After all the money and mud slung at the progressive candidate the Michigan primary is a win for the progressive….cool!
Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s Democratic nomination for US Senate, defeating US Rep. Haley Stevens in a massive victory for the party’s progressive wing in a battleground state. The real test of El-Sayed’s and progressives’ strength will now come in a November matchup against Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman who ran unopposed for the GOP nomination. The seat is pivotal to Democrats’ chances of flipping the Senate, and El-Sayed will face the challenge of uniting a divided Democratic base after a bruising primary. The race remained tight throughout Tuesday night, with a winner not declared until early Wednesday, reports the AP. In his final remarks at a primary night party before the race was called, El-Sayed said “tomorrow we begin to mend fences.” El-Sayed’s campaign said Stevens called to concede Wednesday.
El-Sayed’s win represents a significant shift for the Democratic Party; in 2018 he lost the gubernatorial primary to now-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by 21 percentage points. El-Sayed, a former health official, campaigned on “Medicare for All,” halting military aid to Israel, and campaign finance reform. Now comes the more difficult challenge for Democrats: uniting the party to defeat Rogers, for whom Republicans have already reserved large sums of money ahead of the general election. Democrats consider the seat a must-win if they are to flip control of the Senate this year. Those stakes have added heat to the rivalry, with moderates arguing that El-Sayed would have a harder time than Stevens against a Republican in the general election.
While El-Sayed has said he is not a democratic socialist, he found support from some of the group’s members. That included Melat Kiros, who recently beat a longtime incumbent in a Democratic primary for a Denver-based House seat and was at El-Sayed’s watch party. Also there was Hasan Piker, a progressive and controversial influencer online. National groups poured unprecedented sums into the race, making it one of the country’s biggest tests of outside spending.
A great thing for Michigan in my opinion…..but do not get too excited just yet for he has to meet the GOP’s candidate and who knows what the spineless moderates will do come election time.
Somebody needs to track where the opposition money comes from and keep us peasants informed….and that will not be the MSM.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
It should also be noted that AIPAC and other pro-Israel organizations spent about $70 million to get Haley Stevens elected, 11-12 times more than was spent by El-Sayed, reportedly the most expensive U.S. Senate primary election in history. That is a rather remarkable turn of events. The consensus in D.C. had believed that opposing Israel was a political death sentence, just ask Thomas Massie and Andy levin. Now, that aura of invincibility has been broken.
Along with U.S. House wins by progressives William Lawrence and Donavan McKinney in Michigan, the populist movement against U.S. and Israeli warmongering should remain strong despite Cori Bush’s expected failure in Missouri and pro-Israel wins by incumbents Adam Smith and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in Washington state.
One question remains unanswered, though. El-Sayed and other progressive/democratic socialist candidates also ran on other big issues such as economic populism and universal healthcare. How much of his victory was due to those, and how much was due to his position on Israel?
Excellent questions I think in reality Israel thing was just along for the ride….I wish it wasn’t so…..Do not count AIPAC out….it ain’t over until it’s over…….chuq
It’s certainly going to be interesting both in Michigan and here in Wisconsin. The only two real candidates are the DS candidate Hong and the mainstream Dem candidate, the Milwaukee county executive Crowley. The last poll I saw was 3 days ago and Hong was leading Crowley by more than 30%.
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here. Originally it was Hong and former Lt. Gov. Barnes who were the front runners in the primary. Crowley was so far behind he dropped out of the race entirely. That left 3 contenders, Hong, Barnes and our current Lt. Gov. Then Barnes dropped out for reasons I never really heard. Then our current Lt. Gov dropped out because of campaign finance irregularities. That left the race to Hong and a bunch of no-names who were polling in the single digits. Then they talked Crowley into jumping back into the race again. So we have Hong in 1st place, Crowley a distant second, and a collection of no-names polling in the sub-basement.
Despite getting the backing of our current Governor along with every other mainstream Democratic politician in the state and the Democratic party as a whole, Crowley is still polling at down around 15% compared to Hong’s 44%. They’ve now dragged out information about her suffering from depression, and are digging through her social media accounts to find something, anything they can attack her with but so far nothing is sticking. Now they’re claiming a “socialist” candidate can’t win against the GOP’s anointed, Tiffany, so vote for Crowley in the primary or the antichrist is going to win…
The fact is, though, that it looks like Crowley probably wouldn’t win against Tiffany. He’s completely unknown outside of Milwaukee and even down there it’s widely believed that his term as county executive has been absolutely horrible with one major financial problem after another.
The way it looks to a lot of us here in the state, the mainstream Democratic party would rather lose the governor’s office entirely than see Hong get it.
GF it seems that the whole country is running scared of progressives and I have a hard time understanding it…..but then I do a lot of thinking…..chuq
Section 219 of the House’s FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — a U.S.-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative that was first filed as Section 224 — was introduced into the House bill by Representatives Mike Rogers (Michigan) and Adam Smith (Washington)…
Wait until the people of Michigan learn this scandalous fact about Mike Rogers.
Hopefully all the negativity will be used…..chuq
One step at a time perhaps, but that was a good step.
Best wishes, Pete.
An excellent step…..chuq