2026-08-05T20:30:53.849Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
阿卜杜勒·赛义德周二下午离开最后一个投票站时的计划是，当晚最早10点在伍德沃德大道的皇家剧院登台发表演讲。他深知这场演讲必须更侧重于拉拢人心，但他也原本指望能取得大胜，以此回应所有关于他十一月胜选可能性的质疑，以及为何其他民主党人需要团结在他身后。
然而，赛义德直到周三上午才勉强拿下一场微弱胜利，在超过150万张总选票中仅领先约1.5万票。
“用穆罕默德·阿里的话来说，‘我们震撼了世界’，”他对记者说道。
但他并未说服该州许多关键民主党人，因为他此前承诺要重塑选民基础，但在一场变得恶毒、激烈且充满人身攻击的初选 campaign 中，这一承诺远远未能实现。
目前悬而未决的是一个参议院席位，这对民主党在唐纳德·特朗普总统任期最后两年内拿下参议院控制权的机会至关重要。
尽管在镜头前，政治领袖们自信地表示，他们知道民主党能够团结在赛义德身后，对抗前共和党国会议员迈克·罗杰斯——罗杰斯在2024年密歇根州另一场参议院选举中险些获胜。但私下里，他们往往会坦言自己有多恐慌：党内的裂痕太深，积重难返。
赛义德为民主党社会主义倾向派取得了里程碑式的胜利，该派别近期在深蓝选区接连获胜，如今又在摇摆州拿下一场胜利。同时，他也因聚焦于推行“全民医保”和打击政治中的巨额资金而备受关注。但他的批评者则将其支持者所赞赏的特质——他谴责针对自己的巨额资金集团投入数千万资金、称史蒂文斯是美国以色列公共事务委员会（AIPAC）的傀儡，连自己都无法独立组织起两句话的演讲——视为傲慢和仇恨的表现。
这正是民主党高层此前希望避免的局面。两名民主党人士向CNN透露，他们曾多次联系赛义德，要求他不要过多聚焦以色列问题，并降低论战的激烈程度。
周三上午，就在赛义德在市中心标志性的“底特律精神”纪念碑前举行胜利新闻发布会前不久，史蒂文斯致电向他表示祝贺。他们此前的挑战者马洛里·麦克莫罗当天也到场了，她早就计划好无论谁胜出都会加入竞选阵营，但史蒂文斯并未受邀。一些史蒂文斯的支持者认为这是早期的怠慢，因为史蒂文斯很快就承认了竞选失败，“并且行事得体”。
“从现在起，我每天要做的一部分工作就是倾听所有人的声音，弄清楚我们如何让这个党重新团结起来，”周三立即背书赛义德的麦克莫罗说道。
“我知道这可能需要几周时间，”周二投票结束前，麦克莫罗满怀希望地说道，“但从现在到11月，我们只剩13周了。”
一场团结集会定于周五上午在底特律举行，由皮特·布蒂吉格主持。这位在密歇根长大的政治人物此前曾因考虑2028年总统竞选而放弃参选参议员。密歇根州民主党主席柯蒂斯·赫特尔表示，目前已有45名由州党资助的组织者在全州范围内开展工作，到11月这一人数将翻倍。外部资金也已到位，比如参议院多数党政治行动委员会已划拨2000万美元用于密歇根州的竞选，无论初选结果如何。
“我们在全州所有共和党选区都举办了市政厅会议，我们看到人们怒火中烧，因为他们觉得自己被许诺了什么——他们会被放在首位——但他们绝对没有得到。他们为亿万富翁减税，却削减了本州民众的医保，”赫特尔说道，“所以对于民主党人来说，虽然我理解初选后的紧张情绪，但我相信他们明白，也会明白密歇根的局势对国家的真正利害关系。如果这还不够，那么想想如果最高法院出现特朗普式的超级多数派，又会怎样？”
最后时刻：造势造势与信心满满
距离投票结束仅48小时多一点时，网红杰克·科基亚雷拉问赛义德，他有多少件黑色V领T恤——这种衣服已成为他刻意展露肱二头肌的竞选活动标志性着装。
赛义德回答说有12件，但“我还需要一件，上面就写‘对美以关系最危险的候选人’。我会每天都穿这件。”
赛义德当时正坐在副驾驶座上，通过电话参加一场筹款活动，之后他要去参加一场与网红们的泳池派对。在那里，他戴着墨镜靠在泳池边摆姿势拍照，还和左翼网红哈桑·皮克尔握了手并来了个拥抱。
周一晚间，他和戴着一顶底特律大都会民主党社会主义者组织蓝色帽子的皮克尔一同抵达一处由教堂改造的酒吧活动现场。在活动内部，他演练了预计中的胜选演讲，将自己置于纠正美国错误的传统之中，他称这一传统在这个国家建国250周年之际尤为合适。活动场外，大多是来自外州的网红——包括两位专注于猫咪的播客主持人——正在采访同样大多来自外州的志愿者，所有这些人都是被赛义德吸引而来的。
对于自2018年在本州竞选州长以来就一直呼吁取缔政治献金的赛义德来说，这一刻印证了他的理念。他将自己被AIPAC远超对手的巨额资金碾压的挫败感，转化为将其作为所有外部资金问题的代名词。
周二在底特律路易·巴斯德学校投票后，34岁的汽车销售经理内森·布鲁诺表示，他选择赛义德“主要是因为他主张取缔政治献金，而 Haley Stevens 在这方面没有相关资质”。
30岁的底特律市IT部门雇员艾米丽·洛佩兹表示，她关心以色列和加沙局势，但正是代表史蒂文斯的巨额资金集团的开支决定了她的投票。美国以色列公共事务委员会通过其超级政治行动委员会投入超过3000万美元反对赛义德，铺天盖地的广告让赛义德在电视广告投放上处于30比1的劣势。
