Abdul El-Sayed has won the Michigan primary!
Abdul El-Sayed has won the Democratic nomination in the US Senate seat in Michigan, beating Haley Stevens in a bitter competition that became a referendum on the changing face of the Democratic party.
El-Sayed won the race by a single point, fewer than 15,000 votes, according to the Associated Press. He will now face Republican nominee Mike Rogers – who ran unopposed – for a key battleground seat that is vital for Democrats to retain in order to achieve their lofty goal of reclaiming the majority in the upper chamber of Congress.
It was close, but I’m glad that Stevens is out (she was a weird shrill Zionist), and seeing a progressive candidate emerge in the Democratic party suggests that maybe the party will eventually shift.
Also, the late Ed Brayton, co-founder of Freethoughtblogs and Michigander, would no doubt be pleased by this outcome.
Good.
Altho’ the hard and iffiest part seems yet to come IF you guiys actually get mid-terms that are actually democratic which I’m doubting.
IF you do FFS BVOTE BLUE no matter who! It matters.
PBS Newshour has live vote tracking in allthe primaries BTW Including Michigan here :
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/live-results-michigan-midterm-primaries
Plus Washington state : https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/live-results-washington-state-midterm-primaries
As well as the others incl : https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/live-results-virginia-midterm-primaries
I presume there’s plenty of other coverage and sources for these over in the USoA but haven’t heard much (anything really) about it here in Oz FWIW.
PS. I really miss Ed Brayton and his Dispatches from the Culture Warsblog still.
Do often wonder what he’d make of things. Maybe he’s lucky he didn’t live to see it. Maybe he would’ve made a difference had he been alive now.
Access to alternative timelines aside and uncertain even then; we’ll never know. Sigh.
Now the real test for the Democratic Party leadership. Do they rally behind their candidate and actually provide funding and support commensurate with the goal of retaking the Senate? or Do they squash the upstart socialist as their bosses (corporate and wealthy classes) demand?
I hope it is the former, but history (e.g. Mamdani) says that it will be the latter.
Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar loses his primary to a progressive challenger in Michigan
Rep. Shri Thanedar has lost his Democratic primary in Michigan to state Rep. Donavan McKinney, NBC News projects, in a victory for the party’s progressive wing.
…
McKinney, a 34-year-old state lawmaker and democratic socialist, is running on a progressive platform including “Medicare for All” and putting new restrictions on military aid to Israel, while pushing massive investments in sectors such as clean energy and housing.
Thanedar narrowly won the seat in 2022 after self-funding his campaign, but he has faced his share of scrutiny since. Thanedar initially ran as a progressive but broke with the Democratic Socialists of America in 2023 — he says he quit, the local chapter says he was expelled — and has rebranded more around supporting Israel.
He received criticism from Democrats for a push to impeach Trump that was not sanctioned by party leadership, though he recently received an endorsement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other top House Democrats anyway.
Thanedar’s campaign fundraising and spending have also attracted attention. His campaign has reported losing more than $2 million this year related to its cryptocurrency investments, a relatively uncommon use of campaign money. And Thanedar spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to run television ads from his office that look similar to campaign ads…
Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle:
Candidate who dropped out beats Trump’s pick in a battleground GOP House primary
@ ^ Reginald Selkirk : “Trump had backed military veteran Amir Hassan..”
But but but.. Muuuuuu-slim name!!!1ty! (1 min 30 secs) Actually it does suprrise me that Trump and cult could look past that..
Always a good look referring to a woman as “shrill.”
@3. whywhywhy : “…history (e.g. Mamdani) says that it will be the latter.”
Huh. I’d have classified mamdani as the present rather than history myself.
I guess technically history starts a second ago but stil. Mamdani is certainly still here and relevant today. Pehaps more so than ever.
I think I get your gist but still phrasing! (1 min 22 secs)
I’m not a fan of C.Hedges and am suspicious of the name prager.
But, this is another important win for decent, caring, progressive politicians:
‘Organized People Can Beat Organized Money’: Lawrence Wins House Primary After Harnessing Opposition to Data Centers
https://scheerpost.com/2026/08/05/organized-people-can-beat-organized-money-lawrence-wins-house-primary-after-harnessing-opposition-to-data-centers/
In my district, progressive William Lawrence won the Democratic primary as well.
Well, maybe to some the term ‘shrill’ could have sounded a little misogynistic. Let’s use a more neutral word: HARSH. And in conjunction with that, there’s this:
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Michigan) posted a bizarre and racist rant against opponent Abdul El-Sayed over his criticisms of AIPAC — even as Stevens’s campaign has already faced pushback for embracing bigoted attacks.
https://truthout.org/articles/stevens-posts-bizarre-racist-rant-against-el-sayed-as-he-surges-ahead-in-polls/
And, it’s Doctor El-Sayed, an epidemiologist, I believe.
Good job, Abdul! Israel may visit Haley Stevens in her dreams, but Abdul gives his victory speech in her darkest nightmares.
@1 StevoR
For U.S. House/Senate candidates, check their foreign policy first. If they are Israel-First [Track AIPAC], don’t vote for them. If all candidates are Israel-First, leave that part of the ballot blank.
