Michigan Election Results Live Updates: Abdul El-Sayed Wins Democratic Senate Primary

On Wednesday morning, Dr. El-Sayed and Democrats from across the ideological spectrum moved quickly to project party unity after a remarkably bitter and expensive primary campaign. Speaking at a rally, Dr. El-Sayed hailed Ms. Stevens as “one of the most committed public servants” and said there was far more that united them than divided them. Seeking to appeal to both Republicans and Democrats, he also urged voters to support him if “you believe like me that you ought to be able to afford your groceries.” Ms. Stevens called Dr. El-Sayed on Wednesday morning to concede the race, a spokesman for her campaign said. “I love Michigan and am so proud to have put up my hand to serve,” Ms. Stevens wrote on social media. “I spoke with Abdul a few moments ago to offer him my full support as we work to defeat Mike Rogers this November.” Throughout their primary, the question of which candidate was better-positioned to win in November was a defining feature of the race. Dr. El-Sayed and his allies argued that his populist rhetoric would energize voters across the political spectrum who are unhappy with the status quo, and he plainly tapped into simmering Democratic fury with the party establishment, and with President Trump. But many Democratic leaders had rallied around Ms. Stevens, a centrist, fearful that the left-wing views espoused by Dr. El-Sayed, a former public health official and proponent of universal health care, could imperil the party’s chances of defending an crucial open seat. The Michigan Senate primary now marks the most significant triumph for the political left this year — and the general election there could pose the movement’s biggest test yet, measuring whether left-wing candidates can energize enough voters to beat Republicans in swing terrain. The Senate primary was defined by fierce debates over Israel. Dr. El-Sayed overcame $60 million in outside money supporting Ms. Stevens, including about $32 million from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major pro-Israel group whose involvement became a source of frequent conflict in the contest. Elsewhere, results were mixed in closely watched Democratic primaries. In Missouri, the establishment struck back at the progressive left, with Representative Wesley Bell fending off a primary challenge from former Representative Cori Bush, a democratic socialist. Ms. Bush, a critic of Israel and member of the so-called Squad — a group of progressive women of color in Congress — was ousted from her St. Louis seat by Mr. Bell two years ago and had been attempting a comeback. But progressives scored a victory in a Michigan Democratic primary that included Lansing, where William Lawrence, an organizer, beat two centrist Democrats in a House race. Here’s what else we’re covering: Michigan defeat: Representative Shri Thanedar, a second-term Democrat, lost to the democratic socialist challenging him, State Representative Donavan McKinney, joining a wave of Democratic incumbents in Congress whom primary voters have sent packing in a surge of anti-incumbent fervor this cycle. A Pacific primary fight: Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, an outspoken and vulnerable centrist Democrat who faced challenges from her left and right in the state’s top-two primary system, advanced to a general election against a Republican in her district in southwestern Washington state. Control in Kansas: Cindy Holscher, a populist Democratic state senator, and State Senator Ty Masterson, a Trump-endorsed candidate, will battle for the Kansas governorship after winning their respective parties’ nominations. The winner will replace Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas, a Democrat, who is leaving office because of term limits. Key House matchup set in Virginia: Democratic primary voters chose former Representative Elaine Luria to face Representative Jen Kiggans, a Republican, in a House race expected to be one of the most competitive in the country this fall. The district is home to several military bases, and both women are Navy veterans. Now Dr. El-Sayed will test the longstanding progressive hope that left-wing candidates can energize enough voters to beat Republicans in swing terrain. He will face former Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican who narrowly lost the state’s 2024 Senate race and ran unopposed in this year’s primary. They are competing for the seat of Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat who is retiring. The stakes for both Mr. Rogers and Dr. El-Sayed are perhaps higher than two years ago. Michigan is widely seen as a crucial state for Senate control. And how a progressive like Dr. El-Sayed performs in a must-win state in November is likely to have ramifications on how Democratic primary voters perceive their presidential candidates’ ideology and electability in 2028. Here are eight takeaways from a big primary night in Michigan and four other states: The left beat the establishment, but the results showed its limits. Dr. El-Sayed campaigned hard against the Democratic political establishment. That was enough to win, but