‘Voters Are Fed Up’: Michigan Primary Forces Democratic Party to Accept Leftwing Shift

With Abdul El-Sayed’s win, the party’s leftwing insurgency had breached the walls of a midwestern swing state, forcing a reckoning about Democrats’ direction and leadership

By David Smith, The Guardian

Standing before The Spirit of Detroit, a landmark bronze statue in the city’s downtown, in the early hours of a Wednesday morning, Abdul El-Sayed channelled boxing great Muhammad Ali. “We shook up the world,” he declared.

The 41-year-old former public health official had just delivered a knockout blow to the Democratic establishment, defeating the US congresswoman Haley Stevens to claim the party’s nomination for the Senate in swing state Michigan.

El-Sayed had campaigned on a boldly progressive agenda of universal healthcare, halting military aid to Israel and sweeping campaign finance reform. The moderate Stevens had received $60m from outside groups, including $30m from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and its affiliates.

It was the latest and possibly biggest tremor in a political earthquake consuming the Democratic party. Its leftwing insurgency was no longer confined to deep blue coastal cities; it had breached the walls of a critical midwestern swing state. Now it is forcing a reckoning about the party’s leadership and its ideological direction ahead of the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

Matt Duss, executive vice-president of the Center for International Policy and a former foreign policy adviser to the leftwing senator Bernie Sanders, said: “It’s dissatisfaction with the status quo. It’s dissatisfaction with the establishment. This is an anti-system moment.