2026-07-11T10:30:26.452Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/11/politics/abdul-el-sayed-haley-stevens-michigan-senate
密歇根州大急流城——
民主党核心圈子的关键人物认为，阿卜杜勒·埃尔赛义德会毁掉本党今年秋季保住关键参议院席位的机会。他正着手证明他们错了——并表明他们误解了选民真正渴望的东西。
密歇根州8月4日的民主党参议院初选正逐渐成为2026年两党阵营最高风险的对决：一方是党内崛起的进步派反叛力量，另一方是更注重 electability（胜选可能性）的建制派。
州参议员马洛里·麦克莫罗周日退出竞选后，初选目前已成正面交锋：一方是埃尔赛义德——这位前公共卫生官员得到了佛蒙特州参议员伯尼·桑德斯、纽约州众议员亚历山德里亚·奥卡西奥-科特兹以及其他知名进步人士的支持；另一方是黑利·史蒂文斯——一位曾在共和党优势选区获胜的温和派民主党人。民主党候选人将在11月与共和党前众议员迈克·罗杰斯展开角逐。
在埃尔赛义德看来，用中间派vs左翼的视角看待这场竞选，忽略了更大的背景：各阵营的选民都对本国领导人感到不满。
“这种意识形态问题——人们想得太深入了，”上周在大急流城参加集会登台前，埃尔赛义德在接受CNN采访时说道。
“我认为大多数选民不会整天琢磨自己在意识形态光谱上处于哪个位置，”他说。“我认为大多数选民只会想，‘该死，我付不起医保。’‘该死，我担心会失业。’‘该死，人工智能这东西听起来很吓人。谁会为此做点什么？’”
他说，当政客们“跟你谈论你无法拥有的东西，告诉你不应该为之奋斗”时，这些选民就会感到被疏远。
“我的工作一直是证明，只要你愿意诚实、直接、具体且无所畏惧地为人民而战，你就能建立起一场运动，”埃尔赛义德说。
进步派阵营正势头强劲——这在一定程度上得益于纽约市市长佐赫兰·曼达尼——近期几周内，民主社会主义者在纽约和科罗拉多州的初选中，将三名现任众议员赶下了席位，这些选区原本都是深蓝选区。但这些竞选的重要性远不及密歇根州：这个长期以来的摇摆州，民主党人几乎肯定需要保住即将退休的参议员加里·彼得斯留下的席位，才能获得11月中期选举中赢得参议院多数党地位所需的净增4个席位。
华盛顿的民主党人担心，提名埃尔赛义德会疏远足够多的温和派，危及对阵罗杰斯的选情。埃尔赛义德并非民主社会主义者，但在诸多议题上与他们立场一致。
埃尔赛义德支持“全民医保”，希望废除移民海关执法局，并表示美国必须切断对以色列的援助——这一立场使他成为美国以色列公共事务委员会（AIPAC）的攻击目标。该委员会的超级政治行动委员会已投入数百万美元投放广告支持史蒂文斯。他曾与支持巴勒斯坦的Twitch主播哈森·皮克尔一同竞选，皮克尔曾称哈马斯是“比以色列更次要的邪恶”，还曾说“美国活该遭遇9·11事件”，不过后来他收回了该言论并承认其“不当”。埃尔赛义德曾删除过呼吁“defund警察”（削减警察经费）的推文，还在2020年的采访中宣扬过这一立场，尽管他最近声称自己从未这么做过。
在近期一则旨在争取民主党选民支持埃尔赛义德的数字广告中，参议院共和党竞选团队重点提及了这些立场，并称埃尔赛义德“对密歇根州来说过于激进”。
“共和党人不想和我对决，这就是为什么他们在支持他的竞选，”史蒂文斯在东大急流城参加7月4日游行后告诉CNN。
在周二晚间的辩论中，埃尔赛义德与史蒂文斯在风格和理念上的差异显露无遗。史蒂文斯多次将自己描述为一名“实干家”，能在华盛顿办成实事，并暗示埃尔赛义德只想成为一名“明星参议员”。埃尔赛义德反驳称，特殊利益集团“正试图收买一名会为他们卖命而非为你卖命的政客”。
“如果你想让你的政治由AIPAC或查克·舒默说了算，那我不是你的人选，”他在提及参议院民主党领袖时说道。
埃尔赛义德毫不掩饰他与民主党领导层的矛盾。他表示，如果民主党在今年秋季赢得51个或更多席位，他会支持已为他背书的马里兰州参议员克里斯·范·霍伦，而非表态支持史蒂文斯的舒默担任多数党领袖。
但他也表示，批评者对“胜选可能性”的理解有误，尤其是在唐纳德·特朗普时代。