洛佩兹称史蒂文斯“很虚伪”，“看起来像个潜伏的共和党人”。
“如果我收了别人的钱，我会觉得我需要给他们一些回报，”她补充道。
赛义德在辩论和网络上多次抨击AIPAC。就连密歇根州“未承诺”运动的联合创始人阿巴斯·阿拉维耶——该运动旨在抗议拜登政府对以色列的政策——也表示，他对这笔开支在选民中引起的广泛共鸣感到惊讶。
“我在进步政治领域工作了很长时间。我从未见过像今年这样，选民如此迫切地希望取缔政治献金，”阿拉维耶在迪尔伯恩的一所学校外告诉CNN，他刚刚在该选区的州参议院初选中胜出。“人们对我们的政治制度感到愤怒。挨家挨户敲门七个月后，我满脑子想的都是每个选民向我倾诉的痛苦，以及他们一遍又一遍地敦促我说，‘答应我们你不会忘记我们’。他们觉得我们的全国性政党已经把他们抛在了脑后。”
拉瑟普村市长凯利·加勒特出席了在麦迪逊高地一家水管工工会大楼举行的史蒂文斯竞选集会。她表示自己是坚定的民主党人，但支持赛义德对她来说“难以下咽”。
“这会很艰难，”加勒特说道，“这会是一颗难以下咽的苦药，但我会这么做。因为我太想让我们赢了。”
周日在水管工工会大厅等待为史蒂文斯欢呼的拉比阿什·洛帕廷表示，虽然他在许多问题上都是自豪的民主党人，但赛义德对以色列的关注以及将密歇根的诸多问题归咎于对该国的资金支持，对他来说可能是一道无法逾越的坎。
“我非常考虑投票给迈克·罗杰斯。我想重新审视我对阿卜杜勒·赛义德的看法，”洛帕廷说道，“因为在很大程度上，我对我所看到的一切感到非常不安，但我会重新审视一切，也会重新审视迈克·罗杰斯是个什么样的人。如果他完全听从特朗普的指挥，我会感到害怕。”
众议员希拉里·斯科尔滕是史蒂文斯的支持者，曾在史蒂文斯的选举之夜派对上发言。她经常批评赛义德，并将他与皮克尔的一些有争议言论联系起来，包括这位网红称美国“理应”遭受2001年9月11日恐怖袭击的言论。斯科尔滕在周二之前拒绝透露，如果赛义德获胜，她是否会背书他。她在结果公布后发布了一份声明，并未提及赛义德。
赛义德的支持者可能会对这种不愿寻求团结的做法感到愤怒。但在周二投票前，一些人暗示，如果史蒂文斯获胜，他们也会做出同样的反应。
梅拉特·基罗斯是一名民主社会主义者，她在科罗拉多州击败了一名现任众议院民主党议员，目前正在全国巡回为志同道合的候选人助选，期间曾与赛义德一同开展竞选活动。她说，她期待着回到密歇根帮助赛义德参加大选，因为“我们必须坚定、坚强地对抗法西斯主义”。
当被问及她是否会同样为史蒂文斯助选时，她说道：“你知道，我可能会在远处支持她，大概吧——实际上，你知道吗？不，我不会。”
随着民调中对以色列的支持率暴跌，赛义德提出的犹太国家与进步主义不相容的论点，帮助他获得了基础选民的支持。
“这是很久以来我第一次听到我认识的人和我即将面临的问题的解决方案，”贾里特·马基说道，他26岁，穿着红翼队的球衣，在福特公司做车辆试驾员。他特意从特洛伊开车赶来，成为周一晚上与皮克尔和其他网红一同出席的活动中为数不多的实际选民之一。
马基表示，医疗保健和食品杂货的成本是他关心的问题，但拜登未能兑现2020年竞选时承诺的进步主义承诺，也让他感到失望。当被问及哪些方面不够进步时，马基说道：“在很多以色列-加沙问题上的同谋行为。”
如果史蒂文斯获胜，马基表示，他将无法支持她。
特朗普急于加剧这些分歧。
周三，总统在谈到赛义德时说道：“他憎恨犹太人，憎恨以色列。”“他从心底里憎恨他们，那种仇恨在燃烧，而他对此毫无办法。”
而史蒂文斯本人则在周三上午的一份声明中立即向赛义德表示了支持。
“这是一场彻底而严谨的竞选，展现了民主党内部的全部观点——这也是我们举行初选的原因，”她说道，“我为自己曾投身服务而自豪，也为继续携手合作、确保这个参议院席位保持蓝色、我们拿下美国参议院、继续为密歇根州工作而更加自豪。”
多位熟悉赛义德的人士告诉CNN，他有时会恐慌地查看每周针对自己的支出数据，但他会将这种情绪转化为针对以色列和AIPAC的强硬立场。AIPAC已经誓言将继续参与大选，称其成员“仍然决心确保选民在11月拒绝赛义德博士和他激进的反以色列议程”。
多名民主党领导人告诉CNN，他们希望赛义德在初选结束后，能更好地倾听那些在各种问题上反对他的人，尤其是像洛帕廷这样觉得自己的痛苦和关切被置之不理的人。
“成为一名好的领导者需要谦逊，善于倾听。而这正是让这个党重新团结起来的最重要的事情，”前州议员玛丽·马努吉安说道，她当天部分时间在伯明翰的一家户外咖啡馆参与初选日的工作。
周三，赛义德试图向美国犹太人保证他对他们的支持。
“我想让你们知道，我对你们安全的承诺，对犹太人民安全的承诺，和我对自己女儿们安全的承诺是一样的，”他周三上午对记者说道。
但当天上午在酒店外，他拒绝回答CNN关于与皮克尔一同亮相是否是个错误的问题。
