‘We have 13 weeks’: A ruptured Democratic Party now tries to unite behind Abdul El-Sayed

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Abdul El-Sayed’s plan as he left his last polling place stop on Tuesday afternoon was to take the stage at the Majestic Theater on Woodward Avenue as early as 10 p.m. to deliver a speech he knew had to be more about reaching out. But he was also counting on a big win to answer every question about his chances of winning in November and why other Democrats needed to fall in line behind him.

Instead, El-Sayed had to wait until Wednesday morning to claim a sliver of a victory, by 15,000 votes out of more than 1.5 million votes cast.

“In the words of Muhammad Ali, ‘We shook up the world,’” he told reporters.

But he left many key Democrats in the state unconvinced, now that his promises of transforming the electorate had fallen well short after a primary campaign that became vicious, visceral and deeply personal.

At stake is a Senate seat critical to their party’s chances of winning control of the upper chamber for President Donald Trump’s final two years.

While the microphones are on, political leaders talk confidently about how they know the party can come together behind El-Sayed against Mike Rogers, the former Republican congressman who came close to winning Michigan’s other Senate seat in 2024. Then they often ask to go off the record to say how terrified they are that the wounds are too deep and festering to heal.

El-Sayed achieved a landmark for the Democratic Party’s socialist-aligned wing, which now adds a swing-state victory to its recent run in deep-blue districts, and for his focus on enacting Medicare for All and going after big money in politics. But his detractors saw what his fans loved — his denunciations of the tens of millions spent against him by big-money groups, his calling Stevens an AIPAC puppet unable to form two sentences on her own — as signs of cockiness and hate.

This is part of what leading Democrats had hoped to avoid, with two telling CNN they reached out to El-Sayed repeatedly to ask him not to focus as much on Israel and to lower the temperature.

Pressed Wednesday evening by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on some of his remarks about Stevens during the race, El-Sayed acknowledged, “In the heat of a primary, you’re going to say some things you later on would rather have not said,” but said he and the congresswoman were coming together now to defeat Rogers.

Stevens called El-Sayed to congratulate him on Wednesday morning not long before he held a victory press conference at the historic Spirit of Detroit monument downtown. Their former challenger Mallory McMorrow was on hand, long planning to join whoever won the race, but Stevens was not invited, which some supporters said they viewed as an early slight because she quickly conceded the race “and did things right.”

“Part of what I’m going to be doing every day from here on out is listening to everybody and figuring out how we bring this party back together,” said McMorrow, who endorsed El-Sayed immediately Wednesday.

“I recognize it may take a few weeks,” McMorrow said hopefully before polls closed Tuesday. “But we’ve got 13 weeks between now and November.”

A unity rally is scheduled for Friday morning in Detroit, headlined by Pete Buttigieg, the Michigan transplant who declined to run for Senate himself ahead of a possible 2028 presidential bid. Already, 45 organizers paid for by the state party have been working across Michigan, Michigan Democratic state chair Curtis Hertel said, with that number scheduled to double by November. Outside money is already set, like the $20 million that the Senate Majority PAC allocated for Michigan no matter who won the primary.

“We’ve done town halls in every Republican district in the state, and we see people who are angry because they feel like they were promised something — that they would be first — and they absolutely have not been. And they cut taxes for billionaires while they cut healthcare for the people here,” Hertel said. “So for Democrats, while I understand that there’s rawness after a primary, I believe that they know and they will know what’s actually at stake for the country about what happens in Michigan. And if none of that’s enough, then how about a Trump supermajority in the Supreme Court?”

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

With just over 48 hours to go until polls closed, streamer Jack Cocchiarella asked El-Sayed how many he owns of the black V-neck T-shirts that have become his deliberately bicep-baring campaign trail uniform.

Twelve, El-Sayed answered, but “I need one more that just says, ‘Most dangerous candidate for the US-Israel relationship.’ I’ll wear it every day.”