“我的意思是，密歇根州先支持了伯尼，然后是特朗普，接着是拜登，然后又是特朗普，”他告诉CNN，回顾了该州2016年民主党总统初选以及2016年、2020年和2024年大选的结果。
“中西部的民众并不以立场分散著称，他们几乎是最坚定的群体，”埃尔赛义德说。“只是他们总在自助餐里找来找去，却找不到想要的东西。所以如果你能给他们他们一直在找的东西——也就是能为他们的痛苦提供一些救济，并且拼命去做的人——那就会赢。”
曼达尼是密歇根选民心中的话题
到目前为止，埃尔赛义德与史蒂文斯之间的选举分歧似乎与十年前如出一辙：当时桑德斯在年轻选民、进步人士和白人选民的支持下，以微弱优势险胜希拉里·克林顿，而希拉里在黑人选民和温和派选民中更受欢迎。
两人在底特律及其周边地区都颇具知名度：史蒂文斯在国会代表底特律郊区，埃尔赛义德于2023年至2025年担任韦恩县卫生局长。在这场候选人知名度高、资金充足的竞选当中，大急流城可能是为数不多仍有大量未决选民的地区之一。
周六在东大急流城的游行中，埃尔赛义德走在队伍最前面——身后跟着印有他名字的大型横幅，他头戴以美国国旗为主题的牛仔帽，身穿紧身黑色V领T恤和深色牛仔裤，沿途向孩子们抛洒糖果。
几分钟后，史蒂文斯紧随其后，身着星条旗图案的背心和短裤，跟在一艘由支持者打造的小船后面，小船由卡车牵引，贴满了竞选标语——“第二投票船”。（一名助手表示，第一艘用于支持众议员希拉里·斯科尔滕的“投票船”没能熬过密歇根的冬天。）她挥舞着一面微型美国国旗，手持一块写有“史蒂文斯和斯科尔滕为西密歇根而战”的标语牌。
73岁的鲍勃·阿尔德马是大急流城的一名退休律师，他表示自己2020年曾投票给特朗普，但在2021年1月6日国会山遇袭后成为了“极端反特朗普者”。他说，埃尔赛义德和史蒂文斯两人他都喜欢，但“会更倾向于投票给黑利·史蒂文斯——你知道，她更温和一些”。
“有很多人想投民主党，但他们看到了最近纽约市曼达尼的情况，”他说。“这不会吓到我，但会吓到其他人。”
他说，如果最终只能在埃尔赛义德和罗杰斯之间选择，他会投票给埃尔赛义德。但他补充道：“不过我认为（埃尔赛义德）在大选中的表现不会像黑利·史蒂文斯那么好。”
41岁的亚伦·埃登斯是大急流城的一名大学教授，他认为，对民主党人来说，优先考虑胜选可能性“是一场必败的战斗”。
“我们必须摒弃这种想法。它源于一种‘民众不配拥有更多’的心态，”埃登斯说道，他佩戴着埃尔赛义德的徽章，正和家人一起参加游行。
“当民主党人只会说‘投我们吧，因为我们不如另一方那么糟糕’时，我感到很沮丧，”埃登斯说。“我一点也不喜欢胜选可能性这种论调。”
34岁的保罗·芬克是附近罗克福德的一名教授，他说自己“完全对民主党感到失望”。
“我认为过去几年的战略完全错误，更倾向于中间路线，更迎合未决选民……而非直面民众最关心的议题，”他说。
他表示，自己最优先的事项是“让金钱远离政治”，并认为这是埃尔赛义德的“核心主张”。
他的妻子杰斯·芬克是一名29岁的言语治疗师，她说自己会考虑胜选可能性，“但我更有可能只投票给我认为最优秀的候选人，不管结果如何。这倒不太在意谁能赢。”她说自己更关心候选人在医疗保健、教育和经济方面的立场。
芬克夫妇都计划参加民主党初选，但表示尚未决定支持谁。
和阿尔德马一样，保罗·芬克主动提到了曼达尼。但他并不认同这位退休律师对纽约市市长受欢迎程度的担忧，反而将他视为榜样。
“我认为他在围绕民众真正关心的议题动员基础选民方面做得非常出色，不过我想他也确实很有魅力，对吧？这很能打动人心，”芬克说。
史蒂文斯获得了广泛的民主党建制派支持——包括斯科尔滕，这位大急流城地区的国会议员也是目前唯一支持她竞选的密歇根州现任众议员。
她还得到了密歇根州前资深参议员黛比·斯塔贝诺、州总检察长达娜·内塞尔以及前密歇根州长、美国能源部长珍妮弗·格兰霍姆的支持。她获得了EMILY’s List以及包括前众议院议长南希·佩洛西、亚利桑那州参议员鲁本·加列戈、内华达州参议员凯瑟琳·科尔特斯·马斯托和特拉华州参议员克里斯·库恩斯在内的众多全国性人物的背书。
