2026-08-02T10:30:25.718Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
查克·舒默向来不擅长拐弯抹角。6月下旬，当这位参议院民主党领袖将即将退休的加里·彼得斯参议员叫到办公室时，舒默开门见山就谈起了彼得斯家乡密歇根州的参议员席位继任初选。
舒默认为阿卜杜勒·埃尔赛义德的民调支持率已从近期高点回落，表明有机会击败这位前韦恩县卫生局长。他不希望埃尔赛义德作为民主党候选人参选，一方面出于意识形态考量，另一方面也担心埃尔赛义德会在11月的大选中输给前众议员迈克·罗杰斯——埃尔赛义德一直以伯尼·桑德斯派和党内反以色列阵营的立场参选。
舒默告诉彼得斯，这场三方角逐的民主党初选已经一团乱麻，州参议员马洛里·麦克莫罗显然没有获胜可能。
舒默并未明说，但彼得斯离开时明白，自己的任务是劝说麦克莫罗退选，让众议员黑利·史蒂文斯与埃尔赛义德展开一对一较量。
周二举行的密歇根州参议院初选已成为一场激烈的微型公投，折射出民主党全国范围内的诸多派系斗争。如今麦克莫罗已退出竞选，史蒂文斯一边强调自己为前总统巴拉克·奥巴马工作的经历，呼吁聚焦制造业等密歇根州核心议题，一边凭借超过5000万美元的外部资助维持竞选活动。埃尔赛义德则将竞选重心放在推进“全民医保”上，同时抨击美国以色列公共事务委员会（AIPAC）及其他试图阻挠他的外部利益集团。
无论最终结果如何，这场在这个几乎始终决定白宫归属的紫色州展开的角逐——两党都认为其将影响今年参议院多数席位的归属——都已成为最鲜明的案例，展现出民主党已分裂为激烈对立的派系，以及领导层正疲于应对党内分歧。
埃尔赛义德和史蒂文斯的坚定支持者彼此仇视，全美各地的双方支持者都将这场初选视为一场生存危机。
距离投票结果公布只剩短短几十小时，双方竞选团队都不清楚选情究竟如何，唯一可以确定的是，无论谁获胜，民主党都可能在11月大选前内耗受损。
“目前民众情绪强烈且两极分化，我们必须团结起来，因为我们必须牢记11月大选的目标：赢得众议院和参议院席位，因此我们绝不能丢失这个参议院席位，”众议员黛比·丁格尔说道，她是少数未在这场参议院初选中站队的密歇根州民主党人之一。
“没人会乐见当前选战中的暴力和丑陋，”她说，“这让团结变得更加困难，但我们别无选择。”
舒默首选的彼得斯继任者是任期将满的州长格蕾琴·惠特默——他向来更青睐曾在全州范围内获胜的候选人——但惠特默彻底拒绝了这一提议。
数月来，舒默和民主党参议院竞选委员会主席、纽约州参议员柯尔斯滕·吉利布兰德已明确表示非正式支持史蒂文斯，邀请她参加筹款活动，并为其提供其他方面的支持。吉利布兰德甚至曾向多位捐助者暗示，麦克莫罗曾是美国民主社会主义者协会成员——尽管事实并非如此。
“吉利布兰德参议员自豪地认为，民主党有足够实力击败迈克·罗杰斯，延续我们30年来守住这个席位的纪录，”吉利布兰德的发言人詹姆斯·辛格在被问及相关举动时对CNN表示。
尽管需要管理华盛顿的参议院民主党事务以及其他一系列复杂的竞选活动，舒默在春季大部分时间里将注意力转向了其他地方。但他的担忧从未消散，与彼得斯的私下交谈让他确信，一直试图扶持埃尔赛义德的全国共和党参议院竞选委员会，已经察觉到了埃尔赛义德的弱点。
在妻子的敦促下，彼得斯以他一贯温和的方式展开了这项任务。6月26日《华尔街日报》刊登的一篇报道提到彼得斯认为麦克莫罗应考虑退选，麦克莫罗得知后致电彼得斯，怒不可遏。据一位知情人士透露，在7月5日麦克莫罗提前告知彼得斯自己即将暂停竞选前，两人并未再交谈过——她与顾问们商议后决定，不愿因被贴上“搅局者”标签而影响未来竞选其他公职。
据两位知情人士透露，史蒂文斯不敢相信自己运气这么好，但却不知道该如何应对。中间人不断提醒她给麦克莫罗留出时间做决定，以至于麦克莫罗发布退选视频时，史蒂文斯都没有打电话祝贺。
数月来，史蒂文斯一直将麦克莫罗视为破坏自己竞选机会的人。直到《政客》记者联系史蒂文斯的竞选团队，询问外界所谓的“怠慢”，史蒂文斯才给麦克莫罗发了短信。埃尔赛义德在致电麦克莫罗时请求获得她的支持，但史蒂文斯从未这样做过。
据两位知情人士透露，麦克莫罗退选后，史蒂文斯在首次与彼得斯通话时也没有请求他的支持，尽管有人劝她这么做。第二次通话才敲定此事，但甚至在彼得斯答应之前，他就已经开始积极行动，向捐助者和其他密歇根州官员宣传，呼吁他们支持史蒂文斯。
麦克莫罗退选后，彼得斯与马萨诸塞州参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦进行了交谈，沃伦此前已 endorse 麦克莫罗。两位参议员关系友好，彼得斯表示，尽管他欣赏埃尔赛义德，但他确信史蒂文斯在秋季大选中有更大胜算。
据三位知情人士透露，两位参议员都表达了对史蒂文斯作为候选人所面临困境的担忧。彼得斯问沃伦是否考虑背书，沃伦也问了彼得斯同样的问题，两人都表示“再说吧”。
一周后，彼得斯正式背书史蒂文斯。又过了一周，沃伦转而支持埃尔赛义德，尽管她在去年华盛顿与埃尔赛义德会面后曾拒绝表态。
数月来，史蒂文斯的竞选团队一直指望核心选民群体——女性和非裔美国人，尤其是未受过大学教育的人群——会在临近选举时才开始关注竞选活动。她的顾问们认为，展现自己的亲和力、独特口音以及与奥巴马的联系，正是吸引所需选民的关键。