“我认为人们真的很担心他，但你想想迈克·罗杰斯都和谁混在一起，对吧？”他提到了特朗普，“我认为我们重要的是要记住迈克·罗杰斯是什么样的人，以及我们面临的是什么样的对手。”
至少目前，大多数密歇根民主党人能达成一致的一件事是：如果他们能实现足够的团结，至少拿下议会的全部控制权，他们就会将未来的初选从8月改到春季，这样他们就能有更多时间恢复元气。
本文已更新补充更多细节。
CNN记者杰夫·泽莱尼对本文亦有贡献。
‘We have 13 weeks’: A ruptured Democratic Party now tries to unite behind Abdul El-Sayed
2026-08-05T20:30:53.849Z / CNN
Abdul El-Sayed’s plan as he left his last polling place stop on Tuesday afternoon was to take the stage at the Majestic Theater on Woodward Avenue as early as 10 p.m. to deliver a speech he knew had to be more about reaching out. But he was also counting on a big win to answer every question about his chances of winning in November and why other Democrats needed to fall in line behind him.
Instead, El-Sayed had to wait until Wednesday morning to claim a sliver of a victory, by 15,000 votes out of more than 1.5 million votes cast.
“In the words of Muhammad Ali, ‘We shook up the world,’” he told reporters.
But he left many key Democrats in the state unconvinced, now that his promises of transforming the electorate had fallen well short after a primary campaign that became vicious, visceral and deeply personal.
At stake is a Senate seat critical to their party’s chances of winning control of the upper chamber for President Donald Trump’s final two years.
While the microphones are on, political leaders talk confidently about how they know the party can come together behind El-Sayed against Mike Rogers, the former Republican congressman who came close to winning Michigan’s other Senate seat in 2024. Then they often ask to go off the record to say how terrified they are that the wounds are too deep and festering to heal.
El-Sayed achieved a landmark for the Democratic Party’s socialist-aligned wing, which now adds a swing-state victory to its recent run in deep-blue districts, and for his focus on enacting Medicare for All and going after big money in politics. But his detractors saw what his fans loved — his denunciations of the tens of millions spent against him by big-money groups, his calling Stevens an AIPAC puppet unable to form two sentences on her own — as signs of cockiness and hate.