enough voters backed Ms. Stevens to suggest that the establishment still has plenty of influence. Ms. Stevens showed strength among Black voters in Detroit and Flint and carried most of the state’s interior rural counties, aside from a few with college towns and resort communities. Dr. El-Sayed was strongest in communities with young voters, college students and educated and wealthy white voters. That coalition carried him through the primary, but he will have work to do to beat Mr. Rogers in November. In all, the Michigan map demonstrated the limitations — for now, at least — that face a dyed-in-the-wool progressive running on a foreign policy platform to the left of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The ground has shifted under pro-Israel Democrats. The Democratic Party’s rapid retreat from support for Israel has been well documented in polls, election results and votes in Congress. But Dr. El-Sayed’s primary success in Michigan was arguably the most remarkable victory yet for the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States — and maybe the biggest setback for pro-Israel Democrats. Dr. El-Sayed, the Michigan-born son of Egyptian immigrants, won by putting Israel squarely at the center of the campaign. He labeled Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide. He said he would cut U.S. military aid. And he said he did not believe Israel should exist as an explicitly Jewish state. Throughout the race, Dr. El-Sayed hammered Ms. Stevens over her pro-Israel stance. Her defensiveness on the issue was clear to all: She consistently dodged questions about her support from AIPAC. Dr. El-Sayed has said for months that if he becomes a senator, he would hope to influence U.S. policy on Israel — particularly among Democrats seeking his party’s 2028 presidential nomination. Last month, the Democratic National Committee announced that Michigan was likely to be one of the early nominating states in 2028. AIPAC was dealt a narrow but costly defeat. More than any other Democrat running this year, Ms. Stevens was the candidate of AIPAC. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee used its super PAC to invest more money, at least $30 million, to help her than any other outside group spent on any primary candidate in any race this year. It was almost, but not quite, enough for her to win. The defeat, even by a narrow margin, serves as a rebuke to AIPAC, which has won far more Democratic primaries than it has lost in recent years. Dr. El-Sayed, like other Democrats who have toppled AIPAC-backed candidates this year, leaned into the group’s antipathy for him and used it as a selling point. Stevens was unable to match El-Sayed’s gifts as a communicator. One candidate danced to Taylor Swift videos on his social media pages. The other used her final campaign ad to complain about “cool kids on the internet.” It was not hard to figure out which candidate was a more gifted political communicator. Dr. El-Sayed is a skilled orator. His stump speeches are easily clipped for viral consumption online. And he also worked the state hard. Since beginning his campaign in April 2025, he crisscrossed Michigan, holding more than 500 in-person events. Ms. Stevens, by contrast, held relatively few public events. She spoke often about her love for Michigan and its manufacturing industry — important issues in her home state but hardly ones to energize Democratic voters furious with President Trump. She was, by most accounts, good at one-on-one retail politics, but in a state with 10 million people, that can do only so much. D.S.A. candidates had a mixed night. The primaries on Tuesday had the biggest stakes for progressive Democrats of any night on this year’s political calendar. Dr. El-Sayed was the headliner, but three House candidates with ties to democratic socialism also faced primary voters. Will Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement who once called himself a democratic socialist but no longer does, won a three-way primary for a battleground House seat in Central Michigan. Another left-wing candidate in Michigan, Donavan McKinney, who remains a democratic socialist, narrowly defeated Representative Shri Thanedar, a Detroit congressman who was not beloved either in his district or among his congressional colleagues. And Yousef Rabhi, a democratic socialist, ousted the incumbent mayor of Ann Arbor, Mich., Christopher Taylor. But in Missouri, Representative Wesley Bell, a moderate, easily held off a challenge from Cori Bush, a democratic socialist whom he ousted from the seat two years ago. The Michigan Senate primary was way closer than the polls showed. Michigan Democrats on Tuesday delivered the latest message about putting too much stock in polls. The last eight public polls, which included three from groups that backed Dr. El-Sayed and another from a Republican group that would prefer him to be the Democratic nominee, all showed him with a double-digit lead. Instead, the race came down to about a percentage point when it was called. The result is a reminder — as if the political world needed another one — that pre-election polling is far from an exact science and continues to