This election was rigged, the President said so himself.
Goddamnit I miss Ed Brayton
beholder right on cue:
OK in primary elections; but in the general election, this is a strategy for keeping the far right in power.
But getting back to progressive wins generally and El-Sayed in particular, Robert Reich suggests that what’s really going on is blowback against big money.
[OT]
Captaintripps:
So you either think women cannot be shrill, or that if they are it should not be said about them.
(Interesting; social taboos take many forms, no?)
I would not be surprised if the monomaniacal pro-Israel (Israel-first?) “centrists” start flocking toward the GOP now or at least loudly whine more about how they didn’t leave the Democrats but the Democrats left them. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out Bill Maher with your Mini-me lap poodle Jerry Coyne.
Toxic one issue obsessive fuckers. Like why aren’t we in a meat-grinder ground war with Iran yet? Is Trump too fickle for that? Can’t do Israel’s dirty work for them?
I hope last night is an indicator of a near future where Israel is forced to scrape by on their own, making the desert bloom and all that. Leave our soldiers out of it. If you want war with Iran, move to Israel and join the IDF, even if you did ironically object to Vietnam.
beholder @12
Sorry, but there are other issues besides a stance on Israel to consider when casting a vote. It’s important sure, like if they take money from AIPAC, but if it’s a mildly Zionist Dem vs a MAGAt I’m voting for the former. And certain America First right wingers are more likely to be anti-Israel because reasons. A stance on Israel weighs into the mix, especially in the primaries, but the choice between D and R, given what the latter represents with Trump, is a no-brainer.
I had no qualms voting for Biden or Harris, regardless of their views on Israel because I am, unlike you, capable of seeing a broader perspective. Were you responsible for Kamala losing? No. Full stop!
Ok…I can say it for you guys……(she was a weird shrill Zionist).
And one more thing…Zionist single issue bloggers who obsessed every day over Gaza will lament how people allegedly know nothing about the Disengagement. Seriously?
Lies of omission that elide the perceived Palestinian (sorry “Pal”…I read your toxic commentariat) demographic bomb and Sharon’s corruption charges. Then dude had an unfortunate stroke after quitting Likud and distancing from his scumbag enemy Netanyahoo. Oh and I am fully aware of Sabra and Shatilla. Arik was having a multifaceted moment before his demise. So bring that stuff to the fore you propaganda spewing Zionist blogger who will be tempted to link PZ’s post as an example of people to despise, because that’s what you do while disappearing posters who call you out in the comments because your precious living room rulz. Get over yourself wanker!
@12. Trump helping troll : IOW, you keep wanting to support Trump and make the world vastly worse.
However, bad any Democratic candidate may be they are better than the Trump regime as history and current reality proves.
My daughter knows people here (Australia) who loudly proclaim that they will vote for the One Nation party at the next election.
And guess what? They only have one policy in mind – a promised reduction to the tobacco excise. They don’t give a shit about one Nation’s policies on healthcare, housing, education, foreign policy, defence, or immigration, nor civil rights, policing, national security agency oversight to name just a few – nothing else matters to them. Not the xenophobia and overt racism, nor the mega-donor One Nation is milking for funds (the billionaire trump supporting Gina Rinehart no less).
Single-issue voters don’t fucking deserve the right to do so.
In the last US presidential election, Harris WAS the only truly viable conservative candidate on the ballot – conservative in that she wasn’t promising or even threatening to burn it all down. But apparently for some single issue voters she had a radical laugh, had darker skin, had a vagina, or was somehow perceived as being softer on Israel than trump who was in fact encouraging naziyahoo to finish Gaza off and deport the surviving Palestinians so he could turn it into a resort, FFS. Dumb and arse are always combined in a single-issue voter!
Good luck to the progressive candidates over there in the US. But given the political system in the US is in effect the private property of the rich, I don’t like their chances of enacting meaningful change if they do win power. It will be hard fought.
You think trump floods the zone with shit? Wait until you see the volume of shit the tech-bro billionaires unleash if their future virtual selves are threatened by the ‘radical socialists’.
Nick, good comment, other than a couple of polemical aspects:
That is the very point of democracy! People make a choice.
We’re not seeing it right now. then. Have to wait for it.
Got it.
(Amusing you write that given the OP, which is Trumpless)
John, you are absolutely correct that choosing is the point of voting, and I am not and will never be advocating stripping anyone of their voting rights. So, let me set aside the hyperbole to better convey my sentiment;
Single-issue voters to not give their vote the respect their right to do so deserves.
Fair enough, Nick. Point taken.
But then, at least they bother to turn up and have a vote.
For the USA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_United_States_presidential_elections
@18. Hemidactylus : The Trump helping troll Beholder did spend years doing their utmost to help Trump by attacking the only actual other alternative and several times let slip their Trumpist nature with claism such as their recent one that the Repugs believe in Democracy mor ethan the Democratic party does and also previous statements about Biden beingmentally worse than Trump, Red states beeing better educationally and Kamal and Trump pretty pretty much equally irredeemaly evil in the Trumpist trolls words.
