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Abdul El-Sayed Knows Just How to Beat Billionaire-Funded Republicans

His ability to hit hard against powerful moneyed interests makes him electable.

Abdul El-Sayed speaks at The People v. the Powerful rally at the Detroit Opera House on July 18, 2026, in Detroit, Michigan.

When Michigan Democratic US Senate candidates Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed faced each other in their debate this week, the talk was as much about the broad topic of money in politics as it was about the particular issues that separate Stevens, a corporate-aligned centrist, and El-Sayed, an economic populist with a sweeping progressive agenda.

That wasn’t surprising. The money fight frames an electability debate between Stevens, who is relying heavily on support from special-interest groups and wealthy donors, and El-Sayed, whose campaign has placed a heavy emphasis on grassroots fundraising from small donors. Democratic primary voters will decide which of these paths they want to follow when they go to the polls on Tuesday; surveys show El-Sayed with a significant lead over Stevens.

El-Sayed and his backers charge that Stevens has effectively sold out to the monied elites. And they’re blunt about it. In this week’s debate, El-Sayed argued that Stevens had been “bought off” by free-spending special interests, who know she would be “a reliable vote” for their agendas.

Stevens backers counter by charging that El-Sayed’s leftist views will scare off swing voters—and, presumably, big donors—who disagree with the populist’s stark criticisms of corporate monopolies, a healthcare system that’s effectively owned by the insurance companies and Big Pharma, and of the Pentagon, defense contractors, and Israel’s assault on Gaza.

But El-Sayed isn’t blinking. He’s leaning into the money issue in a way that has relevance not just for the primary but for the general election fight against heavily funded Republican Mike Rogers. El-Sayed has been mounting a “Michigan Is Not For Sale” campaign, in which he says, “Maybe ‘electable candidates’ are the ones who don’t need $60 million from corporations and special interests to run and win campaigns. Maybe electable candidates aren’t the ones who have to carpet bomb the airwaves with 30-second glossy ads lying about themselves and about their opponents.”

El-Sayed hit the same theme in the standout moment of this week’s debate. “When you ask $60 million to come into a race for you, and then say that somehow you’re ‘electable,’ I think you don’t quite understand what electability means. If you need a $60 million crutch, you probably can’t be elected on your own terms,” he said of Stevens. Then, addressing Democratic primary voters, he........

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