CHICAGO: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s closely fought Democratic US Senate primary on Wednesday, to secure the party’s nomination and advance to a Nov. 3 general election contest against Republican former congressman Mike Rogers.
With more than 99 percent of the votes counted, El-Sayed took to X to celebrate: "We won. I am so proud to be your Democratic nominee for US Senate. Let's win in November."
As it stands, El-Sayed led Stevens by a slim margin after roughly 95 percent of the ballots had been counted, with hundreds of thousands still outstanding.
The eventual Democratic nominee will face former Republican congressman Mike Rogers in the Nov. 3 general election. Rogers ran unopposed in Tuesday’s Republican primary.
The contest is expected to attract national attention because its outcome could help to determine which party controls the US Senate.
Neither El-Sayed nor Stevens claimed victory in election-night speeches, instead acknowledging that a final result could take several more hours.
Both also stressed the need for Democrats to unite behind the eventual nominee to retain the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
Stevens addressed supporters shortly after midnight as the gap between the candidates continued to narrow.
“We knew this was going to be a close race, and that is exactly what we got — a close race,” she said.
“We are still waiting on results, and we may not know the result until early in the morning or later tomorrow,” she added, noting that ballots from several major Michigan cities were still being counted.
“But friends, I am feeling good about this race. I am feeling fired up, and you should be too.”
Stevens acknowledged the intensity of the primary campaign but quickly shifted her attention to the general election.
“We have had a long, hard-fought primary, and we will know soon who the nominee is going to be,” she said.
“Whoever wins is going to go on to take on Mike Rogers. Republicans are going to do everything they can to throw all the dirt, all the mud and the kitchen sink at us because they want to keep the US Senate red, so Mike Rogers can continue to rubber-stamp Donald Trump’s ridiculous agenda.”
Stevens urged supporters to rest and prepare for the campaign ahead.
“We are not going to know the results for a little while,” she said. “So we have to get some sleep — or some coffee — and then we have to be ready to go.”
El-Sayed addressed his supporters minutes later, acknowledging that although he was ahead, the result remained uncertain.
He praised his campaign for remaining competitive despite being heavily outspent and said that supporters had built a movement that few political observers believed was possible.
“We all knew they were going to spend their money,” El-Sayed said. “We didn’t know they were going to spend $70 million. We didn’t know they were going to outspend us $11 to every one dollar. And yet, we are still standing.”
Supporters responded with chants of “Abdul, Abdul, Abdul.”
El-Sayed said that his campaign had focused on the affordability crisis facing Michigan families and argued that its performance demonstrated the strength of its grassroots support.
“I want you to remind them that, if we come through this — when we come through this, inshallah — we will have taken $70 million on the chin and kept fighting back,” he said.
El-Sayed also made clear that he did not regard Stevens as the campaign’s ultimate opponent.
“We have got 13 weeks to defeat Mike Rogers,” he said.
“However we might feel about the campaign we have just come through, I want you to understand that it pales in comparison to the cynicism, the corporatism and the lies that Mike Rogers and Donald Trump are going to tell.”
El-Sayed called for party unity regardless of the final result.
“There is so much more that unites us,” he said. “However much we might disagree with our Democratic opponent, there is so much more that unites us than divides us.”
“Tomorrow, we begin to mend fences. Whatever happens tonight, we have a responsibility to ensure that we unite.”
El-Sayed earned a doctorate from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and received his medical degree from Columbia University.
He served as executive director of the Detroit Health Department from 2015 to 2017 and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for Michigan governor in 2018.
In 2023, he was appointed to lead the Wayne County Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services, a position he held until last year.
Stevens was first elected to Congress in 2018.
Before entering elected office, she worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and later served in the administration of President Barack Obama.
She helped to establish the White House Office of Manufacturing Policy and subsequently worked at the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute in Chicago.
