Democratic Party

Abdul El-Sayed's COVID Radicalism Is a Callback to a More United Party

The pandemic provided a glue that held the Democratic Party together. Without it, they don't know what they believe.

Christian Britschgi | 8.5.2026 1:05 PM

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(Illustration: Andrew Roth/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom/Midjourney)

Most of the votes are in, and it looks like former public health official Abdul El-Sayed is going to win the Michigan Democratic Party's much-watched Senate primary. 

Coverage of the race has treated it as the latest battle in Democrats' civil war; the progressive (but not officially socialist) El-Sayed was going up against the more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens (D–Mich.). El-Sayed's likely victory would seem to confirm that Democrats' left flank is ascendent in this intra-party struggle. 

The well-covered fissures between El-Sayed and Stevens include their stances on Israel (El-Sayed calls Israel's war in Gaza a genocide, Stevens wants military aid to the country to continue) and healthcare (the former wants Medicare for All, the latter merely supports a public option). 

Interestingly, one criticism that Stevens did not levy against El-Sayed was his extreme progressivism during COVID. 

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