El-Sayed dialed into the fundraiser from the passenger seat on his way to a pool party with influencers, where he posed for shots looking over the rims of his sunglasses and gave a handshake-hug to leftist influencer Hasan Piker.

On Monday evening, he arrived with Piker, who was wearing a blue Metro Detroit Democratic Socialists of America cap, to an event at a church converted to a bar. Inside, he gave a practice run of his presumed victory speech, putting himself in what he said was a tradition of correcting the United States’ wrongs that felt appropriate for the country’s 250th birthday year. Outside, mostly out-of-state streamers — including two separate cat-focused podcast hosts — interviewed mostly out-of-state volunteers, all drawn in by El-Sayed.

For El-Sayed, who’s been talking about getting money out of politics since he ran for governor here in 2018, the moment met the message as channeled his frustration of being so wildly outspent by AIPAC into turning them into a catch-all for all outside spending.

Asked after he voted at the Louis Pasteur school in Detroit on Tuesday, Nathan Bruno, a 34-year-old automotive sales manager, said he picked El-Sayed “mainly because of getting money out of politics, and Haley Stevens didn’t have the credentials on that.”

Emily Lopez, a 30-year-old Detroit city employee who works in IT, said she cared about Israel and Gaza, but it was what the spending from big-money groups on Stevens’ behalf that decided her vote. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent more than $30 million through its super PAC against El-Sayed, part of an ad barrage that put him at a 30-to-1 disadvantage on the airwaves.

Stevens is “fake” and “seems like an undercover Republican,” Lopez said.

“If I took money from somebody, I’d feel like I’d need to give them something back,” she added.

El-Sayed repeatedly tore into AIPAC at debates and online. Even Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the Uncommitted movement in Michigan started to protest Joe Biden’s actions on Israel, said he’d been surprised at how widely the spending has resonated.

“I’ve been working in progressive politics for a very long time. I’ve never seen the issue of wanting to get big money out of politics so top of mind for voters as I’ve seen it this year,” Alawieh told CNN outside a school in Dearborn, where he’d just voted for himself in a winning primary race for a state Senate seat. “People are furious about our politics. After seven months of knocking doors, all I can think about is all the pain that was expressed to me at every door and all of the urging from one voter after another saying, ‘Promise you won’t forget about us.’ They feel like our national parties have forgotten about them.”

Kelly Garrett, the mayor of Lathrup Village who attended a Stevens rally at a plumbers union building in Madison Heights, said she’s a committed Democrat, but grimaced at the prospect of backing El-Sayed.

“It’s going to be tough,” Garrett said. “It’s going be a tough pill to swallow, but I’m going to do it. Because that’s how much I want us to win.”

And waiting to cheer for Stevens at the plumbers’ union hall on Sunday, Rabbi Asher Lopatin said that while he is a proud Democrat on many issues, El-Sayed’s focus on Israel and blaming funding to the country for many of Michigan’s problems could be insurmountable for him.

“I’m heavily considering voting for Mike Rogers. I want to re-examine my understanding on Abdul El-Sayed,” Lopatin said. “Because to a great extent, I’ve been very disturbed by what I’ve seen, but I will reexamine things and also reexamining what Mike Rogers is all about. I would be scared if he’s all totally whatever Trump says.”

Rep. Hillary Scholten, a Stevens backer who was on stage at her election-night party, frequently criticized El-Sayed and linked him to several of Piker’s controversial statements, including the streamer’s comment that the US “deserved” the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Scholten declined to say before Tuesday whether she would endorse El-Sayed if he won. She posted a statement about the results that didn’t mention him.

El-Sayed supporters may rage about that reluctance to seek unity now. But going into Tuesday night, some were signaling that’s exactly how they would have reacted had Stevens won.

Melat Kiros, the democratic socialist who beat an incumbent House Democrat in Colorado, campaigned with El-Sayed as she travels the country to boost like-minded candidates. She said was looking forward to being back in state to help him in the general election since “we have to be standing tall and strong against fascism.”

