Abdul El-Sayed results put the former public health official on top of the Michigan Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday, as he won 48.5% of the vote. Haley Stevens finished at 47.5%, turning what polls had shown as a firm lead for El-Sayed into a race decided by one point.
The result leaves Democrats with a nominee who emerged from one of the closest contests in Tuesday’s midterm primary elections. It also came as Republicans nominated Mike Rogers for Michigan’s other Senate seat, keeping the state at the center of the broader battle for Congress.
Haley Stevens in Michigan
Stevens entered the race with backing from Gretchen Whitmer and Chuck Schumer, but that support did not close the gap. El-Sayed, described as a progressive candidate, held his advantage by a narrow margin and won a nomination that had been treated as competitive throughout the campaign.
The numbers show how tight the count was: El-Sayed’s 48.5% compared with Stevens’ 47.5% left just 1 percentage point between them. The race was one of several Tuesday contests in Michigan, Washington, Virginia, Kansas and Missouri that could help shape control of Congress.
Tuesday primary elections
Other results added to the day’s political picture. William Lawrence won the Democratic nomination in central Michigan’s battleground seventh congressional district, Donavan McKinney ousted Shri Thanedar in Detroit, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez clinched her primary. In St Louis, Cori Bush lost her attempt at a political comeback while Wesley Bell was renominated.
In Kansas and Missouri, voters rejected a Missouri ballot initiative that would have made it more difficult for state constitutional amendments to pass, rejected an attempt to phase out the state income tax, and turned back a GOP-backed effort to have state supreme court judges popularly elected rather than appointed by the governor. The mix of results points to a night in which Democratic primary voters rewarded several progressive candidates while Republicans also settled on their Michigan Senate nominee.
Mike Rogers for Michigan
Rogers’ nomination sets up the next major contest in Michigan, where the general election will determine which party holds the state’s Senate seat. Two years ago, Donald Trump won Michigan, and Republicans backed Rogers in that same period before he narrowly lost the race for the state’s other Senate seat.
For Democrats, the immediate takeaway is simpler: El-Sayed now carries the nomination after a vote that was close enough to leave Stevens just behind him, even though the pre-election polling had pointed the other way. The result leaves the party with a nominee chosen by a sliver, not a landslide, and a general election contest that will now decide whether that narrow base can hold.
