Joe Battenfeld: Far left Senate candidate in Michigan could haunt Democrats

Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald on Aug 7, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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The narrower than expected victory by the far left Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, could backfire on the party in November.

El-Sayed barely staved off the establishment Democrat by less than one percentage point — just 15,000 votes — despite polls which showed him leading by double digits.

The polls, it turns out, were far off, which should be a lesson in states like Massachusetts where polling shows Gov. Maura Healey and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey leading by comfortable margins.

El-Sayed — the son of Egyptian immigrants who refuses to disavow comments by a left wing influencer supporter that America “deserved 9/11” — now will face off against former Republican congressman Mike Rogers in November.

“In the words of Muhammed Ali, we shook up the world,” the blustery El-Sayed, 41, boasted to reporters after his victory.

“The Democratic Party has lost its mind,” Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton wrote on X of the Michigan results.

The insurgent El-Sayed won the primary by capturing well off white liberal voters, socialist-leaning voters and Arab American voters, but was pummeled in the Black communities and working class areas of Detroit and in more rural areas of Michigan.

Democrats desperately need to hold on to the Michigan seat, which hasn’t been Republican for decades, in order to capture the U.S. Senate in November.

But there are clear signs in the Michigan results that far left progressives like El-Sayed may have a difficult time winning over moderate voters in the fall.

El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim in the Senate, is to the left of Bernie Sanders, which is saying something. He supports Medicare for All, abolishing aid to Israel, abolishing ICE and raising taxes.

His opponent, centrist Rep. Haley Stevens, argued he could not win a general election in a battleground state like Michigan. El-Sayed in fact was destroyed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

President Donald Trump won Michigan in the 2024 election, but Democrats have held statewide offices.

“We are not a purple state,” the charismatic El-Sayed, who has earned the moniker “Michigan Mamdani,” said early Wednesday. “We are a state in need of a movement to take our politics back.”

El-Sayed won by harshly criticizing Israel and AIPAC and in fact refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

The November contest between El-Sayed and Rogers will be ground zero in the battle for the future of the Democratic Party, according to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Democrats like Markey immediately sought to jump on El-Sayed’s bandwagon, despite the fact that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer campaigned against the Michigan doctor.

“He’s fighting for Medicare for all, getting money out of politics and lowering costs,” Markey said. “Abdul, our victory is proof that a better world is possible. On to November!”

Nice try, senator. Maybe you should just focus on your own race.