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By Alex J. Rouhandeh
National Political Correspondent
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The most contentious and high-profile Democratic Primary of the cycle is over, and the progressive wing of the party came out on top with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed securing the Democratic nomination in this year’s Michigan Senate race in a narrow, single-digit victory.
Since April, El-Sayed—a former state public health official—battled establishment Representative Haley Stevens in what became a proxy for the future of the Democratic Party as the two debated corporate influence, Israeli relations and the role of government.
Though Michigan has long been a purple state—voting for Donald Trump in 2024 while electing Democrat Elissa Slotkin to the Senate—conventional wisdom had been that moderates account for that hue, and such election deciders would not back the policies of a progressive like El-Sayed.
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Well, the leftist doctor believes conventional wisdom is wrong, telling Newsweek he intends to remain laser-focused on the issues that carried him to victory over Stevens. To El-Sayed, his platform isn’t just about progressivism. It’s about bucking establishment orthodoxy.
“Conventional wisdom never saw Donald Trump ever winning ever—not the first time, not the second time. And the way that I explain Donald Trump is that people were so sick and tired of the establishment on either side of the parties,” El-Sayed told Newsweek. “This race is top versus down, and [Rogers] has been on top for far too long, trading on his relationships to people in power to make money to go golfing with his buddies.”
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The doctor believes that today’s swing voter is no longer a political centrist who likes some policies of the Democratic and Republican parties. Rather, he sees today’s ticket splitter as an antiestablishment independent, drawn to populist policies being espoused by neither party’s leadership. It’s by reaching that voter that El-Sayed believes he can beat the Republican Party’s Senate nominee, former Representative Mike Rogers, on November 3.
The Republican Party that Rogers belonged to when he was first joined the House of Representatives in 2001 evoked the air of a country club golf course. He served in the House until 2015. While Michigan had not voted to send a Republican to the White House since 1988 until Trump’s blue-collar coalition won the state in 2016, the Republican Party controlled the governor’s mansion and both chambers of the legislature for much of that period. Rogers took office as a Republican of that era, governing as a pragmatist and working his way to chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
While Rogers has since lashed his political fortunes to Trump, rallying with him as recently as July 27, revitalizing the centrist image of the Republican Party of the past could very well be crucial to his path to victory.
In a statement to Newsweek, Rogers noted that Democrats have controlled both of Michigan’s U.S. Senate seats since 2001. He said that over the decade in which the GOP has lost control of state government, the state lost roughly 200,000 manufacturing jobs, dropped to 45th in the nation for education and has among the highest energy rates in the Midwest. “Deflect all he wants, Abdul is part of the problem that got us here, and he would only send our state spiraling further,” Rogers said.
While Michiganders have been inching closer to the GOP down ballot, the right has yet to break through. The 2024 election saw Trump best then-Vice President Kamala Harris by roughly 80,000 votes (1.4 percentage points), but Rogers trailed Slotkin, a centrist, by about 19,000 votes (0.3 points), though almost 87,000 voters did not make a choice in the Senate race.
Republicans have argued that if just a few more people filled out their ballot, Rogers would have won. Energizing MAGA by rallying alongside Trump could address that. However, in 2026, the president’s name will not be atop the ticket, which means Rogers will likely need to court some of the voters who backed Trump but voted Slotkin.
The key question of the race will be how many of those individuals split their vote on account of political centrism or populist outsider beliefs. With El-Sayed atop the ballot, Rogers believes pragmatists of both parties will go his way.
“Abdul should take a good look in the mirror,” Rogers said. “While he caters to the socialist left, I’m in this race to get Michigan working again—from bringing back jobs to saving our schools and making life more affordable. And unlike him, I’ll work with anyone to get it done. If he thinks defunding the police, abolishing private health care for autoworkers and campaigning with influencer [Hasan Piker]—who said, ‘America deserved 9/11’—is what working families want to hear, he’s about to have a rude awakening.”
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El-Sayed has distanced himself from Piker’s 9/11 remark but believes today’s era of politics requires one to not give in to “cancel culture” and to accept support from figures with unconventional platforms. By breaking past rules of politics, he believes his candidacy will not only energize Democrats but also win over populist Republicans and independents.