然而，史蒂文斯数月来的竞选活动大多只有少量支持者，尴尬时刻还被剪辑后迅速在网上传播。团队成员士气低落，尽管史蒂文斯已将X（原推特）从手机中删除，但当朋友们给她发来网上最刻薄的评论时，她有时也难以维持斗志。
“在那之前，竞选一直处于非常被动的局面。很难做到‘做真实的黑利’，因为互联网上总会有人嘲讽她，而且没人站出来为她辩护，”一位参与竞选的人士表示，“她承受了作为建制派候选人的所有负面影响，却没有获得任何正面效应。”
史蒂文斯最著名的言论的走红完全出乎所有人意料。一台C-SPAN摄像机碰巧拍摄了一场原本平淡无奇的竞选活动——一个与共和党有关的账号截取了其中18秒的片段，特别是她承诺将带着“一点‘跟他们对着干’的劲头”参选，“因为这就是密歇根人的行事风格”。
这段视频在X上的浏览量达到340万次，引发了大量同情关注，粉丝们认为她的发言接地气。她的竞选经理紧急订购的“跟他们对着干”庭院标牌也迅速走红。随后，她在美国国会大厦走廊接受TMZ采访时的视频被广泛传播——视频中她仍在谈论那个 moment，而助手试图将她拉开。
这些获得更多网络关注的时刻在团队内部被称为“为普奇伸张正义”，这一梗来自2025年一段广受嘲讽的视频，史蒂文斯在视频中描述了自己童年时害怕的一只狗。
与此同时，惠特默也经历了一段艰难时期，因一系列否决法案遭到工会和州议会民主党议员的抨击。彼得斯和其他人敦促她背书史蒂文斯。尽管惠特默在2018年的初选中击败过埃尔赛义德，但她几乎不了解对方，不过也听说了一些幕僚对他的评价。她了解史蒂文斯。
“如果格蕾琴·惠特默屈服于压力，她自己就会参选参议员，”一位熟悉州长情况的人士表示。
尽管彼得斯和其他人不断劝说，惠特默仍不确定自己的背书能起到多大作用。她查看了民调，结果显示，将自己注重实效的行事风格与史蒂文斯绑定，能够影响尚未表态的选民。
让其幕僚都感到意外的是，惠特默最终决定介入，在初选开始一周多前背书了史蒂文斯。
埃莉萨·斯洛特金也是2018年密歇根州选举浪潮中首次当选众议院议员的，她在2024年以微弱优势击败了罗杰斯。她在自己前众议院席位的初选中投入了大量精力，甚至为自己支持的候选人支付民调费用。
目前，斯洛特金在这场参议院初选中保持中立。尽管她通过抨击民主党方向的言论，试图炒作自己2028年参选总统的可能性，但斯洛特金坚称，基于一项几乎仅适用于今年选举的原则，她必须保持中立。
结果是，斯洛特金自己也成了嘲讽和愤怒的对象。埃尔赛义德和史蒂文斯的支持者都对CNN表示，他们完全不相信斯洛特金能在尘埃落定后成为她一直声称想要的团结人物。相反，这种愤怒催生了各种阴谋论，认为斯洛特金也是在故意让民主党输掉选举。
通过助手，斯洛特金拒绝置评。
伯尼·桑德斯为埃尔赛义德支招
埃尔赛义德对史蒂文斯的攻击言论以及可能带来的政治后果，曾让其部分幕僚感到不安。但他坚信胜利在望，因此继续推进竞选，向支持者表示，自己的竞选正走在与LGBTQ权利推动运动或终结吉姆·克劳法案运动“完全相同的道路”上。
就在麦克莫罗和史蒂文斯为争夺各自的核心选民群体展开较量时，埃尔赛义德巩固了自己的基本盘，并刻意坚持与他们对话。
他与桑德斯以及众议员亚历山德里亚·奥卡西奥-科特兹一同竞选造势，后者在背书人选上比导师桑德斯更为谨慎。
桑德斯去年在卡拉马祖竞选时的一番告诫让埃尔赛义德印象深刻：“你得告诉他们你是医生，讲讲当医生的经历”，据两位熟悉这番话的人士透露。（埃尔赛义德毕业于医学院，但并未完成住院医师培训或从医，转而投身公共卫生事业。）
桑德斯的意思不仅是要强调埃尔赛义德的医疗背景，更是要展现更完整的个人形象，以免他因阿拉伯血统和姓名而被贴上极端左翼人士或局外人的标签。
就在两周前埃尔赛义德回到密歇根州举办一系列集会，并成功劝说奥卡西奥-科特兹一同参与之前，桑德斯就已经提供了更多建议，包括“不要回避谈论加沙”，因为AIPAC的盟友无论如何都会花费数百万美元攻击他。
麦克莫罗退选后的当天下午，埃尔赛义德又收到了坏消息：格雷厄姆·普拉特纳遭到性侵犯指控。普拉特纳正在缅因州参选参议院，与帮助埃尔赛义德竞选的是同一家咨询公司，他的竞选同样属于激进派。
普拉特纳的垮台不仅引发了新一轮对埃尔赛义德过往信息不透明的质疑——这种质疑因埃尔赛义德数周来拒绝披露个人财务状况而愈发强烈——埃尔赛义德还发表声明谴责性侵犯，但并未像其他民主党人那样明确要求普拉特纳退选。
有人认为，埃尔赛义德要么是对其顾问过于迁就，要么是顾及桑德斯——桑德斯坦言自己也曾推迟要求普拉特纳退选。当被问及解释声明的发布时机和内容时，埃尔赛义德的竞选发言人并未回应。但据一位知情人士透露，竞选团队内部承认这是一个失误。
除此之外，埃尔赛义德刻意坚持立场，毫不道歉，即使某些立场超出了部分人认为的温和选民接受范围。他拒绝放弃与主播哈桑·皮克尔共同竞选的计划——皮克尔曾发表过“美国活该遭遇9·11袭击”的言论，之后皮克尔表示对此后悔——埃尔赛义德还称毛泽东是“这个世界上最伟大的领导人之一，他改变了整个世界”。
在惠特默背书史蒂文斯后，埃尔赛义德对其进行了抨击，并且在盟友们嘲笑史蒂文斯“跟他们对着干”的言论后，仍多次攻击史蒂文斯。
“当AIPAC看到这个：尽管放马过来，看看会发生什么，”他在周四发布的采访中说道，“你们选的简直是全美最无能的候选人，对吧？然后查克·舒默还在加码，AIPAC也在加码，我就在想，好吧。”
