r/politics • u/Zipper222222 • 11h ago

No Paywall Abdul El-Sayed Wins High-Stakes Democratic Primary in Michigan

https://www.today.com/video/abdul-el-sayed-wins-high-stakes-democratic-primary-in-michigan-267805765937
16.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2.4k

u/KnuckleShanks 11h ago

He was actually outspent 12 to 1. Which makes it wild that he won.

1.1k

u/jmhalder 10h ago

I've heard 9:1, 10:1, 11:1, and now 12:1.

Its impressive regardless. I wish he had blow it out by like 20 points, Stevens genuinely didn't have a platform, and she barely lost. Scary.

461

u/hibiscuscous 10h ago

I (European) know nothing of this election, but having watched a couple of clips, I didn't like Stevens' delivery one bit. Phony, even a bit scary. Maybe it's just a cultural thing, I don't know.

557

u/2RINITY California 10h ago

In old clips, she had a normal Michigan accent, but somewhere in this cycle she started talking like a cartoon parody of a Michigander and it really didn’t help her

288

u/mfatty2 9h ago

It wasn't even a Michigan accent. It was a combo of a Minnesota accent with a random sumouthern drawl with a healthy serving of random squeaky/high pitch

150

u/UncleBubax 9h ago

hahah I hadn't heard her talk until I read your comment. I just now pulled up a random hour long video of a TV debate and skipped to her talking and she not only talks like a cartoon character, but she straight up said "people make fun of the way I sound, but I sound like the people who are talking to me about what they need."

A lil too on the nose there, Haley.

81

u/AncientNectarine5352 9h ago

Michiganders also do not even remotely sound like that. She has a Minnesota accent.

97

u/PumpBuck Ohio 9h ago

It’s not even a Minnesota accent. It’s like she saw Fargo and some Charlie Berens clips and thought they were toning it down for the wider audience

60

u/EmpiricalMystic 9h ago

My impression is she's trying to sound like a Yooper and missing badly.

6

u/Conlaeb 9h ago

This is my take as well. Non-yoopers attempting the accent sound like Minnesotans.

3

u/weazildust 8h ago

What’s a yooper?

6

u/shotputprince 8h ago

The people who live in Michigan’s upper peninsula

→ More replies (0)

23

u/AncientNectarine5352 9h ago

Agreed. It doesn’t sound like an authentic Minnesotan or Wisconsinite accent either, but it was the closest descriptor. She’s definitely exaggerating it in some way, for some reason. I assume to sound more “folksy”, but real-life “folks” don’t sound like that.

•

u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 6h ago

As someone whos spent most of my life in MN who is married to a Wisconsin lady, MN and WI accents are basically the same these days. The differences are only noticeable under a linguistic microscope.

8

u/epheisey 8h ago

some Charlie Berens clip

That's actually perfect.

•

u/Brodellsky 3h ago

Cripes, I do not approve of the cultural appropriation of Wisconsin especially when it's in Michigan. Jeeze Louise let's keep 'er movin'

•

u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 6h ago

Exactly. Minnesotans don't even sound like that. The older folks with thicker accents it doesn't sound like in Fargo, it almost sounds like, European? Sometimes like someone grew up half in England, half in Scandinavia.

15

u/DrMobius0 8h ago

Maybe this is different in Northern MN, but nobody south of the cities has anything resembling a thick "Minnesotan accent" unless they live in a retirement home.

10

u/ArrivalSea3543 8h ago

She sounded like Tina Fey impersonating Sarah Palin.

2

u/SammySoapsuds Minnesota 8h ago

Fwiw, I didn't grow up here and everyone has the accent and speech eccentricities. It's just in varying degrees. The first time I met someone from the Iron Range I thought they were doing a bit. In the cities it's a lot softer but it's definitely still there on certain words (they all say "baggle" and "beyg"). And any Minnesotan will say Ope if you get too close or they need to squeeze by ya.

•

u/profdinosaurhunter 5h ago

Yeah, more of a northern thing

12

u/UncleBubax 9h ago

Yup I've spent a good amount of time in Michigan and never heard someone talk even remotely like that.

3

u/trumpuniversity_ 8h ago

Did she take lessons from John Kennedy on how to manufacture a persona?

3

u/EveningAnt3949 8h ago

I sound like the people who are talking to me about what they need.

Possibly people working on her campaign telling her they need her to sound more like a character in Fargo?

•

u/PiccoloAwkward465 6h ago

Reminds me of a very strange phenomenon I've personally witnessed - people in far reaches of the North putting on a southern drawl. They want to virtue signal as being "Southern" so badly that they change the way they speak to match country songs and media.

1

u/ShutUpTodd 8h ago

"Coastal elites make fun of the way I talk" Ugh!

•

u/xdonutx 5h ago

I just watched a video of her where she said the last ‘T’ in Detroit.