This is part of what leading Democrats had hoped to avoid, with two telling CNN they reached out to El-Sayed repeatedly to ask him not to focus as much on Israel and to lower the temperature.
Stevens called El-Sayed to congratulate him on Wednesday morning not long before he held a victory press conference at the historic Spirit of Detroit monument downtown. Their former challenger Mallory McMorrow was on hand, long planning to join whoever won the race, but Stevens was not invited, which some supporters said they viewed as an early slight because she quickly conceded the race “and did things right.”
“Part of what I’m going to be doing every day from here on out is listening to everybody and figuring out how we bring this party back together,” said McMorrow, who endorsed El-Sayed immediately Wednesday.
“I recognize it may take a few weeks,” McMorrow said hopefully before polls closed Tuesday. “But we’ve got 13 weeks between now and November.”
A unity rally is scheduled for Friday morning in Detroit, headlined by Pete Buttigieg, the Michigan transplant who declined to run for Senate himself ahead of a possible 2028 presidential bid. Already, 45 organizers paid for by the state party have been working across Michigan, Michigan Democratic state chair Curtis Hertel said, with that number scheduled to double by November. Outside money is already set, like the $20 million that the Senate Majority PAC allocated for Michigan no matter who won the primary.
“We’ve done town halls in every Republican district in the state, and we see people who are angry because they feel like they were promised something — that they would be first — and they absolutely have not been. And they cut taxes for billionaires while they cut healthcare for the people here,” Hertel said. “So for Democrats, while I understand that there’s rawness after a primary, I believe that they know and they will know what’s actually at stake for the country about what happens in Michigan. And if none of that’s enough, then how about a Trump supermajority in the Supreme Court?”
The final hours: Streamers and confidence
With just over 48 hours to go until polls closed, streamer Jack Cocchiarella asked El-Sayed how many he owns of the black V-neck T-shirts that have become his deliberately bicep-baring campaign trail uniform.
Twelve, El-Sayed answered, but “I need one more that just says, ‘Most dangerous candidate for the US-Israel relationship.’ I’ll wear it every day.”
El-Sayed dialed into the fundraiser from the passenger seat on his way to a pool party with influencers, where he posed for shots looking over the rims of his sunglasses and gave a handshake-hug to leftist influencer Hasan Piker.
On Monday evening, he arrived with Piker, who was wearing a blue Metro Detroit Democratic Socialists of America cap, to an event at a church converted to a bar. Inside, he gave a practice run of his presumed victory speech, putting himself in what he said was a tradition of correcting the United States’ wrongs that felt appropriate for the country’s 250th birthday year. Outside, mostly out-of-state streamers — including two separate cat-focused podcast hosts — interviewed mostly out-of-state volunteers, all drawn in by El-Sayed.
For El-Sayed, who’s been talking about getting money out of politics since he ran for governor here in 2018, the moment met the message as channeled his frustration of being so wildly outspent by AIPAC into turning them into a catch-all for all outside spending.
Asked after he voted at the Louis Pasteur school in Detroit on Tuesday, Nathan Bruno, a 34-year-old automotive sales manager, said he picked El-Sayed “mainly because of getting money out of politics, and Haley Stevens didn’t have the credentials on that.”
Emily Lopez, a 30-year-old Detroit city employee who works in IT, said she cared about Israel and Gaza, but it was what the spending from big-money groups on Stevens’ behalf that decided her vote. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent more than $30 million through its super PAC against El-Sayed, part of an ad barrage that put him at a 30-to-1 disadvantage on the airwaves.
Stevens is “fake” and “seems like an undercover Republican,” Lopez said.
“If I took money from somebody, I’d feel like I’d need to give them something back,” she added.
El-Sayed repeatedly tore into AIPAC at debates and online. Even Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the Uncommitted movement in Michigan started to protest Joe Biden’s actions on Israel, said he’d been surprised at how widely the spending has resonated.
“I’ve been working in progressive politics for a very long time. I’ve never seen the issue of wanting to get big money out of politics so top of mind for voters as I’ve seen it this year,” Alawieh told CNN outside a school in Dearborn, where he’d just voted for himself in a winning primary race for a state Senate seat. “People are furious about our politics. After seven months of knocking doors, all I can think about is all of the pain that was expressed to me at every door and all of the urging from one voter after another saying, ‘Promise you won’t forget about us.’ They feel like our national parties have forgotten about them.”