“全美所有人都明白，你想把所有问题都归咎于犹太裔美国人，”史蒂文斯周四晚间在X上回击道，“但伙计，让我把话说清楚，我会降低食品杂货成本，禁止民选官员进行股票交易，制止特朗普滥用权力，保护密歇根州制造业。而你只会是一个只会抱怨的名人，靠写书赚更多钱。你属于抱怨者阶层，正忙着寻找下一个出书或播客项目来捞钱。”
埃尔赛义德几乎在每场竞选活动中都会拿自己有趣的姓氏开玩笑。他穿着紧身T恤跳舞的自拍视频，也是刻意为了让自己看起来更亲民、不那么吓人。视频走红也确实起到了作用。
“我们都感受到了巨大的压力，但玩得最开心的候选人通常会获胜，”埃尔赛义德的战略顾问丽贝卡·卡茨说道，“赌注已经高到不能再高，但我们乐在其中。”
随着众多民主党人对埃尔赛义德好斗的行事风格和在以色列问题上的立场感到反感，这恰恰是他吸引更多与桑德斯立场一致的选民的原因。
“这场初选不仅关乎密歇根州参议院席位，更关乎2028年的整个选举版图——如果进步派不仅赢得初选，还赢得大选，中间派认为进步派无法在摇摆州获胜的论调就会不攻自破，”一位桑德斯的盟友对CNN表示，“这将为2028年的全国性候选人竞选铺平道路。”
The fight for Michigan: How a marquee Senate primary became the Democrats’ latest proxy war
2026-08-02T10:30:25.718Z / CNN
Chuck Schumer isn’t much for subtlety. When the Senate Democratic leader called retiring Sen. Gary Peters into his office in late June, Schumer went right to discussing the primary to succeed Peters in his home state of Michigan.
Schumer believed Abdul El-Sayed’s poll numbers had fallen from recent heights, suggesting there was a chance to beat the former Wayne County health director. He didn’t want El-Sayed, who is running hard from the Bernie Sanders and anti-Israel wings of the party, as the Democratic nominee both for ideological reasons and fears he would lose the November election to former Rep. Mike Rogers.
The three-way Democratic race was a mess, Schumer told Peters, and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow was clearly not going to win.
He never said it outright, but Peters walked away thinking his mission was to get McMorrow to drop out and give Rep. Haley Stevens a one-on-one matchup against El-Sayed.
Tuesday’s Michigan Senate primary has become a bitter, microcosmic referendum on many of the fights Democrats are having nationally. With McMorrow now out of the race, Stevens has talked up her experience working for former President Barack Obama and a need to drill down on manufacturing and other Michigan issues, all while being kept afloat by more than $50 million in outside spending. El-Sayed has built his campaign around promoting Medicare for All but also targeting the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other outside interests that have tried to stop him.