present new challenges. Campaigns and their allies have incentives to produce polls showing their candidate doing well, even and perhaps especially if those numbers do not align with reality. Michigan was another defeat for Schumer. Before this year, it had been a long time since a Democrat backed by Senator Chuck Schumer lost a Senate primary. Now it has happened twice this summer. Mr. Schumer’s endorsement of Ms. Stevens may have signaled to donors to get behind her, but it cemented her position as the establishment candidate in a year when Democratic primary voters are furious with the establishment. Plenty of things have gone right for Mr. Schumer this year. His recruits in Alaska, North Carolina and Ohio went unchallenged and appear in solid shape heading into November. His choice in Iowa cruised through a primary. And Ms. Stevens was not his first choice in Michigan; he initially tried to draft Gov. Gretchen Whitmer into the race. But after Mr. Schumer’s primary stumbles in Michigan and Maine — where he recruited Gov. Janet Mills only for her to end her campaign a month before the primary — he has been left with two Democratic nominees in battleground states who have explicitly campaigned against him. Now Mr. Schumer must make amends with Dr. El-Sayed. The minority leader is getting some practice at this: Last week, he met with Troy Jackson, the new Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, who said he would not back Mr. Schumer for leader and said he was not sure he would accept his help in the general election. The two did eventually agree to work together. Republicans are going to go after El-Sayed hard. Ms. Stevens said throughout the final weeks of the primary that Mr. Rogers and his fellow Republicans were itching for Dr. El-Sayed to win the primary because they thought he would be easier to beat in November. Now Republicans will get their chance to prove Ms. Stevens correct. Republicans are about to turn Dr. El-Sayed into a left-wing boogeyman of epic proportions. They will highlight pieces of his résumé that did not get a close vetting by Democratic voters, including his association with Hasan Piker, the left-wing streamer who once said “America deserved 9/11.” (He later walked back the remark.) The Senate Republican campaign arm highlighted Mr. Piker’s remark, and Dr. El-Sayed’s refusal to disavow it, in a digital ad released Wednesday morning that referred to the Democratic candidate by his full given name — Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed — and called him “the most radical candidate in America.” Whether the strategy works remains to be seen. Mr. Trump is so unpopular that Democrats are preparing to contest seats previously thought to be out of reach. But plenty of left-wing and right-wing candidates in both parties have won wave-year primaries only to blow general elections their compatriots thought were eminently winnable. Both candidates are progressive and support policies like funding universal health care and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But Mr. McKinney, 34, who is Black and grew up in Detroit, has contrasted his background with that of Mr. Thanedar, 71, an Indian immigrant who was elected to Congress in 2022. Mr. Thanedar’s victory that year left Detroit, a city that is roughly three-quarters Black, without a Black representative in Washington for the first time in decades. The primary also highlighted Democratic voters’ continued backlash against lawmakers who support Israel. Mr. McKinney has condemned the war in Gaza as a “genocide” and campaigned with fellow pro-Palestinian Democrats, including Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive candidate in Michigan’s marquee Senate race. Mr. Thanedar, in contrast, has consistently voted to fund aid for the Jewish state. While Mr. Thanedar had the endorsement of Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, Mr. McKinney secured the backing of several other members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has spearheaded a string of insurgent Democratic primary victories. Mr. Thanedar was the latest pro-Israel Democrat to fall to a challenge from the left. This summer, Representatives Diana DeGette of Colorado, Dan Goldman of New York and Adriano Espaillat of New York were all defeated by more progressive challengers who were fueled by strong organization by the Democratic Socialists of America. In an interview after the race was called, Mr. Thanedar said that “the socialist movement that has defeated many sitting members in New York and elsewhere has come to Michigan, and we came out short.” He pledged to support Mr. McKinney in the general election. Mr. Thanedar, who came to the United States from India in 1979 to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry, has often spoken about his transformation from immigrating “with $20 in my pocket” to buying and owning several companies that “created hundreds of jobs.” He financed his 2022 run for Congress with millions of dollars from his personal fortune. “This country has given me so much, including an ability to represent 750,000 people in the United States Congress,” Mr. Thanedar said in the interview. “That