Asked if she’d do the same for Stevens, she said, “You know, I might support from afar, probably — actually, you know what? No, I wouldn’t.”

As support for Israel has plummeted in polling, El-Sayed’s argument that the Jewish state is incompatible with progressivism helped him with his base.

“It’s just like the first time in a while I’ve heard answers to problems that people I know have dealt with and that I will be dealing with soon,” Jarrett Maki, a 26-year-old in a Red Wings shirt who test-drives vehicles from Ford. He’d driven in from Troy in on short notice to be one of the few actual voters at Monday night’s event with Piker and other influencers.

The cost of healthcare and groceries was on his mind, Maki said, but so was being disappointed in Biden for not being as progressive as he believed the former president had promised to be while running in 2020. Asked to identify what wasn’t progressive enough, Maki said, “being complicit in a lot of the Israel-Gaza stuff.”

Had Stevens won, Maki said, he wouldn’t have been able to support her.

Trump is eager to exacerbate those divisions.

“He hates Jews and he hates Israel,” the president said of El-Sayed on Wednesday. “He hates them with a passion that burns in his heart, and there’s not a fricking thing he can do about it.”

For her part, Stevens immediately offered El-Sayed her support in a statement on Wednesday morning.

“This was a thorough and rigorous campaign that brought out the full span of views within the Democratic Party - and that is why we have primaries,” she said. “I am proud to have put up my hand to serve, and prouder to continue to work together to make sure this Senate seat remains blue, that we flip the United States Senate and continue the work for Michigan.”

People close to El-Sayed told CNN he sometimes would look at the readouts of the weekly spending against him in panic, though he channeled that into digging in on Israel and AIPAC specifically. AIPAC has already vowed to stay involved in the general election, saying its members “remain determined to ensure that voters reject Dr. El-Sayed and his radical anti-Israel agenda in November.”

Multiple Democratic leaders told CNN they hope El-Sayed comes out of the primary doing better listening to those who are opposed to him on a variety of issues, but especially to people like Lopatin who feel like their own pain and concerns have been brushed aside.

“Being a good leader requires being humble and having humility and being a great listener. And that’s what’s going to be the most important thing that someone can do to bring this party back together,” said Mari Manoogian, a former state representative, as she spent part of primary day working at an outdoor café in Birmingham.

On Wednesday, El-Sayed sought to reassure Jewish Americans of his support for them.

“I want you to know that my commitment to your safety, my commitment to Jewish safety, is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters,” he said, addressing reporters Wednesday morning.

But outside of his hotel that morning, he rejected a CNN question about whether appearing with Piker was a mistake.

“I think people get real worried about him, but you think about who Mike Rogers has been palling around with, right?” he said, referencing Trump. “I think it’s important for us to just remember what Mike Rogers is and what we’re up against.”

The one thing most Michigan Democrats can agree on, at least for now: if they can pull off enough unity to at least win back full control of the legislature, they’re moving future primaries from August to the spring, so they can have more time to recover.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.

Finn Gomez/Getty Images

阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德周二下午离开最后一个投票站时，计划晚上10点就登上伍德沃德大道上的雄伟剧院的舞台，发表一场他深知必须以拉拢选民为重点的演讲。但他同时也指望着一场大胜，以此来解答所有关于他11月胜选几率以及其他民主党人为何需要团结在他身后的问题。

相反，埃尔-赛义德直到周三早上才以微弱优势获胜，在超过 150 万张选票中仅领先 1.5 万张。

“用穆罕默德·阿里的话来说，‘我们震撼了世界’，”他告诉记者。

但他改变选民的承诺在初选后远未实现，这让该州许多重要的民主党人对他失去了信心。初选变得恶毒、激烈且充满人身攻击。

此次选举关乎参议院席位的归属，该席位对于该党能否在唐纳德·特朗普总统的最后两年任期内赢得参议院的控制权至关重要。

当麦克风打开时，政治领袖们自信地谈论着他们如何确信党内能够团结在埃尔-赛义德周围，对抗迈克·罗杰斯——这位前共和党国会议员在2024年几乎赢得了密歇根州的另一个参议院席位。然后，他们常常要求私下交谈，表达他们多么害怕伤口太深、太难愈合。

