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Abdul El-Sayed’s Win Is a Landmark. But the Fight Is Far From Over.

Even though the Palestine movement is on the march, we can’t afford any complacency.

Abdul El-Sayed speaks at an election night watch party in Detroit, Mich., on Aug. 4, 2026.

Abdul El-Sayed’s Democratic primary win in Michigan is a watershed moment for the Palestine movement in the United States. El-Sayed ran on a platform that consistently centered Palestinian humanity and an end to US military funding to Israel—principled positions that his opponents viciously attacked him for. He faced over $60 million in outside spending for his chief rival, Haley Stevens—including around $30 million from AIPAC alone—and he triumphed.

Polling had predicted that El-Sayed would sweep the race by a wide margin; in the end, he won by under a percentage point. This is a reminder that challenging the status quo is an uphill battle, particularly when the stakes are as high as they are in the Michigan Senate race, and that the unprecedented levels of money our opponents are pouring into these campaigns are a serious threat. So we cannot let up. 

We have to keep organizing and turning out our communities to vote in November. Luckily, our movement has shown that we know how to do that. This year, USCPR Action, the political arm of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, where I am the political director, endorsed our first slate of 16 federal and local candidates, each of whom committed to reject AIPAC and end US military funding to Israel. As of this writing, 14 of those candidates have gone through their primary elections—and 11 of them have won. From New York to Pennsylvania to Texas to Michigan, pro-Palestine candidates like Chris Rabb, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Dr. Adam Hamawy have broken new ground for our movement.

If you had told me that this is what the 2026 midterm cycle would look like in October 2023, I wouldn’t have believed you. If you had told me an Egyptian Muslim Michigander running on a pro-Palestine platform would be the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, I’d be in even more disbelief. 

None of these wins would be possible without the relentless grassroots activism for Palestinian liberation over the past few years—and that work hasn’t been easy, to say the least. After October 7, 2023, Congress, which was already in AIPAC’s chokehold, became even more vehemently supportive of Israel and its genocide against the Palestinian people. In the immediate aftermath, senior Democrats like Chuck Schumer, Jacky Rosen, and Mark Kelly visited Israel. President Joe Biden refused to condemn any of Israel’s heinous massacres of Palestinians in Gaza, and instead gave Israeli Prime........

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