El-Sayed said he’s focused on issues such as the cost of groceries and housing, health care access, public schooling, and spending on foreign conflicts, and that’s a focus he thinks most Michiganders will get behind. “At the end of the day, people are going to vote for somebody who they think actually cares about solving their problem, not trying to curry favor with some party or another,” he said.
The doctor is positioning himself as an outsider to both parties, a strategy that helped him defeat Stevens and could propel him over Rogers. Enacting that has meant tethering the former congressman to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—from which he’s received funding—as El-Sayed seeks to make the war in Iran and Israel’s involvement in it a crux issue in the race.
Additionally, he has cast Rogers as being beholden to corporate interests, which he holds responsible for high prices. “Rogers has never seen a corporate PAC check he did not want,” El-Sayed said. “Rogers has also been clear that he wants to continue sending our tax dollars to a foreign government.”
While that message has resonated with Democratic Primary voters, Rogers doesn’t think the general electorate will buy the narrative. The Republican notes that not only was he entrusted with the U.S.’s most vital secrets as intelligence chair, but he also served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He sees El-Sayed’s focus on the topic as proof that the Democrat is fixated on foreign nations.
He points to El-Sayed’s ownership of overseas property (in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and Bangalore, India) as further evidence of that point. The focus on Israel is a part of a greater pattern of antisemitism in the Democratic Party, Rogers suggests. As for the donations from corporations, he said the money has come his way because businesses back his policies, not the other way around.
“We’re running a campaign to get Michigan working again, which means reviving manufacturing, saving our schools, securing our streets and making life more affordable,” he said. “Turns out, there are a lot of people who want to support that mission. But they’re supporting us because of our mission, not the other way around. If Abdul thinks that donations equate to buying votes, A) that’s concerning, and B) Michiganders deserve to know who his donors are.”
Some of Rogers’ points echo those made by El-Sayed’s primary opponent. Despite winning the primary, El-Sayed still bled almost half the vote to Stevens. Ensuring those voters don’t stay at home or flip to Rogers will be his next objective.
Heavyweights of Michigan state politics—including Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Senator Gary Peters and former Senator Debbie Stabenow—all lined up behind Stevens, as did Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. While it’s expected that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will invest in Michigan, the extent to which these figures will support El-Sayed’s campaign is still to be determined. It also remains an open question whether Stevens will rally her coalition around the progressive.
“[Congresswoman Stevens is] the strongest and only Democrat who can beat Mike Rogers,” Arik Wolk, Stevens’ spokesperson, told Newsweek prior to Tuesday. “And Rogers knows Haley can beat him, too, which is why he said he’d be ‘in great shape’ if Abdul wins the primary.”
Rogers will look to cast El-Sayed as too extreme for Michigan, and warnings from Stevens and her allies during the primary will only assist in that message. For many Democrats, this would be a challenging issue to overcome. But for El-Sayed, misgivings from the party establishment play into the strategy.
According to YouGov, 63 percent of voters disapprove of Schumer, 57 percent disapprove of the Democratic Party, and 56 percent disapprove of the Republican Party. El-Sayed said if he’s elected, he will view part of his responsibility as rebuilding support for the Democratic Party. However, until he’s elected, he’s not afraid to buck it to achieve his goal.
It’s clear that the campaign El-Sayed is running is one that will upset many Democrats, Republicans and centrists alike. He’s banking on a belief that those who are upset amount to a narrow group of political insiders who would otherwise be content with upholding the status quo. If El-Sayed’s political hypothesis is correct and he goes on to win in November, it could usher in a new conventional wisdom that electoral power now rests with political outsiders.
“If the establishment is so great at politics, we wouldn’t be talking about Donald Trump again, but here we are,” El-Sayed said. “Chuck Schumer has no clue about what’s happening in his own state, let alone what’s happening in Michigan. So I’m sorry, but I just don’t take his conventional wisdom all that seriously.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gabriel Snyder and Shakeema Edwards.
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