Kelly Garrett, the mayor of Lathrup Village who attended a Stevens rally at a plumbers union building in Madison Heights, said she’s a committed Democrat, but grimaced at the prospect of backing El-Sayed.
“It’s going to be tough,” Garrett said. “It’s going be a tough pill to swallow, but I’m going to do it. Because that’s how much I want us to win.”
And waiting to cheer for Stevens at the plumbers’ union hall on Sunday, Rabbi Asher Lopatin said that while he is a proud Democrat on many issues, El-Sayed’s focus on Israel and blaming funding to the country for many of Michigan’s problems could be insurmountable for him.
“I’m heavily considering voting for Mike Rogers. I want to re-examine my understanding on Abdul El-Sayed,” Lopatin said. “Because to a great extent, I’ve been very disturbed by what I’ve seen, but I will reexamine things and also reexamining what Mike Rogers is all about. I would be scared if he’s all totally whatever Trump says.”
Rep. Hillary Scholten, a Stevens backer who was on stage at her election-night party, frequently criticized El-Sayed and linked him to several of Piker’s controversial statements, including the streamer’s comment that the US “deserved” the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Scholten declined to say before Tuesday whether she would endorse El-Sayed if he won. She posted a statement about the results that didn’t mention him.
El-Sayed supporters may rage about that reluctance to seek unity now. But going into Tuesday night, some were signaling that’s exactly how they would have reacted had Stevens won.
Melat Kiros, the democratic socialist who beat an incumbent House Democrat in Colorado, campaigned with El-Sayed as she travels the country to boost like-minded candidates. She said was looking forward to being back in state to help him in the general election since “we have to be standing tall and strong against fascism.”
Asked if she’d do the same for Stevens, she said, “You know, I might support from afar, probably — actually, you know what? No, I wouldn’t.”
As support for Israel has plummeted in polling, El-Sayed’s argument that the Jewish state is incompatible with progressivism helped him with his base.
“It’s just like the first time in a while I’ve heard answers to problems that people I know have dealt with and that I will be dealing with soon,” Jarrett Maki, a 26-year-old in a Red Wings shirt who test-drives vehicles from Ford. He’d driven in from Troy in on short notice to be one of the few actual voters at Monday night’s event with Piker and other influencers.
The cost of healthcare and groceries was on his mind, Maki said, but so was being disappointed in Biden for not being as progressive as he believed the former president had promised to be while running in 2020. Asked to identify what wasn’t progressive enough, Maki said, “being complicit in a lot of the Israel-Gaza stuff.”
Had Stevens won, Maki said, he wouldn’t have been able to support her.
Trump is eager to exacerbate those divisions.
“He hates Jews and he hates Israel,” the president said of El-Sayed on Wednesday. “He hates them with a passion that burns in his heart, and there’s not a fricking thing he can do about it.”
For her part, Stevens immediately offered El-Sayed her support in a statement on Wednesday morning.
“This was a thorough and rigorous campaign that brought out the full span of views within the Democratic Party – and that is why we have primaries,” she said. “I am proud to have put up my hand to serve, and prouder to continue to work together to make sure this Senate seat remains blue, that we flip the United States Senate and continue the work for Michigan.”
People close to El-Sayed told CNN he sometimes would look at the readouts of the weekly spending against him in panic, though he channeled that into digging in on Israel and AIPAC specifically. AIPAC has already vowed to stay involved in the general election, saying its members “remain determined to ensure that voters reject Dr. El-Sayed and his radical anti-Israel agenda in November.”
Multiple Democratic leaders told CNN they hope El-Sayed comes out of the primary doing better listening to those who are opposed to him on a variety of issues, but especially to people like Lopatin who feel like their own pain and concerns have been brushed aside.
“Being a good leader requires being humble and having humility and being a great listener. And that’s what’s going to be the most important thing that someone can do to bring this party back together,” said Mari Manoogian, a former state representative, as she spent part of primary day working at an outdoor café in Birmingham.
On Wednesday, El-Sayed sought to reassure Jewish Americans of his support for them.
“I want you to know that my commitment to your safety, my commitment to Jewish safety, is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters,” he said, addressing reporters Wednesday morning.
But outside of his hotel that morning, he rejected a CNN question about whether appearing with Piker was a mistake.
“I think people get real worried about him, but you think about who Mike Rogers has been palling around with, right?” he said, referencing Trump. “I think it’s important for us to just remember what Mike Rogers is and what we’re up against.”
The one thing most Michigan Democrats can agree on, at least for now: if they can pull off enough unity to at least win back full control of the legislature, they’re moving future primaries from August to the spring, so they can have more time to recover.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.