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Michigan Democrats finally picked their Senate nominee yesterday, but it took them a lot longer than expected to do it.
Abdul El-Sayed was supposed to cruise past Rep. Haley Stevens. Instead, the race dragged through the night and was ultimately decided by fewer than 15,000 votes out of roughly 1.5 million cast. That is not exactly the thundering mandate the political forecasters had ordered.
El-Sayed now faces Republican Mike Rogers in November, and Michigan voters are going to get a very clear choice. Rogers is a former congressman and former FBI agent. El-Sayed is a democratic socialist who opposes military aid to Israel, accuses the Jewish state of genocide and apartheid, and says Democrats should respond to Republicans by taking them “to the mud” and choking them out.
So much for healing the national divide.
The contradiction was impossible to ignore on yesterday’s Rush Hour. One moment, El-Sayed was offering inspirational phrases about how “hurt people hurt people” and asking what society might look like if we treated “all of our kids like they were all of our kids.” The next, he was talking about dragging political opponents into the mud and choking them.
Apparently, hurt people hurt people—but enlightened socialists merely choke them out.
His speeches have the polished rhythm of someone trying very hard to sound profound. “Hurt people hurt people” is true enough. But when you repeat it several times and follow it with another observation about children being children, it begins to sound less like a governing philosophy and more like slam poetry performed at a faculty lounge.
That provided plenty of amusement on the show, particularly as we tried to determine whether hurt people who stop hurting people are still hurt people. Somewhere along the way, the whole thing became a philosophical version of “Who’s on First?” My head eventually became one of the hurt things in need of protection.
The humor should not obscure what El-Sayed believes, however. He has argued against what he calls unconditional foreign military aid, including aid to Israel. He says American tax dollars should remain at home rather than fund foreign governments, particularly governments he believes are violating international law.
That argument may appeal to voters who are tired of overseas commitments. But El-Sayed goes well beyond a narrow debate about spending priorities. His accusations against Israel place him squarely within the most radical wing of the Democratic Party, where hostility toward the Jewish state is increasingly treated as a requirement rather than a warning sign.
El-Sayed also received support from Sen. Bernie Sanders and figures connected to the growing socialist media ecosystem. Sanders recently defended controversial streamer Hasan Piker’s place in the Democratic coalition, despite Piker’s infamous statement that America “deserved” the September 11 attacks.
Sanders dismissed the remark as dumb but argued that people who spend hours speaking publicly will inevitably say regrettable things. He then suggested that longtime Democratic strategist James Carville could leave the party if he did not like the direction it was taking.
There is something rather remarkable about an independent senator telling a man who helped elect a Democratic president that he is no longer welcome in “my party.” Bernie does not formally belong to the Democratic Party except when he needs its presidential nomination, but apparently he is now working the velvet rope.
And who gets waved into the big tent? A socialist streamer who said America deserved 9/11.
This is the real significance of El-Sayed’s victory. It is not simply that one candidate defeated another in Michigan. It is further evidence that the Democratic Party’s activist base continues to move leftward, even when voters themselves appear far less enthusiastic than the headlines suggest.
El-Sayed won, but he barely won. He defeated a sitting congresswoman by less than one percentage point in a primary that was advertised as a blowout. That narrow result should make Democrats nervous, especially in a general election against a Republican with statewide name recognition and a background in national security.
Michigan voters will have months to examine El-Sayed’s record, his rhetoric, his alliances and his policies. They will also have time to decide whether they are looking at the future of the Democratic Party—or a candidate whose appeal is much louder on social media than it is at the ballot box.
Either way, the race should be fascinating.
And remember: hurt people hurt people. But voters also vote—and sometimes they hurt politicians.