与此同时，埃尔赛义德得到了美国汽车工人联合会、桑德斯、范·霍伦以及包括密歇根州众议员拉希达·特莱布在内的一众进步派众议院议员的支持，其他支持者还包括加利福尼亚州众议员罗·卡纳、华盛顿州众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔等。
近期在曼达尼的支持下赢得纽约市国会初选的进步人士布拉德·兰德本周也为埃尔赛义德背书。这紧随奥卡西奥-科特兹本月早些时候宣布支持埃尔赛义德之后，这位有影响力的进步人士此前在背书方面一直较为谨慎。
对民主党全国委员会的不满
在埃尔赛义德在大急流城的集会上——人群中随处可见桑德斯的帽子、T恤和徽章——对民主党全国委员会整体的不满，与对进步主义意识形态的诉求同样突出。
在采访中，几名参会者先是抱怨民主党应对特朗普政府的表现，之后才提到埃尔赛义德对全民医保的支持。
布里埃尔·德诺耶是24岁的大急流城快餐工人，她说自己“受够了民主党人无所作为，不敢真正表明立场”。
“他们都在说，‘好吧，我们在反对特朗普’，但实际上不过是措辞强硬的推文和信件，根本没有任何真正改变现状的行动，”她说。
克里斯蒂安·维拉戈麦斯是30岁的密歇根州怀俄明市服务业工作者，他表示自己正在寻求“与导致本党陷入停滞的一切彻底决裂”。
他说，所谓埃尔赛义德在11月的胜选可能性不如史蒂文斯的论调“完全是胡扯”。
“这里的选民热情毋庸置疑，这就是一切的根源——候选人和选民之间的信任。反之的说法就是在无视现实，”他说。
米歇尔·古津斯基是52岁的 Nunica 一家儿童保育中心助理主管，她说自己“受够了这种两党政治”。
“我们国家的现状令人担忧，我真的希望看到更多像他这样的人，想要回馈社区，帮助人们过上体面的生活，”她说。
韦斯·穆拉奥卡是41岁的前药剂师，目前在大急流城找工作，他说自己喜欢埃尔赛义德是因为“他很真实”。
“他跟你说话就像跟一个普通人一样，这很少见，”他说。“我不是民主党人，也不是共和党人，更不是无党派人士，我只是一个希望做出改变的普通人。所以当我看到阿卜杜勒作为一个普通人，跟我们谈论改变，跟我们谈论把钱放回我们口袋，把钱从政治中拿走……这就是我们需要的那种改变。”
这场有数百名埃尔赛义德支持者参加的集会，只是这个政治复杂的州的一个有限缩影——在这个州，民主党人一想到特朗普在2016年和2024年两次打破所谓的“蓝墙”并最终赢得总统大选就不寒而栗。
正是在特朗普第一任期的2018年，埃尔赛义德和史蒂文斯这两位三十多岁的候选人首次参选公职。
那一年，史蒂文斯和首次参选的埃利萨·斯洛特金双双赢得了此前由共和党人掌控的席位——帮助民主党人赢得众议院多数席位，这也是自20世纪30年代以来，首次没有共和党人代表奥克兰县（该地区包含底特律大部分北部郊区）进入众议院。斯洛特金目前持有密歇根州的另一个参议院席位。
与此同时，埃尔赛义德在桑德斯和奥卡西奥-科特兹的支持下竞选州长，但在民主党初选中以微弱劣势位居第二，比格蕾琴·惠特默落后22个百分点。之后他主持了一档播客节目，作为桑德斯的代表参与与拜登支持者组成的医疗保健专项工作组，并担任韦恩县卫生局长。
现年43岁的史蒂文斯倾向于在演讲和采访中谈论自己的工作经历，而41岁的埃尔赛义德则更为大胆。他吹嘘自己是一名反击能手，是共和党人罗杰斯从未见过的对手。他无处不在——不断出现在采访、播客、集会和各大社交媒体平台上。他乐于承担风险，包括不顾反弹公开与皮克尔等人站在一起。他甚至会做出让观众尴尬的举动——偶尔在社交媒体上发布自己和支持者跳舞、对口型的视频，其中就包括一段配合泰勒·斯威夫特歌曲[image_1]的视频，时值这位歌手举办婚礼之际。
他偶尔也会出言不逊——比如他告诉Semafor，史蒂文斯“是一个拥有巨额AIPAC银行账户的政客”，还说他希望“也许他们能想办法教她怎么把两句话连贯地说出来”。
“那种废话只会让人们反感，你知道的。我们没必要走到那一步，”当CNN问及埃尔赛义德的言论时，史蒂文斯说道。
她表示，在奥巴马政府期间，她曾在汽车救助工作组工作；在拜登政府期间，她参与推动了《芯片与科学法案》的通过；今年春季在众议院听证会上，她曾对特朗普政府的卫生与公众服务部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪说，鉴于其疫苗怀疑论立场，他应该辞职或被弹劾。“显然我知道如何为自己发声”。
