Tomorrow is Election Day in Michigan, where the most expensive Democratic Senate primary ever will also be a referendum on the party’s future.
It’s a line we’ve heard about many elections, and I’ll let you be the judge on which ones have held water. But what is indisputable about the race tomorrow, as my colleague Najib Aminy noted when he stopped by Ferndale, Michigan, last month, is the outpouring of support voters seem to have for Abdul El-Sayed and his staunch opposition to American Israel Public Affairs Committee money:
The room was packed with supporters fanning themselves with campaign signs, many braving the summer heat to hear the progressive Senate candidate make his case against his opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens.
Then came the applause.
It wasn’t for Medicare for All or his warnings about the rise of data centers. It was for a message that has come to define what is expected to be the most expensive Democratic Senate primary in history.
“The central corrupting feature of our politics right now is the power of money to buy politicians so that government is captured by them, not for us,” El-Sayed said as he fielded questions from the stage, wearing his signature black T-shirt and blue jeans. “AIPAC will spend huge amounts of money if you’re uppity like me and you speak out of turn to beat you, and you’re seeing it play out on TV every day.”
The race, as Najib noted, will test whether a Democrat who opposes US support for Israel can win. That’s nothing short of extraordinary considering where we were, say, five years ago. My colleagues at Reveal talked to El-Sayed about all this and more, including the politics of electability and what it could mean for him to win statewide by taking on AIPAC, here. I hope you’ll take a read.
—Inae Oh
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