Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former Detroit health director, has won Michigan's Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, defeating Rep. Haley Stevens by roughly a single percentage point in a race the Associated Press did not call until more than 12 hours after polls closed, according to NPR.
The outcome is a stinging setback for AIPAC and allied pro-Israel groups, which poured more than $60 million into defeating El-Sayed, with AIPAC alone reportedly spending over $30 million, according to Al Jazeera. Despite that financial advantage, Stevens could not overtake El-Sayed, whose narrow win came in one of the most closely watched and heavily funded Senate primaries of the cycle.
El-Sayed, a public health physician who previously served as Detroit's health director, built his campaign around progressive positions that put him at odds with the pro-Israel establishment funding much of the opposition to his candidacy. The scale of outside spending against a single Senate primary candidate made the race one of the most expensive of the cycle nationally.
A campaign against establishment money
El-Sayed cast his candidacy as a fight against both Stevens and the outside spending backing her campaign. "We know that to defeat Trumpism we have to defeat Trump's handpicked candidate," he said after the race was called.
The result reverberated well beyond Michigan. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a longtime ally who campaigned for El-Sayed, called it "the most extraordinary victory that I can think of in modern American politics," according to NBC News.
President Trump also reacted, dismissing El-Sayed as a "Communist loser who hates Jews and Israel" and calling the outcome "great news" for Republicans heading into the fall campaign.
The primary's outside-spending totals underscore how central the race became to the national fight over the Democratic Party's direction, with AIPAC and its allies treating El-Sayed's candidacy as a priority target and coming up short despite the scale of their investment.
El-Sayed now advances to face Republican Mike Rogers in November for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters. A victory in the general election would make him the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, setting up a contest both parties are expected to watch as a bellwether for the midterms.
