El-Sayed courts Obama after Michigan Senate primary upset

Abdul El-Sayed spoke with Barack Obama after defeating U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary and said he hoped the former president would campaign for him. The call came as El-Sayed tried to smooth over a bruising contest that split Democrats between his progressive base and Stevens’ establishment-backed camp.

El-Sayed’s win was narrow. The New York Times’ vote count showed him with 740,943 votes, or 48.48%, to Stevens’ 726,045, or 47.51%, with more than 95% of ballots counted. Early returns on election night had shown a wider edge, with The Detroit News putting El-Sayed at 55.4% and Stevens at 39% as ballots came in.

The race turned into one of the most expensive Democratic Senate primaries in U.S. history. Stevens reportedly raised about $60 million, including roughly $32 million from AIPAC, but still fell short in a contest that became a national marker of the party’s fight over ideology, Israel politics and the role of big donors. El-Sayed ran on Medicare for All and on criticism of corporate money in politics, themes that helped him consolidate the progressive wing while alarming moderates.

That tension made Obama’s outreach more than a courtesy call. El-Sayed said he “really enjoyed” the conversation and wanted Obama on the trail, a sign that he is still working to turn a hard-fought primary victory into broader Democratic support before the general election. He also downplayed “intra-family squabbles,” casting the primary as a cleansing fight rather than a lasting rupture.

Stevens moved quickly to shut the door on the division. After her defeat, she said she had spoken with El-Sayed and would support him against Republican Mike Rogers, the former congressman expected to face him in November. The Michigan seat is widely seen as pivotal to control of the U.S. Senate, which is why the party’s leaders and donors are treating the post-primary unity push as a necessity, not a nicety.

El-Sayed’s challenge now is bigger than winning a primary. He has to persuade skeptical Democrats that a candidate who beat an establishment favorite in a race defined by progressive energy can also hold together the suburban moderates, donors and other party blocs needed to survive a general election against Rogers.