Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary on Wednesday, narrowly defeating Representative Haley Stevens by 1 percentage point with 99 percent of votes counted. The progressive former health official advances to a November general election matchup against Republican Mike Rogers, holding major stakes for control of the Senate.
The race came down to a razor-thin margin after a contentious battle that exposed deep ideological fault lines within the party. According to apnews.com, Abdul El-Sayed secured 48.5 percent of the vote compared to 47.5 percent for Haley Stevens. State Senator Mallory McMorrow, who suspended her campaign a month prior to the primary, still pulled 4 percent of the vote. The Associated Press confirmed the outcome just before 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
El-Sayed, 41, entered the primary running on a starkly progressive platform. He campaigned on Medicare for All
, campaign finance reform, and halting military aid to Israel, securing backing from high-profile figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Stevens countered with a moderate message centered on her record in government, manufacturing, and the economy, backed by prominent state figures including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and former Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
Outside Spending and Foreign Policy Flashpoints
The contest turned into one of the most expensive and heavily influenced primaries of the 2026 midterms. An MS NOW analysis of federal campaign finance records revealed that at least $59 million was spent by super PACs and external organizations seeking to sway the Democratic contest.
Almost all of that outside capital—at least $54 million—went toward supporting Stevens or opposing El-Sayed, while roughly $5 million flowed in the opposite direction. The largest single outside spender was the United Democracy Project, a super PAC closely aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which poured more than $30 million into the race according to apnews.com. That massive outlay thrust U.S. foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas conflict squarely into the center of a domestic Senate primary.
Stevens and her allies argued that El-Sayed’s progressive platform would make him vulnerable in a swing state. Investment firm Piper Sandler noted to clients that El-Sayed’s primary victory represented a major setback for Democratic hopes of winning back the Senate by choosing the more liberal candidate
, according to reporting by CNBC. The firm subsequently raised its odds of Republicans keeping a Senate majority from 55 percent to 60 percent.
Bridging the Divide for the November Matchup
The general election brings an entirely different set of pressures. El-Sayed now faces Mike Rogers, a former Republican congressman who ran unopposed for the GOP nomination. Rogers previously ran for Michigan’s other Senate seat in 2024, losing a tight race to Democrat Elissa Slotkin by roughly 20,000 votes. With Sen. Gary Peters retiring, Democrats view the open seat as an absolute must-win if they intend to flip control of the upper chamber.
Michigan remains a quintessential battleground. Donald Trump won the state in 2024 by approximately 80,000 votes—a 1.4 percentage point margin—after losing to Joe Biden by 2.8 percentage points in 2020. No Republican has won a U.S. Senate race in Michigan in 30 years, dating back to 1994, but the state’s narrow margins leave no room for error for either party.
Following the race call, El-Sayed emphasized the need for internal party mending before taking on the general election opponent.
El-Sayed reported that Stevens called to concede on Wednesday morning, and he stressed that both candidates remain committed to unifying the party. Pointing to the general election opponent, El-Sayed framed the upcoming battle starkly on CBS News: We’ve only got 13 weeks to beat a guy who has no business being in the U.S. Senate, and so I’m looking forward to that conversation.
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