However it ends, the fight in a purple state that is almost always central to which party wins the White House — and which both Republicans and Democrats believe could help decide the Senate majority this year — has become the greatest showcase yet of a party split into bitter factions and an establishment struggling to lead it.
Committed supporters of El-Sayed and Stevens can’t stand each other. Backers of each candidate across the country have treated the race as if it’s an existential crisis.
With just a few dozen hours left until the results come in, no one on either campaign is quite sure where the race stands, other than the very real possibility of Democrats wounding themselves for November no matter who wins.
“There are a lot of very strong, intense feelings right now, and we have to bring people together because we have to remember what the November election is about. It is about winning the House and the Senate, so we cannot lose the Senate seat,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, one of the few Michigan Democrats who have not taken sides in the Senate primary.
“Nobody can like the kind of brutality, the ugliness that we have seen,” she said. “That makes it harder to come together. But we have no choice.”
Schumer’s first choice to succeed Peters was term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — he always prefers candidates who’ve won statewide previously — but she shut him down completely.
For months, Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York had made their unofficial backing of Stevens clear, inviting her to donor events and directing other support her way. Gillibrand even went so far as suggesting to several donors, ominously, that McMorrow had been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America – even though McMorrow isn’t.
“Senator Gillibrand is proud that Democrats are in a strong position to defeat Mike Rogers and continue our 30-year record of holding this seat,” her spokesman, James Singer, told CNN when asked about those moves.
Between managing Senate Democrats in Washington and an array of other complicated races, Schumer’s attention went elsewhere for much of the spring. His concerns never faded, though, and his gut check with Peters left him sure that the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which had been working to boost El-Sayed, was onto something about his weakness.