埃尔-赛义德的胜利对民主党内亲社会主义派系而言具有里程碑意义，该派系继近期在深蓝选区取得佳绩后，又在摇摆州斩获一席之地。此外，他致力于推行全民医保，并打击政治中的巨额资金，也为他赢得了赞誉。然而，他的批评者却将他的支持者所推崇的——他谴责财团花费数千万美元攻击他，称史蒂文斯是美以公共事务委员会（AIPAC）的傀儡，连两句话都说不出来——视为傲慢和仇恨的体现。

这正是民主党领袖们一直希望避免的情况，其中两位告诉 CNN，他们曾多次联系埃尔-赛义德，要求他不要过多关注以色列，并缓和紧张局势。

周三晚上，CNN记者凯特兰·柯林斯就埃尔-赛义德在竞选期间对史蒂文斯发表的一些言论向他施压，埃尔-赛义德承认：“在初选的激烈竞争中，你会说出一些你后来宁愿没说过的话，”但他表示，他和这位女议员现在正携手击败罗杰斯。

周三上午，史蒂文斯致电埃尔-赛义德表示祝贺，不久后埃尔-赛义德在市中心历史悠久的“底特律精神”纪念碑前举行了胜选新闻发布会。他们之前的挑战者马洛里·麦克莫罗也出席了发布会，她早就计划加入胜选者的行列，但史蒂文斯却没有被邀请。一些支持者认为这是对她的轻视，因为她很快就承认败选，“而且处理得当”。

“从现在开始，我每天要做的事情之一就是倾听每个人的意见，并弄清楚我们如何才能让这个党重新团结起来，”麦克莫罗说道，他于周三立即表示支持埃尔-赛义德。

“我知道这可能需要几周时间，”麦克莫罗在周二投票结束前充满希望地说。“但从现在到11月还有13周的时间。”

周五上午，一场团结集会在底特律举行，由皮特·布蒂吉格领衔。这位来自密歇根州的“外来户”此前已放弃竞选参议员，转而考虑在2028年竞选总统。密歇根州民主党主席柯蒂斯·赫特尔表示，目前已有45名由州党出资的组织者在密歇根州各地开展工作，预计到11月，这一数字将翻一番。外部资金也已到位，例如参议院多数党政治行动委员会（Senate Majority PAC）已为密歇根州拨款2000万美元，无论初选结果如何。

“我们在全州每个共和党选区都举办了市政厅会议，我们看到民众非常愤怒，因为他们感觉自己被承诺过会优先获得选举权，但事实并非如此。他们一边削减亿万富翁的税收，一边却削减了我们普通民众的医疗保健，”赫特尔说道。“所以，对于民主党人来说，虽然我理解初选后大家情绪激动，但我相信他们现在明白，将来也会明白密歇根州的选举结果对国家究竟意味着什么。如果这些还不够，那么最高法院的特朗普超级多数席位又该如何解释呢？”

朱莉娅·德马雷·尼金森/美联社

距离投票结束还有 48 小时多一点，主播杰克·科基亚雷拉问埃尔-赛义德，他有多少件黑色 V 领 T 恤，这种 T 恤已经成为他故意露出二头肌的竞选制服。

“十二个，”埃尔-赛义德回答说，“但我还需要一个，上面写着‘对美以关系最危险的候选人’。我会每天都戴着它。”

