Democrats are going after some red states to flip the four seats they'd need to swing the majority. But Democrats also have to defend seats in several battleground states, including Georgia and Michigan.

Rogers and national Republicans had signaled that they consider El-Sayed an easier opponent than Stevens. The National Republican Senatorial Committee went so far as to produce a digital ad emphasizing El-Sayed's progressive credentials and endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. — a move many viewed as an effort to boost him into the general election.

Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., barnstormed the state for El-Sayed, whose push for "Medicare for All," condemnation of money in politics and criticism of Stevens for supporting aid to Israel were central to his campaign. The primary was seen as a test of whether an insurgent populist movement that had scored victories in primaries in blue states like New York and Colorado could take root in a purple battleground in the industrial Midwest.

El-Sayed also frequently blasted Stevens over the money she accepted from corporate PACs and the TV air cover she received from big-spending allies, including more than $30 million from a group affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel group known as AIPAC.