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Abdul El-Sayed seeks Democratic unity after divisive Michigan Senate primary
In the first 90 seconds of his victory speech in Detroit Wednesday, Abdul El-Sayed both lambasted the influence of AIPAC and appealed to his rival Haley Stevens, who had benefited from the pro-Israel lobby's massive resources, to campaign with him.
Three sentences later, El-Sayed appealed to Stevens, who was backed by upwards of $30 million in pro-Israel money, to join him in defeating Mike Rogers, a former congressman who is the Republican nominee to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
Stevens lost by less than 1 percentage point, a stunning rebuke to multiple pollsters who said she would lose by double digits. The more than $60 million spent on the race on her behalf helps make it the most expensive in Senate primary history.
Despite the close margin, Stevens quickly endorsed El-Sayed Wednesday, as did Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Jewish New York Senate minority leader who pushed hard for her to win.
"I spoke with Abdul a few moments ago to offer him my full support as we work to defeat Mike Rogers this November," Stevens said on X/Twitter.
Republicans immediately signaled that El-Sayed's animus toward Israel and its supporters, a dynamic that came to dominate the primary race, would be a focus of their general election campaign.
"Great news for the Republican Party," President Donald Trump said Wednesday on the social media platform he owns, Truth Social. "El-Sayed, a Communist loser who hates Jews and Israel, is the projected winner in his race with the Socialist." El-Sayed, a physician who is a former county health official, is not a communist, and Stevens, a congresswoman who built her reputation as a champion of the state's auto industry after its late 2000s crisis, is not a socialist.