埃尔-赛义德在前往与网红们参加泳池派对的路上，坐在副驾驶座上拨通了筹款电话。在派对上，他透过太阳镜的镜框摆姿势拍照，并与左翼网红哈桑·皮克尔握手拥抱。

周一晚上，他和戴着蓝色底特律​​都会区美国民主社会主义者协会帽子的皮克尔一起抵达一家由教堂改建的酒吧，参加一个活动。在酒吧里，他提前演练了自己预想中的胜选演讲，并表示这是美国纠正错误、庆祝建国250周年的传统。酒吧外，一些主要来自外州的直播主播——包括两位分别以猫为主题的播客主持人——采访了同样来自外州的志愿者，他们都是被埃尔-赛义德吸引而来。

对于自 2018 年竞选州长以来就一直谈论要让金钱退出政治的埃尔-赛义德来说，这一刻恰好契合了他的理念，他将自己因 AIPAC 的巨额支出而感到沮丧，转而将 AIPAC 变成所有外部支出的兜底者。

周二在底特律路易斯·巴斯德学校投票后，34 岁的汽车销售经理内森·布鲁诺被问及他选择埃尔-赛义德的原因时说，“主要是因为要让金钱退出政治，而海莉·史蒂文斯在这方面没有资格。”

30岁的底特律市IT从业人员艾米丽·洛佩兹表示，她关心以色列和加沙，但真正促使她投票给史蒂文斯的是那些财力雄厚的团体为他投入的巨额资金。美国以色列公共事务委员会通过其超级政治行动委员会花费超过3000万美元攻击埃尔-赛义德，这波铺天盖地的广告攻势使他在电视广告上的支持率处于1比30的绝对劣势。

洛佩兹说，史蒂文斯是“伪君子”，而且“看起来像个卧底共和党人”。

她补充说：“如果我收了别人的钱，我会觉得需要回报他们一些东西。”

埃尔-赛义德在辩论和网络上多次抨击美国以色列公共事务委员会（AIPAC）。就连密歇根州“未承诺”运动的联合创始人阿巴斯·阿拉维耶也表示，他对AIPAC的支出引发如此广泛的反响感到惊讶。该运动旨在抗议乔·拜登在以色列问题上的举措。

“我从事进步政治工作已经很久了。我从未见过选民像今年这样如此迫切地想要将巨额资金从政治中剔除，”阿拉维耶在迪尔伯恩一所学校外接受CNN采访时说道。他刚刚在那里为自己赢得了州参议员席位的初选。“人们对我们的政治感到愤怒。经过七个月的挨家挨户拜访，我满脑子想的都是每家每户听到的痛苦诉说，以及一个又一个选民恳求我说：‘答应我，你不会忘记我们。’他们感觉我们的全国性政党已经把他们遗忘了。”

拉思罗普村市长凯利·加勒特参加了在麦迪逊高地水管工工会大楼举行的史蒂文斯集会，她说自己是一名坚定的民主党人，但一想到要支持埃尔-赛义德就感到不悦。

“这会很艰难，”加勒特说。“这会让人难以接受，但我会努力接受。因为我太想赢了。”

周日，在水管工工会大厅等待为史蒂文斯加油助威时，拉比阿舍尔·洛帕廷表示，虽然史蒂文斯在许多问题上是一位自豪的民主党人，但埃尔-赛义德对以色列的关注以及将密歇根州的许多问题归咎于对以色列的资助，对他来说可能是无法克服的。

“我正在认真考虑投票给迈克·罗杰斯。我想重新审视一下我对阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德的看法，”洛帕廷说。“因为我所看到的很多事情都让我非常不安，但我会重新审视这些事情，也会重新审视迈克·罗杰斯的为人。如果他完全听命于特朗普，我会感到害怕。”

希拉里·斯科尔滕众议员是史蒂文斯的支持者，她出席了史蒂文斯的竞选之夜庆祝活动。斯科尔滕多次批评埃尔-赛义德，并将他与皮克的一些争议性言论联系起来，包括皮克声称美国“活该”遭受2001年9月11日恐怖袭击的言论。在周二之前，斯科尔滕拒绝表态如果埃尔-赛义德胜选她是否会支持他。她就选举结果发表的声明中没有提及埃尔-赛义德。