“我认为我在这场竞选中提出的理念和信息能够团结我们，帮助我们在11月击败迈克·罗杰斯，”史蒂文斯说。“我在2018年翻转了一个共和党选区，2020年保住了该席位，我赢得这些选举的方式是直接与密歇根民众的心声对话，回应他们对议员的期望和需求——也就是正派、值得信任以及兑现承诺。”
埃尔赛义德在发表最初言论后的几天里，已经不再使用这种人身攻击的口吻。
“我认为黑利非常聪明，”他告诉CNN。不过他说，她得到了AIPAC数百万美元广告支出的支持，而“这些捐款是附有条件的”。
“我会任由他们烧掉5000万美元的资金，然后依然击败他们支持的候选人，当选美国参议员后依然会找他们算账，”埃尔赛义德说。
当被问及从首次参选以来学到了什么教训时，埃尔赛义德表示，最大的变化是他的年龄增长以及成为了两个女儿的父亲。
“我认为为人父让我明白了什么是现身并无条件地爱一个人，什么是现身并照顾他们，”他说。“随着时间的推移，我不再那么在意批评，而是更专注于解决方案。”
他在大急流城集会后的问答环节表示，这种转变是他设想如何争取特朗普选民的关键。
“对于特朗普的支持者，我们必须做出抉择：是想让他们为过去的所作所为忏悔，还是想与他们建立伙伴关系，共同打造我们未来需要的东西，”埃尔赛义德说。“我们必须问问自己，如何与民众携手合作，共同打造我们共同需要和应得的东西。”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQgoargXvTI
Michigan Democrats are angry at their party. Abdul El-Sayed thinks he knows why
2026-07-11T10:30:26.452Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/11/politics/abdul-el-sayed-haley-stevens-michigan-senate
Grand Rapids, Michigan—
Key Democratic establishment figures believe Abdul El-Sayed will blow the party’s chances of holding onto a critical Senate seat this fall. He is out to prove them wrong — and to show that they misunderstand what voters really crave.
Michigan’s August 4 Democratic Senate primary is shaping up to be 2026’s highest stakes showdown between the party’s rising progressive insurgency and an establishment more focused on electability.
After state Sen. Mallory McMorrow exited the race on Sunday, the primary is now a head-to-head, pitting El-Sayed, a former public health official backed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other prominent progressives, against Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate with a track record of winning on red turf. The Democratic nominee will face GOP ex-Rep. Mike Rogers in November.
