Michigan Senate Democratic primary race remains too close to call as El-Sayed holds narrow lead – US politics live

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Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a primary election night event.

Michigan Senate Democratic primary race remains too close to call

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The race for the Democratic nomination for Senate in Michigan remains too close to call early on Wednesday with Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, holding a narrow lead over congresswoman Haley Stevens.

At around 5am local time, El-Sayed had 49.5% of the vote and Stevens 45.78%, with more than 95% of votes counted.

Both addressed supporters, saying the vote count could continue well into the day.

“We knew that this was going to be a close race, and that’s exactly what we’ve got,” Stevens said. “I am feeling fired up, and you should be too.”

The bitter and expensive campaign attracted national attention not just because the general election for the seat will help decide which party controls the Senate. It also became the most notable proxy battle between the Democratic Party’s establishment and progressive wings.

Candidates from the left-flank – including democratic socialists – have found surprising success in the party’s US House primaries, including in New York and Denver, in areas that tend to veer farther left. A progressive victory in Michigan would be significant for the movement.

The winner of Tuesday’s race will face the Republican nominee, former representative Mike Rogers, in November, to succeed the retiring Democratic senator Gary Peters. Rogers ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

In other developments:

Also in Michigan, Jocelyn Benson clinched the Democratic nomination in the governor’s race and will face the John James, who won the Republican contest. Benson, the state’s secretary of state, will take on James, a congressman who received an endorsement from Donald Trump, to replace the term-limited Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, in November.
Further down ballot, William Lawrence, a progressive, won a competitive three-way Democratic primary race in Michigan’s seventh congressional district. Lawrence, a community organizer who co-founded the Sunrise Movement, will now challenge Republican incumbent Tom Barrett, who has bucked his own party while in office, after he flipped the key battleground district red in 2024.
Meanwhile in Washington state, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, the two-term centrist Democrat, has advanced to the general election for her competitive US House seat. She’ll face the Republican candidate and state senator, John Braun, who is backed by Trump. The state votes on single ballots – meaning the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to November’s contest. More here.
And in Missouri, Democratic congressman Wesley Bell won his primary in the St Louis area on Tuesday, ending the progressive former representative Cori Bush’s bid for a comeback. Bell’s victory blunted the momentum pro-Palestinian candidates have shown in recent elections. In this deep-blue district, this also makes Bell the favorite to win a second term in the November election. More here.
Also in the midwest, Cindy Holscher, a state senator, won the Democratic nomination in Kansas’s gubernatorial race. She beat two other Sunflower state politicians to advance to the general election. Ty Masterson, the Trump-backed Kansas state senate president, clinched the GOP nomination in a crowded race. It’s set to be a fierce competition, as Republicans are angling to retake the governor’s mansion from Democratic control.

Key events

US representative Haley Stevens, who is currently trailing in the Democratic primary for Senate in Michigan, has cast herself throughout her campaign as a pragmatic problem-solver and workhorse.

Stevens, who has represented Michigan’s 11th House district since 2019, after flipping the seat, has a long list of high profile endorsements from within the Democratic party that include the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and Gary Peters, the retiring senator who holds the seat she is now running for. Her campaign had also been boosted by tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, including from groups affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the pro-Israel lobbying organization.

The Guardian’s Rachel Leingang has more here:

The Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon spoke to Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive former public health official who is currently leading the race for the Democratic nomination for Senate in Michigan.

An epidemiologist who served in health director roles in Detroit and its county, El-Sayed has frequently tied the Israel-Gaza war, which he unflinchingly calls a genocide, and other conflicts involving the US to affordability at home.

He had attempted to win office before, losing the Democratic gubernatorial race in Michigan in 2018. But he believes that the anti-establishment coalition he now represents has grown larger than the one that rejected him eight years ago.

“I think people are sick and tired of the establishments on both sides of that, and I think we are having success because we’re speaking to that frustration,” El-Sayed said. “And politics doesn’t have to suck, and you can build a politics that doesn’t suck.”