Basic electoral reality. :
Voting Repug = Helps Trump and Fascism
Voting Repug via thrid party spoiler = Helps Trump and Fascism
Not Voting = Helps Trump and Fascism
Voting Democratic = hurts Trump and fights fascism.
Only voting democratic can actually work to oppsoe Trump and the fascists becoz of the USoA’s shitty two party system.
I’m stuck trying to work out if my vote ought go to Brian Bengs — 😓 in some nonspecific way reading his website feels like red flags waving.
If they are Israel-First [Track AIPAC], don’t vote for them. If all candidates are Israel-First, leave that part of the ballot blank.
What a stupid, self-destructive idea. If two candidates running for a particular office are more or less in agreement on Israel, then for all practical purposes, Israel is not an issue in that particular campaign; and voters have to decide based on other relevant issues on which the candidates do differ. And let’s be clear on this: a pro-Israel Democrat who wants to keep America free and democratic is still FAR better than a pro-Israel Trump-supporter who wants to destroy everything that’s even half-decent about America.
Israel is an important issue for US voters; but there are plenty of other important issues we have to deal with.
Such hypothetical constructions do not exist (Hemidactylus practically told themselves that in @17 and @20).
Israel remains the greatest national security threat to the United States. A Zionist Democrat will not acknowledge that. Rather the opposite, they want to subvert our free speech laws to privilege Israel and to kill Americans abroad in wars of Israel’s choosing.
If they’re voting on anything involving military or financial aid to Israel, Israel is an issue in their campaign. Especially if they mutually agree that they don’t want it to be one.
@26 StevoR
You keep claiming that but you can never find a quote where I said that. Quit lying, Stevo.
@ ^ Lying Bad Faith Trumpist Troll “beholder” : Actually I bookmarked that quote of yours a long time ago – & here it is again :
Source : https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-1/#comment-2289010
#397 on an old Infinite thread.
Which is also another lie because Kamala Harris did no such thing. She did NOT support a genocide and has called Palestinian suffered “heart-breaking.”
The Trumpy troll Beholder owes her as well as us an apology. Many of them actually.
Interesting to note they use the utterly unjustifiable term “killer” against Kamala who is definitely NOT a killer whilst using the milder “mobster” term for “Genocides plural and worse” Don Trump.
Clearly the Trumpist troll “beholder’s” assessment which they squirmed and wriggled and fought against actually given a direct answer to when asked who was better -Kamala or Trump – is absurdly, obscenely wrong since Kamala Harris is obviously as I pointed out there NOT remotely in the same category as Trump. In fact, there’s a very good case for them being at opposite ends of the ethical spectrum with Kamala being good and Trump obviously evil.
Since you now deny your own words it seems you really know that too, lying Trumpist troll “beholder.”
Oh and how has your campaigning for Trump – Netanyahu’s preferred choice of POTUS – helped the people of Gaza and Palestinians generally?
IF you actually gave a shit about Gaza and opposed Israel then that was – and remains – all the more reason to VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO – because the Democratic party is much better there and is the party of Rashida Tlaib and attempting to get a proper two state solution as opposed to the Repug’s which are the party of Randy “not so” Fine and the Trump Gaza plan which is now because of you & your like now happening. You, Trumpy troll “beholder”, fought to make the genocide far worse and to get the Iran war too which I predicted and warned people of at the time.
Oh and the lying Trumpist troll beholder here also supports Trump’s puppet-master Putin who is a genocidaire currently attempting to commit genocide upon Ukraine as well.
Randy “not so” Fine is discussed here – 10 mins long – for those who have forgotten. He is one of many Repugs who are slaveringly, almost comically but seriously genocidal against the Palestinians. Worth again stressing that the Repugs and reichwing felt Biden as well as Kamala were far too pro-Palestinian and were attacking them politically as that with Trump actually using the word “Palestinian “as a slur against Biden.
By contrast, we have Kamala Harris saying Palestinian suffering is “outrageous and heart-breaking” here.
As well as her stating she would NOT have gone to war against Iran as Netanyahu wished nor would any POTUS other than Trump been stupid enough to do here.
@30 StevoR
That sounds like something I said! Good job. Let’s try that again:
Notice how I didn’t smuggle the qualifier “equally” in there, no matter how often and how furiously you claim otherwise. Adding that one word twists it into an entirely different statement. I claim no equivalence, I only said that they both passed a threshold I find irredeemable. Update the notes you keep copy/pasting from, it’s embarrassing for you to keep losing this argument every time you bring it up. Lazy paraphrasing is so much easier when you don’t claim it’s my own words!
It was a nail biter for sure. Glad he won! I’m also glad to see Thanedar out. Didn’t care for him when I lived in his district ( I voted for the other guy who lost).
[meta]
Very weak. Yes, it’s trivial, because like being dead, there are no degrees.
What I do notice is you literally wrote “I regard them both as irredeemably evil”.
You quoted yourself!
Point is that there are no degrees of irredeemability any more than degrees of death.
Is or is not.
(A bit like ‘very unique’, which is is a peeve of mine)