Also urged on by his wife, Peters undertook the mission in his typical soft-sell way. McMorrow called him, enraged, after a Wall Street Journal story published on June 26 included a mention that he thought she needed to consider dropping out. They didn’t speak again before she gave him a heads up on July 5 that she was about to suspend her campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter, deciding with advisers that she didn’t want to be painted as a spoiler if she wanted to run for another office in the future.
Stevens couldn’t believe her luck but couldn’t figure out what to do, according to two people familiar with the matter. Intermediaries kept telling her to give McMorrow space to make her decision, so much so that when McMorrow posted her video, Stevens decided not to call her.
For months, she’d been fixated on McMorrow as blowing the race for her. Only when a Politico reporter reached out to her campaign about what was being made out as a snub did Stevens text her. While El-Sayed in his own call to McMorrow asked for her support, Stevens never did.
Stevens also didn’t ask Peters for his support the first time they spoke after McMorrow’s exit, despite being urged to, according to two people. A second call had to be arranged for that, but even before Peters said yes, he had already stepped up his efforts, talking to donors and other Michigan officials about potentially jumping in for her.
After McMorrow’s exit from the race, Peters chatted with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who had endorsed McMorrow. The two senators are friendly, and Peters said while he liked El-Sayed, he’d been convinced that Stevens was the one with the better chance of winning in the fall.
According to three people familiar with their conversation, both senators shared their concerns about Stevens’ struggles as a candidate. He asked if she was thinking of endorsing. She asked if he was thinking of endorsing. They both said maybe.
A week later, Peters made his Stevens endorsement official. A week after that, Warren went with El-Sayed, though she had previously declined to after meeting with him in Washington last year.
For months, Stevens’ campaign had been counting on their prime voters being the kinds of women and African Americans, especially people without college degrees, who wouldn’t tune into the campaign until closer to the election. Her advisers believed that showcasing her quirkiness, her particular accent and her connections to Obama would be exactly what would appeal to the voters they needed.
Instead, Stevens trudged through months of mostly small crowds and awkward moments clipped and quickly shared online. The staff was demoralized, and the candidate, despite deleting X from her phone, sometimes struggled to keep up her own determination when friends texted her the worst bits.
“Up until that point, the campaign was in a very defensive posture. It was very hard to ‘let Haley be Haley,’ because the internet was going to dunk on her, and there was no one to defend her,” said one person involved with the campaign. “She got all the downside of being the establishment candidate and none of the upside.”
How Stevens’ most famous comment emerged surprised them all. A C-SPAN camera happened to show up at an otherwise unremarkable campaign event – and a Republican-linked account posted 18 seconds of it, in particular her promise that she would campaign with “a little bit of ‘stick it to ‘em,’ because that’s the Michigan way.”
That clip has 3.4 million views on X. It drew a wave of sympathetic attention from fans who saw her delivery as folksy. Her campaign manager rushed an order of “Stick It To ‘Em” yard signs that became hugely popular. A follow-up interview in the halls of the US Capitol with TMZ – in which she keeps talking about the moment even as an aide tries to pull her away – was widely shared.
Those moments of getting better attention online became known internally as “Justice for Poochie,” a reference to a widely mocked 2025 video in which Stevens described a dog she had been scared of as a child.
Meanwhile, Whitmer was going through her own difficult weeks of being blasted by unions and Democrats in the legislature for a series of vetoes. Peters and others were urging her to jump on with Stevens. Even after beating El-Sayed in her own primary in 2018, she felt she barely knew him, though she heard the buzz among some of her staff about him. She knew Stevens.
“If Gretchen Whitmer bowed to pressure, she would be running for Senate herself,” said one person familiar with the governor.
Whitmer wasn’t sure how much of a difference her endorsement would make, despite Peters and others trying to push her along. She sat with polls that suggested she could sway still-undecided voters by attaching to Stevens her same results-minded sensibility.
Surprising even some on her staff, Whitmer jumped in, endorsing Stevens just over a week before the primary.
Elissa Slotkin was also elected as a first-time candidate to the House as part of the same Michigan wave as Stevens in 2018. She narrowly beat Rogers in 2024. She has gotten heavily involved in the primary for her former House seat to the point of paying for polls for her preferred candidate.
For now, Slotkin is on the sidelines in the Senate race. Even as she’s tried to whip up chatter about a potential 2028 presidential run by throwing down on the direction of the Democratic Party, Slotkin has insisted she has to stay neutral via a statement of principle that applies almost exclusively to this year’s race.