埃尔-赛义德的支持者现在可能会对这种不愿寻求团结的做法感到愤怒。但在周二晚上之前，一些人已经表示，如果史蒂文斯获胜，他们也会采取同样的反应。

梅拉特·基罗斯是一位民主社会主义者，她在科罗拉多州击败了一位现任民主党众议员。她与埃尔-赛义德一起参加竞选活动，并在全国各地奔走，为志同道合的候选人助选。她说，她期待着回到科罗拉多州，在普选中帮助他，因为“我们必须坚定地反对法西斯主义”。

当被问及是否会对史蒂文斯做同样的事时，她说：“你知道，我可能会在远处支持他——实际上，你知道吗？不，我不会。”

随着民调显示以色列的支持率暴跌，埃尔-赛义德认为犹太国家与进步主义不相容的论点帮助他巩固了自己的支持者群体。

“这感觉就像是好久以来第一次听到针对我认识的人正在经历以及我即将面临的问题的答案，”26岁的贾勒特·马基说道。他穿着底特律红翼队的球衣，是一名福特汽车的试驾员。周一晚上，他接到通知后从特洛伊驱车前来，成为与派克和其他有影响力人士一起参加活动的少数几位真正投票者之一。

马基说，他当时很在意医疗和食品杂货的价格，但同时也对拜登感到失望，因为拜登并没有像他认为这位前总统在2020年竞选时承诺的那样进步。当被问及拜登在哪些方面不够进步时，马基说：“他对以色列和加沙之间的很多事情都负有责任。”

马基说，如果史蒂文斯赢了，他就无法支持她了。

特朗普急于加剧这些分裂。

总统周三谈到赛义德时说：“他憎恨犹太人，也憎恨以色列。他对他们的仇恨如同烈火般燃烧，但他对此却无能为力。”

周三上午，史蒂文斯立即发表声明，对埃尔-赛义德表示支持。

“这是一场全面而严谨的竞选，充分展现了民主党内部的各种观点——而这正是我们举行初选的原因，”她说道。“我很荣幸能够挺身而出，为人民服务，更荣幸能够继续与大家携手合作，确保这个参议院席位继续由民主党把持，确保我们能够扭转美国参议院的局面，并继续为密歇根州服务。”

据CNN报道，与埃尔-赛义德关系密切的人士透露，他有时会惊慌地查看每周针对他的支出数据，但他将这种恐慌转化为攻击以色列和美国以色列公共事务委员会（AIPAC）的动力。AIPAC已誓言将继续参与大选，并表示其成员“决心确保选民在11月拒绝埃尔-赛义德博士及其激进的反以色列议程”。

多位民主党领导人告诉 CNN，他们希望埃尔-赛义德在初选后能够更好地倾听那些在各种问题上反对他的人的意见，尤其是像洛帕廷这样感觉自己的痛苦和担忧被忽视的人的意见。

“优秀的领导者需要谦逊、有风度，并且善于倾听。而这正是让党重新团结起来最重要的事情，”前州议员玛丽·马努吉安在初选日当天于伯明翰一家露天咖啡馆工作时说道。

周三，埃尔-赛义德试图向美国犹太人保证他会支持他们。

“我想让你们知道，我对你们安全的承诺，我对犹太人安全的承诺，与我对我女儿们安全的承诺是一样的，”他在周三上午对记者说。

但那天早上在酒店外，他拒绝了 CNN 关于与皮克一起露面是否是个错误的问题。

“我觉得大家都很担心他，但想想迈克·罗杰斯都和谁混在一起，对吧？”他指的是特朗普。“我觉得我们必须记住迈克·罗杰斯是什么样的人，以及我们面对的是什么。”

至少目前来看，密歇根州的大多数民主党人都能达成共识：如果他们能够团结一致，至少重新夺回对立法机构的完全控制权，他们将把未来的初选从八月推迟到春季，以便他们有更多的时间恢复。

本文已更新，添加了更多细节。

CNN的杰夫·泽莱尼对本报道亦有贡献。