In El-Sayed’s telling, viewing the race through that center vs. left lens misses the bigger picture that voters across the spectrum are frustrated with their leaders.
“This ideology thing — people think too deeply into it,” El-Sayed said in an interview with CNN shortly before taking the stage for a rally last week in Grand Rapids.
“I don’t think most voters walk around thinking where they stand on the ideological spectrum,” he said. “I think most voters are just being like, ‘Damn, I can’t afford my health care.’ ‘Damn, I’m worried about losing my job.’ ‘Damn, this AI stuff feels scary. Who’s going to do something about that?’”
Those voters are alienated, he said, when politicians “talk to you about what you can’t have and shouldn’t fight for.”
“My job has been to show that if you’re willing to be honest, direct, specific and fearless about fighting for people, you can build a movement,” El-Sayed said.
The progressive flank is on a roll — driven in part by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — with democratic socialists ousting three incumbent House members in deep-blue districts in New York and Colorado primaries in recent weeks. But the stakes in those races were nowhere near as high as Michigan, a perpetual battleground where Democrats almost certainly need to retain the seat of retiring Sen. Gary Peters to have a path to the net four-seat gain the party needs to win a Senate majority in November’s midterm elections.
Democrats in Washington worry that nominating El-Sayed, who is not a democratic socialist but aligns with them on many issues, would alienate enough moderates to jeopardize the race against Rogers.
El-Sayed supports Medicare for All, wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and says the United States must cut off aid to Israel — a position that has made him a target of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, whose super PAC has pumped millions into ads boosting Stevens. He campaigned with pro-Palestinian Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who called Hamas a “lesser evil” than Israel and once said that “America deserved 9/11,” though he later backed away from that comment and acknowledged it was “inappropriate.” El-Sayed deleted tweets calling for the defunding of police and also pushed that position in interviews in 2020, despite his recent claims that he had never done so.
In a recent digital ad intended to boost El-Sayed with Democratic voters, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm highlighted some of those positions and called El-Sayed “too radical for Michigan.”
“The Republicans don’t want to run against me, which is why they’re propping up his campaign,” Stevens told CNN after marching in a Fourth of July parade in East Grand Rapids.
In their debate Tuesday night, the differences in style and philosophy between El-Sayed and Stevens were on display. Stevens repeatedly described herself as a “workhorse” who gets things done in Washington, and suggested El-Sayed instead wants to be a “celebrity senator.” El-Sayed shot back that special interests are “trying to buy a politician who’s going to do their bidding instead of yours.”
“If you want your politics dictated to you by AIPAC or Chuck Schumer, then I’m not your guy,” he said, referring to the Senate Democratic leader.
El-Sayed isn’t shy about his problems with Democratic leadership. He says he’d support Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who has endorsed El-Sayed, over Schumer, who has signaled support for Stevens, for majority leader if the party wins 51 or more seats this fall.
But he also says critics have the wrong idea about what it means to be electable, especially in the Donald Trump era.
“I mean, Michigan went for Bernie, then Trump, then Biden, then Trump,” he told CNN, recounting the state’s results in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary and then the general elections in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
“Folks in the Midwest aren’t known for being scattered. They’re about as steady as they come,” El-Sayed said. “It’s just they keep going back to the buffet and not finding what they want. So if you can give them the thing they’re looking for, which is someone who’s going to offer some relief around the pain and fight like hell to do it — that’s going to win.”
Mamdani on the minds of Michiganders
So far, the electoral splits between El-Sayed and Stevens appear to be similar to those that were on display a decade ago, when Sanders — backed by younger voters, progressives and Whites — narrowly edged Hillary Clinton, who was stronger among Black voters and moderates.
Both are well-known in and around Detroit: Stevens represents its suburbs in Congress, and El-Sayed was Wayne County’s health director from 2023 to 2025. In a race with well-known and well-funded candidates, Grand Rapids could be one of the few remaining pools of large numbers of undecided voters.
In the parade in East Grand Rapids on Saturday, El-Sayed marched first — behind a large banner bearing his name, wearing an American flag-themed cowboy hat, a tight black V-neck T-shirt and dark jeans and tossing candy to children along the route.