The result: Slotkin has become an object of derision and anger herself. Both El-Sayed and Stevens supporters tell CNN they’re not at all convinced Slotkin can be the unifying figure she keeps saying she wants to be once the dust settles. Instead, the exasperation is feeding a variety of conspiracy theories that she also is out to make the Democrats lose.
Through an aide, Slotkin declined to comment.
Bernie Sanders coaches El-Sayed
El-Sayed has made some on his staff uncomfortable at points with both the substance of his attacks on Stevens and the feared political fallout. But emboldened by his belief that victory is at hand, he has kept going, suggesting to supporters that his campaign was walking “the exact same path” as movements like the push for LGBT rights or ending Jim Crow.
As McMorrow and Stevens fought over voters they wanted to be their base, El-Sayed solidified and purposely kept speaking to his.
He campaigned with Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is far more sparing than her mentor in whom she endorses.
An admonition from Sanders last year while campaigning in Kalamazoo stuck: “You’ve got to tell them you’re a doctor. Talk about being a doctor,” the senator said, according to two people familiar with his comment. (El-Sayed graduated from medical school but pivoted to a career in public health instead of completing a residency or practicing medicine.)
Sanders meant not just stressing El-Sayed’s own medical experience but showcasing a fuller personality so that he wouldn’t be dismissed as an ultra-leftist or an outsider with his Arab heritage and name.
Even before he was back in Michigan two weeks ago for a series of rallies he successfully urged Ocasio-Cortez to join him for, Sanders was chipping in with more advice, including “Don’t shy away from talking about Gaza,” since AIPAC’s allies would spend millions against him anyway.
The afternoon after McMorrow dropped out, El-Sayed got more bad news when sexual assault allegations were published about Graham Platner, running a parallel insurgent campaign for Senate in Maine with the same consulting firm helping both.
It wasn’t just that Platner’s implosion prompted another round of questions about what wasn’t known about El-Sayed — accentuated by his refusal for weeks to disclose his personal finances — El-Sayed also put out a statement that condemned sexual assault but did not explicitly call for Platner to quit even as other Democrats were.
Others have suggested that El-Sayed was being either too deferential to his consultants or to Sanders, who himself waited on calling for Platner to leave the race. His campaign spokesperson did not respond when asked to explain the timing or content of the statement. But the campaign acknowledged internally it was a mistake, according to a person familiar with the matter.
El-Sayed has otherwise been deliberately unapologetic, standing by positions even when they go beyond where some think the median voter seems to be. He refused to back down on campaigning with streamer Hasan Piker, who has said America deserved September 11, a comment Piker has since said he regrets, and has called Mao Zedong “one of the great leaders of this world, a man who changed the entire universe.”
He took a swipe at Whitmer after her endorsement and repeatedly attacked Stevens even after calling on allies to lower the temperature as they mocked her “stick it to ‘em” moment.
“When AIPAC watches this: Come for me, see what happens,” he said in an interview posted Thursday. “You picked literally the least capable candidate in America, right? And then Chuck Schumer doubles down and then AIPAC doubles down and part of me is like, OK.”
“Everyone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans,” Stevens fired back Thursday night on X. “But buddy, let me be very clear, I will lower the costs of groceries, ban stock trading for elected officials, stop Trump’s abuses of power, and protect Michigan manufacturing. And you’ll just be a celebrity whining and writing books to get even richer. You’re part of the complainer class, looking for their next book or podcast deal.”
El-Sayed has kept making the same joke about having a funny name at nearly every campaign stop. His own videos wearing fitted T-shirts and dancing were themselves a deliberate move to make him seem more relatable, less scary. Going viral helped too.
“We all feel a tremendous amount of pressure. But the candidate who has the most fun usually wins,” said Rebecca Katz, one of El-Sayed’s strategists. “The stakes are as high as they can possibly be, but we’re having fun.”
As an array of Democrats are turned off by El-Sayed’s pugilistic approach and positions, particularly on Israel, that’s exactly why he’s generating so much interest from those more aligned with Sanders.
“This is a pivotal race, not just for the Michigan Senate seat, but for the entire map in 2028 — because if a progressive wins not only the primary but the general, the centrists’ whole argument that progressives can’t win a swing state is moot,” a Sanders ally told CNN. “And that sets the stage for a national candidate in 2028.”