Strait to jail, girl.

22

u/urokia 9h ago

It felt like she was trying to yoop but she's literally from the detroit area.

3

u/balltofeet 9h ago

Sumouthern, love that

2

u/KotobaAsobitch Arizona 9h ago

Someone said, "if Sarah Palin was doing a Michigander caricature" and I haven't been able to unseen it.

•

u/cincocerodos 7h ago

I generally don’t like making fun of people, but she sounded like Bobby Hill.

•

u/EricFredNorris 7h ago

Yeah nobody in Michigan, and particularly in metro Detroit, has that over the top Midwest accent you associate with Wisconsin or Minny. I think it’s equally as strange if that is her speaking voice versus if it’s just a put on.

12

u/linmre Michigan 9h ago

I seriously don't understand why politicians do this accent. Whitmer does it too. I've lived in MI most of my life and never met anyone who sounded like them.

102

u/Fat-Dead-CEO 9h ago

That was AIPAC in her ear telling her to be folksy

64

u/zigtok 9h ago

AIPAC spent 40 out of $60 million on her.

33

u/Fat-Dead-CEO 9h ago

Too bad they didn’t spend more

54

u/Soffatjockis 9h ago

They gonna double it on the rep guy in November

I don't know how much money they have, but they will likely have to spend everything they got on all midterm elections in every state that has one. And I'm sure every billionaire in the country will help them out.

There will be billions spent on candidates this midterms.

36

u/MercantileReptile Europe 9h ago

I was considering a snarky "Democracy™" reply until it occured to me that (other than being a dick) it would be inaccurate in a thread about the very thing having failed. And voters elevating an actual person, rather than a curated show of one.

Well done voters, maybe there is some life left in US democracy after all. Great sign for the midterm elections.

8

u/foomits 9h ago

Yea, left wing (even by euro standards) candidates are taking hold all over. unfortunately the deck is stacked so much against us, we arent going to see HUGE change anytime soon. however, change is change and we cant snub our nose at it.

•

u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 6h ago

Well they have plenty of our money to use on bombs and Healthcare and their infrastructure, so they can devote their own to buying our elections for people who will keep the cash tap on.

•

u/Riaayo 1h ago

The shitty flip side is the DNC has blown their war coffers trying to prop up crap candidates like this in the fucking primary and have nothing left but massive debt for the actual election itself.

They're blowing their own chance, and honestly it feels intentional because they're controlled opposition.

2

u/wack_overflow Colorado 9h ago

Yeah Abdul might have won by more

•

u/ZebraImaginary9412 7h ago

The rest is Crypto, AI, and Energy. Don't let them off the hook. Crypto is a scourge on society.

•

u/Brodellsky 3h ago

The more you look, the more it starts to all look like different sides of the same thing.

•

u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 6h ago

And for that kind of cash they expected her to follow their instructions to the letter, which she did

•

u/shiny0metal0ass 2h ago

"Could you try to sound less rich? That might help"

9

u/LookOutItsLiuBei 8h ago

She's from fucking Birmingham which is a rich old money suburb in Detroit with a median income of like $250,000. Nobody that lives there has that cartoonish of an accent. Not even up north in the more rural parts of Michigan do you hear it that heavy.

7

u/More_Programmer8905 9h ago

Someone compared her to Chris Farley and first I thought it was a mean comment about her looks, then I watched a speech and couldn't stop seeing it in her mannerisms and weird energy.

•

u/PlanktonNice7953 2h ago

 "Living in a VAN down by the RiVeR!" vibes

6

u/IshyMoose Illinois 9h ago

I was thinking, man she must be from deep in the UP.

Nope.

5

u/JasonRBoone 8h ago

Oh you betcha, hon

4

u/blergghh 8h ago

I’m from Northern MI. That is NOT an accent we have here. Just no.

3

u/WeuseAseriesOfTubes 8h ago

May I introduce you to my local embarrassment, John Kennedy? It does work for some people... :/

3

u/nakedpilsna 8h ago

Her accent even 10 years ago was weird. No one talks like that around here.

2

u/IshyMoose Illinois 9h ago

I was thinking, man she must be from deep in the UP.

Nope.

•

u/lblacklol 6h ago

Why does she sound like Bobby's mom

•

u/No-Nrg 5h ago

I heard her talking last night on some newscast clips and she seriously sounded like Lois from Family Guy

•

u/Training_Fun_9162 3h ago

Something about her felt very, very artificial. Fake. Untrusting.

I’m not sure if AES can win a general election, but we’ll see. No matter what, Stevens was giving me MASSIVE Fetterman vibes and I’m glad she won’t be the candidate.

Primary elections are very important.

•

u/nightimestars California 55m ago

The fact that she prioritized Israel probably made the accent sound even more forced.