Stevens was minutes behind, in a tank top with stars and stripes and shorts, following a small boat built by a supporter, pulled by a truck and plastered with campaign signs — the “Vote Boat II.” (The first Vote Boat, built to support Rep. Hillary Scholten, hadn’t survived a Michigan winter, an aide said.) She waved a miniature American flag and carried a sign that said “Stevens and Scholten for West Michigan.”
Bob Aardema, a 73-year-old retired attorney who lives in Grand Rapids, said he voted for Trump in 2020, but became an “extreme never-Trumper” after the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He said he likes both El-Sayed and Stevens but would “be very inclined to vote for Haley Stevens — thinking, you know, she’s a little more centrist.”
“There’s a lot of people that would want to vote Democratic, but they see what’s going on lately in New York City with Mamdani,” he said. “It doesn’t scare me, but it scares other people.”
He said he would vote for El-Sayed over Rogers in November if those are his choices. But, he added: “I would think (El-Sayed) would not do as well as Haley Stevens in the general election.”
Aaron Eddens, a 41-year-old college professor from Grand Rapids, said he thinks prioritizing electability “is a losing battle” for Democrats.
“We’ve got to get rid of that. It comes from a place that says people don’t deserve more,” said Eddens, who wore an El-Sayed button as he attended the parade with his family.
“I’m frustrated when Democrats are just like, ‘Vote for us because we’re not as bad as the other side,’” Eddens said. “I don’t like the electability argument at all.”
Paul Fink, a 34-year-old professor from nearby Rockford, said he is “absolutely frustrated with the Democratic Party.”
“I think the strategy has been completely off in the last several years, leaning more toward the middle and catering more toward undecided voters … instead of leaning into issues that I think people care about the most,” he said.
He said his biggest priority is “getting money out of politics,” and said doing that is El-Sayed’s “lead point.”
His wife Jess Fink, a 29-year-old speech therapist, said she thinks about electability, “but I’m more likely to just vote with who I think is the best candidate, regardless of that. It’s not so much who will win.” She said she’s more interested in where the candidates stand on health care, education and the economy.
The Finks both plan to vote in the Democratic primary but said they have not yet decided who they’ll support.
Paul Fink, like Aardema, brought up Mamdani unprompted. But he didn’t share the retired attorney’s concerns about how the New York City mayor is being received and instead characterized him as a model.
“I think he’s done a fantastic job rallying the base around issues that people really care about, but I guess he’s also just really charismatic, right? And that connects well with people,” Fink said.
Stevens has lined up a broad range of Democratic establishment support — including Scholten, the Grand Rapids-area congresswoman and the only current Michigan House member to back her campaign.
She’s also backed by a longtime former Michigan senator, Debbie Stabenow, state Attorney General Dana Nessel and Jennifer Granholm, the former Michigan governor and US energy secretary. She has endorsements from EMILY’s List and a raft of national figures that includes former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sens. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Chris Coons of Delaware.
El-Sayed, meanwhile, is endorsed by the United Auto Workers union, as well as Sanders, Van Hollen, and a list of progressive House members that includes one Michigan House member — Rep. Rashida Tlaib — as well as California Rep. Ro Khanna, Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal and more.
Brad Lander, a progressive who recently won a New York City congressional primary with Mamdani’s backing, this week endorsed El-Sayed. It followed Ocasio-Cortez, an influential progressive who has been more cautious with her endorsements, announcing her support for El-Sayed earlier this month.
Discontent with Democratic Party
At El-Sayed’s rally in Grand Rapids — where the crowd was dotted with Bernie Sanders hats, T-shirts and buttons — frustrations with the Democratic Party overall were as prominent as demands for progressive ideology.
In interviews, several attendees brought up El-Sayed’s support for Medicare for All. But it typically came after their complaints about how Democrats have responded to Trump’s presidency.
Brielle Denoyer, a 24-year-old fast food worker from Grand Rapids, said she is “sick of Democrats doing nothing and not actually taking a stand.”
“And they’re all saying, ‘Well, we’re taking a stand against Trump,’ and it’s really just strongly worded tweets and letters and not actually anything that changes anything,” she said.
Christian Villagomez, a 30-year-old service worker in Wyoming, Michigan, said he is looking for “a clean break from everything that has left the party in stagnation.”
He said the argument that El-Sayed is less likely to win in November than Stevens is “complete bupkis.”
