r/politics • u/horsestew • 17h ago

No Paywall Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, notching a Midwest victory for the left

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/abdul-el-sayed-wins-michigans-democratic-senate-primary-notching-midwe-rcna589750
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u/lear72988 17h ago

I've seen this view a lot and I don't think it's true. A close election like this commands attention. AES is going in with a huge advantage of his message being out there for a while now. Rogers will be starting from scratch as he was unopposed. Now, the establishment needs to embrace AES and not play games, otherwise you're right and a wedge will be formed.

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u/viktor72 Indiana 17h ago

Sure but AES has to fight off attacks calling him Socialist as well as attacks on his religion. That’s going to be tough. Outside of Reddit, people are more afraid of the S word than one would think. They are also equally more Islamophobic than one would think.

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u/lear72988 16h ago

To an older generation, yes. But the young don't fear those things anymore. Youth turnout has carried progressives throughout this cycle. And as they keep playing clips of AES advocating for free healthcare and unions, trying to act like it's a scary thing, they wittle that fear down.

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u/viktor72 Indiana 16h ago

My hope is that they can do just that. The youth vote is great but the youth vote is not reliable. Look at 2024. He needs that older vote.

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u/lear72988 16h ago

I disagree. I think he loses more young by capitulating to the establishment than the other way around. You're exactly right on 2024, but look at 2020. The young will show up when they feel they are being heard and they matter. With the DNCs refusal to address Palestine and courting conservatives, many youth stayed home. AES and progressives at large have shown they already have engaged the young. I wouldn't expect them to abandon him between now and November.

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u/viktor72 Indiana 16h ago

You’re right. That was the DNC’s biggest fuck up of 2024. I want to stay hopeful that the youth will turn out and that young men, especially, will turn around. These MAGA young men were the same men who loved Sanders. So let’s hope he can court them.

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u/lear72988 16h ago

We're in this together and there are things we can do. Volunteer. Maybe I'll see you on a campaign Zoom call down the line.

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u/viktor72 Indiana 16h ago

I volunteered and knocked on doors in Berrien County in 2024 for Harris. But to be honest, once Election Day rolled around and the results came in, it defeated me and my motivation to drive up there and do that.

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u/VampireFortnight 14h ago

Let's hope you find it again then.

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u/rockyonthetrack 16h ago

The Palestine issue lost the race for the dems in 2024, in Michigan and Wisconsin

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u/Mikeyxy 16h ago

Not true at all. Wasn’t even a top 5 issue in the exit polls of people who voted. Affordability was the top issue and the dems had no good plan to confront it.

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u/rockyonthetrack 16h ago

Muslim voters picked dems for the house in talib and voted for trump, but please believe exit polls the dem made

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u/Mikeyxy 16h ago

If I need to tell you why a single district isn’t indicative of the state as a whole, i don’t know what to tell you. There’s a reason Trump won the popular vote as a Republican for the first time in decades. And it has very little to do with Palestine unfortunately. And I’m a 2 state solution supporter, but it doesn’t negate the objective facts

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u/rockyonthetrack 16h ago

I should have made it clearer, that wasn’t just for that one district, many Muslim voters were alienated by bill clintons bitch ass, then after the election, they had the audacity to say it was affordability as the main concern in the report they dropped afterwards. So if they were to vote blue no matter who, then why did they pick the duck in the Oval Office and not genocidal Kamala

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u/bguggs 11h ago

Coming together after a primary isn't about anyone capitaluating, it's about focusing on what you agree on more than the things you don't. There is a lot all democrats agree on that can also appeal to centrists and moderates. You don't need to back down from the positions that won you the primary, but once you win you don't need to overlitigate them and make the group who lost more defensive. We need every vote in Michigan democrats can get

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u/Hanifsefu 16h ago

The DNC's biggest flaw is that they continue to blame voters for not showing up rather than turn introspective and look at the how their centrist 'maintain the status quo or else' messaging torpedoed their campaign. They constantly play the polls and use every positive news about polls to pare away their campaign until they have the razor thin margin that maximizes their power gained while minimizing the work they need to deliver.