has been the honor of my life.” In Congress, Mr. Thanedar made a name for himself — and earned some private scorn from his colleagues — by routinely introducing articles of impeachment against President Trump and his cabinet members. He promised to do so again if he were re-elected. Mr. Thanedar has argued that voters in the district were most interested in candidates who could improve their lives, not in their racial backgrounds. “People know my struggles,” he said in an interview with The New York Times in July. “Their focus really is, ‘Solve my problems.’” On the campaign trail, Mr. McKinney emphasized his difficult upbringing in Northeast Detroit and skewered Mr. Thanedar for accepting donations from corporate PACs. He also said that deaths of his friends and family from gun violence pushed him to advocate community interventions as a state representative. Because of the district’s overwhelming Democratic lean, Mr. McKinney is heavily favored to win in November. He celebrated his primary victory as proof that “the power of the people” could overcome spending from “corporate interests.” A crypto industry PAC, Protect Progress, spent more than $2 million on Mr. Thanedar’s behalf, according to campaign finance filings. “This is only the beginning,” Mr. McKinney said in a news release. “Our next chapter starts in January where I will work tirelessly, as I have my whole career, fighting for every resident of my district.” Mr. Thanedar said that he “did not have a Plan B” but that he would “continue to stay involved and continue to help serve the people of my district.” “Of course, I’m 71 years old, I have three wonderful grandchildren,” Mr. Thanedar said. “So I’m blessed. My life is good.” Tim Balk contributed reporting. He fiercely criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza and promised to pull back American military support, while she vowed to continue sending U.S. military aid to Israel without conditions. While most Michigan political observers expected in the campaign’s final days that Dr. El-Sayed would prevail, and polls showed him leading by a significant amount, the close margin between him and Ms. Stevens pointed to the tough general-election battle to come for Democrats. Dr. El-Sayed overcame more than $60 million in super PAC spending on behalf of Ms. Stevens, including at least $30 million tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the nation’s most influential pro-Israel group. Another $30 million came from so-called dark-money groups whose donors remain hidden. But even as he was vastly outspent on advertising, Dr. El-Sayed turned Ms. Stevens’s financial advantage into a liability, casting his bid as a grass-roots campaign up against the well-funded establishment. “The money against the many,” as he put it in stump speeches. His primary victory delivers another shock to a Democratic Party in which left-wing challengers across the country have ousted longtime incumbents or beaten rivals supported by party leaders in Washington. Dr. El-Sayed was backed by leading progressives, including Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who went to Michigan to campaign for him. Ms. Stevens was supported by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, as well as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and other prominent state Democrats. In the general election, Dr. El-Sayed will face former Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican, in a race widely seen as crucial for control of the Senate. Mr. Rogers was a moderate Republican during his seven House terms, but like many others in his party, he has become an acolyte of President Trump. Mr. Rogers narrowly lost a 2024 Senate bid to Elissa Slotkin, even as Mr. Trump carried the state on his way back to the White House. Democratic leaders worried — and Ms. Stevens argued — that Dr. El-Sayed could be the weaker candidate in the general election. He is a notably left-wing candidate in a battleground state, with his calls for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and ushering in universal health care. “We’ve got to do one thing, and that’s go beat Mike Rogers,” Ms. Stevens said in an interview last month. “We’ve got to be eyes on the prize, and that’s winning in November.” The Michigan-born son of Egyptian immigrants, Dr. El-Sayed made no secret of his ambitions of progressive leadership within the Democratic Party. He said that he hoped to recalibrate the party’s politics on Israel and wanted to make opposition to funding its military a litmus test for Democrats running for president in 2028. Defanging AIPAC, he argued, was crucial: “I want AIPAC to cease to be a force in Democratic primaries,” he said in an interview last month. “The best way to do that is to defeat them in a state like Michigan.” He made much of his campaign pitch a rebuke of both the group and corporate politics. At his events, attendees chanted his slogan along with him: “Money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all.” It was no accident that Israel emerged as a fault line in a major Democratic primary in Michigan. The state, which has large numbers of Muslim and Jewish voters, delivered a