“Voter enthusiasm is undeniable here, and that’s where it all stems — the trust between candidates and their constituents. To suggest otherwise is spitting in the face of reality,” he said.
Michelle Guzinski, a 52-year-old assistant director at a childcare center in Nunica, said she is “sick of this two-party politics.”
“The state of our country is scary, and I really want to see more people like him who want to give back to the communities and help people live decent lives,” she said.
Wes Muraoka, a 41-year-old former pharmacy technician who is job-hunting in Grand Rapids, said he likes El-Sayed because “he’s real.”
“He talks to you like a human being, which is rare,” he said. “I’m not Democrat, I am not Republican, I’m not independent, I’m just a human being looking to make a change. So when I see Abdul as a person talking to us about change, talking to us about putting money back in our pocket, taking money out of politics … this is the kind of change we need.”
A rally attended by hundreds of El-Sayed’s supporters is a limited window into a politically complicated state — one where Democrats have nightmares of Trump cracking the so-called “blue wall” twice, in 2016 and 2024, on the way to his two victories.
It was in the middle of Trump’s first term, 2018, that El-Sayed and Stevens — a pair of thirtysomething candidates — both first ran for office.
That year, Stevens and fellow first-time candidate Elissa Slotkin both won seats previously held by Republicans — helping Democrats win a majority and marking the first time since the 1930s that no Republicans had represented Oakland County, which contains most of Detroit’s northern suburbs, in the House. Slotkin now holds Michigan’s other Senate seat.
El-Sayed, meanwhile, ran for governor with the support of Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez — but finished a distant second, 22 percentage points behind Gretchen Whitmer in the Democratic primary. He went on to host a podcast, represent Sanders on a task force with Biden supporters focused on health care, and work as Wayne County’s health director.
While Stevens, now 43, tends to steer her speeches and interviews toward the work she’s done, El-Sayed, 41, is much more brash. He brags that he’s a counterpuncher unlike anything Rogers, the Republican, has ever seen. He is omnipresent — appearing in interviews, on podcasts, at rallies and across social media platforms constantly. His appetite for risk includes embracing figures like Piker in spite of the backlash. He’s willing to make viewers cringe — occasionally posting on social media videos of himself and his supporters dancing and lip-syncing, including a video featuring a Taylor Swift song[image_1] coinciding with the singer’s wedding.
He’s also occasionally glib — as when he told Semafor that Stevens is “a suit with a large AIPAC bank account” and that he hopes “maybe they find some way to teach her how to string together two coherent sentences.”
“That’s just the kind of junk that turns people off, you know. We don’t need to go there,” Stevens said when asked by CNN about El-Sayed’s comment.
She said that “obviously I knew how to speak for myself” when she worked on the auto rescue task force during President Barack Obama’s administration, worked for the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act during Biden’s administration, and told Trump Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a House hearing this spring that he should resign or be impeached over his vaccine skepticism.
“I think I’ve put forward the ideas and the messages on this campaign that are going to bring us together and enable us to beat Mike Rogers in November,” Stevens said. “I flipped a Republican district in 2018, I’ve held it in 2020, and I won those races by speaking directly to the hearts of Michiganders and what they expect and what they need from their lawmakers — which is decency, which is trust and delivery of results.”
El-Sayed has backed away from the personal tone in the days that followed his initial remark.
“I think Haley is very smart,” he told CNN. Still, he said, she is backed by millions of dollars in AIPAC ad spending, and “those checks come with strings.”
“I’m gonna let them burn $50 million of their dollars and still beat their candidate and still come for them when I’m in the US Senate,” El-Sayed said.
Asked about lessons he’s learned since his first run, El-Sayed said the biggest changes have been his age and becoming a father to two daughters.
“I think being a dad has just shown me what it means to show up and unconditionally love somebody, and to show up and take care of them,” he said. “And over time I just got less precious about the critique and a lot more focused on the solution.”
That shift is key to how he envisions winning over Trump voters, he said at a question-and-answer session with attendees after his rally in Grand Rapids.
“With Trump supporters, we’ve got to decide, do we want to get them to recant for what was done in the past, or do we want the partnership to build what we need in the future,” El-Sayed said. “We’ve got to ask how we make common cause with folks about building the things we need and deserve together.”
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