El-Sayed holds narrow lead in Michigan Senate primary but race too close to call

The marquee race for the Democratic nomination for Senate in Michigan remained too close to call on Tuesday night, with Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, holding a narrow lead over Congresswoman Haley Stevens.

The battleground state is crucial to the party’s hopes of winning back control of the Senate in November’s midterm elections. The winner of Tuesday’s Democratic primary will face the Republican nominee, former representative Mike Rogers, in November, to succeed the retiring Democratic senator Gary Peters.

Hundreds of restless El-Sayed supporters remained at the election watch party at the Majestic Theater in Detroit, as his lead over Stevens remained at a few percentage points. Minutes before El-Sayed was due to take the stage for a speech, the streamer and new Democratic kingmaker Hasan Piker alongside the Democratic nominee for Philadelphia’s third district, Chris Rabb, entered the main auditorium to hear El-Sayed, flanked by cameras and ecstatic supporters.

Nearby, an energetic Stevens took the stage at her election night event in Detroit, where she tempered expectations of a result before the end of the night.

“We knew that this was going to be a close race, and that’s exactly what we’ve got,” she said.

“But friends,” she said to loud cheers from the room, “I am feeling good about this race.”

El-Sayed, 41, built a grassroots campaign statewide on a message of universal healthcare and getting money out of politics. Stevens, 43, cast herself as a pragmatic problem-solver, and saw her campaign boosted by tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, including from groups affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the pro-Israel lobbying organization.

Rogers, a former Michigan congressman who was also the Republican nominee for Senate in 2024 when he lost to Elissa Slotkin, ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

Mallory McMorrow, a Democrat who dropped out of Michigan’s Democratic primary race in July, said it was vital for the party to come together after a bruising campaign to help the ticket win in November.

“I voted for great Democrats up and down the ballot, and I made a commitment that whoever wins the Senate race tonight, I will be endorsing as soon as that race is called,” she told CNN. “I will be headed to their election night party to show we all come together after whatever happens tonight, so that we can be a team as we head in November.”

With ballots still being counted, the results in Michigan – and in four other states holding elections, including Kansas, Missouri, Virgina and Washington state – were coming into focus.

Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic secretary of state, will face John James, a Donald Trump-endorsed congressman, in the state’s open governor’s race after Gretchen Whitmer faced term limits. James has denied the results of the 2020 election where Joe Biden won; most recently, alongside Trump at a rally, James claimed Trump had won Michigan “three times”.

Attendees wait for election results during a primary election night event for Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

In Michigan’s seventh congressional district, progressive organizer William Lawrence beat out two more moderate candidates, former US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and Matt Maasdam, a former US Navy Seal. Lawrence secured an endorsement from Bernie Sanders, the progressive Vermont senator.

A challenge to the incumbent representative Shri Thanedar in Michigan’s 13th district by Detroit state representative Donavan McKinney remained too close to call.

In Missouri and Washington state the Democratic establishment struck back, blunting a string of progressive victories.

In Missouri’s first congressional district, the Democratic congressman Wesley Bell defeated the progressive former representative Cori Bush in a rematch for the St Louis-based seat. Bush had sought to make the contest a referendum on pro-Israel spending and the war in Gaza.

“When we think about all of the division that we hear, I think it is important that we focus on what this place can be,” Bell said after his race was called.

Meanwhile, in Washington’s third congressional district, blue dog representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez fended off a progressive challenger in her battleground district, prevailing in a crowded all-party primary. She will face Republican John Braun in November.

Missouri voters also rejected an amendment that would have required citizens’ initiatives to pass in all congressional districts rather than by a simple statewide majority.

In Kansas, state senator Cindy Holscher won the Democratic nomination in the gubernatorial race, beating two other politicians to advance to the general election.

And in Virginia, Shannon Taylor won in the first congressional district and Elaine Luria won in the second congressional district, in wins for moderate Democrats.