El-Sayed trashed Stevens. Now he needs her voters.
Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination for Michigan Senate, but by much less than anticipated. After weeks of running an arrogant campaign that alienated Rep. Haley Stevens' voters, his campaign is now pivoting to unity.
The irony is that for years the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, including El-Sayed, has made it clear their vote cannot be counted on when moderates win.
Moderate Democrats are asked to unify behind candidates they dislike and don't get the same grace when they win. Democrats can only expect more of these heated primaries to further fracture their party.
El-Sayed was expected to win big in the weeks leading up to the primary, and he ran his campaign like it. Instead, he won by less than a percentage point. Rather than bring the other side into the fold, he treated Stevens and her supporters as if he didn't need their votes, or as if their concerns with his candidacy didn't matter.
"She votes to send our money abroad while Michiganders struggle," El-Sayed said of Stevens on X July 17. "She's bought by DTE (Energy), Blue Cross, Big Tech, and Big Pharma who pick our pockets."
Ironically, that rhetoric was part of a message meant to rein in........