rebuke to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2024, when 13 percent of Democratic primary voters voted for “uncommitted” in protest of his policy on Israel amid its war with Gaza. Dr. El-Sayed’s base was seen as the state’s Arab and Muslim voters, as well as younger and more liberal Democrats. Ms. Stevens had pushed to win over the state’s Black voters, whom AIPAC had targeted with a flood of advertisements featuring a clip of former President Barack Obama praising Ms. Stevens during her first run for Congress in 2018. The contest, which until early July also included Mallory McMorrow, a state senator who sought a middle ground between Ms. Stevens and Dr. El-Sayed, became quite nasty in its final weeks. So many of Dr. El-Sayed’s supporters mocked Ms. Stevens’s mannerisms and Michigan accent that he urged them to stop making fun of her “for things that have nothing to do with her policies or politics.” In the final days before the primary, Ms. Stevens lashed out at Dr. El-Sayed, posting on social media, “Everyone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans.” Now, Dr. El-Sayed will face the task of uniting Michigan Democrats for the general election. Backed by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Mr. Lawrence centered his campaign on opposing data centers, increasing taxes on billionaires and passing legislation for universal health care. He also said he would end arms sales to Israel. “Tonight the people of Michigan’s 7th district sent a clear message: They are tired of Silicon Valley billionaires and D.C. insiders determining the future of our towns and our country,” Mr. Lawrence said in a statement on Tuesday night. “They want an unbought representative who isn’t afraid to stand up to leaders of both parties and fight for working people.” The Lansing-area district in central Michigan, the Seventh Congressional, is one of only 18 House seats rated as tossups by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and Democrats see it as one of their best chances for a flip in November. Some Democrats worried that the two moderate candidates, Matt Maasdam and Bridget Brink, would split the vote and that Mr. Lawrence’s views would pave the way for Mr. Barrett, an Army veteran who flipped the district in 2024, to win re-election. With more than half the vote tallied, the two moderate candidates combined accounted for a majority of the vote. Senator Elissa Slotkin, who held the seat before ascending to the upper chamber, endorsed Mr. Maasdam, a retired Navy SEAL and former military aide in the Obama administration. In doing so, she spurned Ms. Brink, who was appointed ambassador to Ukraine by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and, once President Trump took office, quit in protest of his cozy relationship with Russia. Mr. Maasdam said that a shadowy super PAC’s ads attacking him and promoting Mr. Lawrence were evidence that Republicans would rather face him than a moderate in the fall. The PAC, called Sunrise Michigan, has not disclosed its donors, but Republican PACs have meddled in a series of Democratic primary races this year. Sunrise Michigan uses a little-known South Dakota bank that has been linked with Republican operatives. During the campaign, Mr. Lawrence faced backlash over a comment he made in 2024 that an older generation of Black Democratic leadership “defangs the white left.” He said he regretted the remark. He does not identify as a democratic socialist, he told The Times, but his campaign has confirmed that he was previously a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. The group has not endorsed him. Mr. Lawrence’s campaign disputed that his views would turn off swing voters, saying he was in touch with the concerns of Michiganders. “I think anyone who has concerns should come out and knock on doors,” Mr. Lawrence told The New York Times over the weekend. “What they’ll hear is people are furious about data centers. Trump voters are getting off the Trump train because of Iran. Nobody could afford the essentials. They’re sick of corporate-funded politicians. That’s why we’ve built the momentum.” On the campaign trail, Mr. Lawrence slammed “corporate-funded candidates,” pointing to his pledge to reject corporate PAC money. Simultaneously, however, his website featured a public page containing specific messaging directives for advertisers. The practice — commonly called “redboxing” — helps candidates signal their preferred talking points to independent political action committees without violating federal campaign finance laws against direct coordination. Mr. Barrett said in a telephone interview Tuesday night that he would not take his opponent lightly. “I think the two Democrat candidates that he ran against didn’t take him seriously,” Mr. Barrett said. “We’re not going to make that same mistake. We’re taking it seriously.” Mr. Barrett has President Trump’s endorsement, but has also repeatedly voted to limit the president’s Iran war powers. He said his campaign would “aggressively highlight the contrast” between his military service and Mr. Lawrence’s background as a “community activist and socialist organizer” over the next three months.