CNN's first reactions to Abdul El-Sayed's MI senate primary win

[0:00] It was a very close race. Just one point separates El-Sayed from his opponent, [0:05] Congresswoman Haley Stevens. But the victory is monumental for the progressive left. [0:10] The race was a brawl, heated, personal, the most expensive Democratic Senate primary ever, [0:17] and saw a historically high turnout. Look, it was a win, a huge win for Abdul El-Sayed. [0:23] It's much narrower than a lot of people thought going into this race. What is your big takeaway [0:28] from how he pulled this off and what's next? Well, I think what's next is the proving ground [0:34] of November, because this is a huge moment in this story that we've been covering all summer long [0:40] about what's happening inside the Democratic Party, no doubt. But now, the concern, I mean, [0:46] as you saw, Haley Stevens was within 15,000 votes. From the establishment side of the party, [0:51] the whole reason so much of the establishment was coalescing around Stevens was because they have a [0:57] concern that El-Sayed makes the general election tougher for them to hang on to this seat. And we [1:03] won't know the answer to that until November. So this moment is a huge moment for the left [1:11] progressive wing because it's not deep blue New York City. It's not Denver, Colorado. This is a major [1:18] battleground state in a big statewide primary. But now we've got to see if the progressive left's belief [1:24] is, no, we can bring all the energy and actually win in the battleground state in a general election [1:29] with a general electorate and be broadly appealing, or if the establishment concerns prove out to be [1:34] true here. And just to look at his path, Abdul El-Sayed's path to victory, where he did well, [1:40] where Haley Stevens did well. There's one county here, Washtenaw County, that's the home of Ann Arbor. [1:46] University of Michigan is there. Very academic, very educated district. He did extremely well, [1:52] really ran up the score against Haley Stevens, winning there by 60.8% to Haley Stevens, 36%. But [2:01] then when you move over to Wayne County, that's the neighboring district, Detroit, there Haley [2:06] Stevens winning in Wayne County, working class voters, a lot of black voters there. She wins by six [2:12] points there. And then some of the swing districts that will be absolutely pivotal come November. [2:18] Macomb County, the home of Reagan Democrats. You can see there Haley Stevens again beating [2:23] Abdul El-Sayed, this time by about eight points there in that race in the neighboring county, [2:30] Oakland County, more Democratic area, still suburban Michigan area. Again, showing where El-Sayed has [2:36] to make up ground, losing by six points in that suburban county. Yeah, I think this shows that, [2:40] yes, I think anybody who believes anything can look at this race and take away what they want from it, [2:47] right? Progressives won, and that's a huge win for the progressive base. But they woke up thinking that [2:53] they were going to win by a lot more. And it was a lot narrower than some of the polling showed leading [2:58] up to this race. And so that's a concern for the progressive base and in a way a win for the [3:03] establishment Democratic Party. And so it does show that despite El-Sayed winning, there's a lot of ground [3:08] that he's going to have to make up in this general election. And that's what Republicans have been [3:12] banking on. I've talked to Republicans over the past few months, and they've been open about it. [3:16] They wanted him to win this race because they feel like the messaging is going to be easier. [3:21] There's going to be more to attack. And you're already seeing, even this morning, how they're [3:26] coming out and attacking him, right? They're targeting some of his more extreme ties. They're targeting [3:31] some of his more progressive beliefs. That would have been much more difficult if he had lost. [3:36] And we're going to get more into the GOP strategy in the next block. The issue about Israel, the [3:42] outside spending, AIPAC spending. I mean, what's just remarkable here? $32 million was spent by an [3:48] AIPAC-aligned SuperPAC in this race. That's more than any other primary, really, ever that it's been [3:55] involved with. $32 million. The next closest was $15 million a couple cycles ago, actually the last [4:01] cycle in 2024. And then the overall outside spending for Stevens was $64 million on her behalf. A lot of [4:09] this was that AIPAC spending. And then when you drill down in the numbers too, Andrew, even further, [4:14] you go to Dearborn, which is the home of a lot of Muslim American voters. El-Sayed really ran up the [4:20] score there. 78% to 20% to Stevens. He got more votes in this primary in Dearborn than Kamala Harris got [4:27] in the general election. In the primary versus the general. Right. I was in Michigan a couple of weeks [4:32] ago at a rally that Abdul El-Sayed had with Bernie Sanders and other prominent progressives. And Senator [4:39] Sanders had a line that stood out to me. He said, this primary is not a race between Abdul El-Sayed and [4:45] Haley Stevens. It's a race between Abdul El-Sayed and what he called the billionaire class. In other [4:51] words, he was setting up, setting it up as a test of whether progressives and that grassroots passion [4:57] and energy can defeat all of that money that was coming into the state sort of on, on, on the behalf [5:04] of, of their opponent. But, you know, I find this really fascinating too, in terms of being a test case [5:11] for the future for progressives and some, and helping cement Bernie Sanders' legacy as well. Because [5:16] if you look at that contingent of progressives in the Senate right now, all of them come from these [5:22] cobalt blue states, right? This is a chance for them to not only grow their ranks, but grow their ranks [5:28] with someone who represents, who would be representing a purple state. And I think that's a big deal for, for [5:34] progressives because it under, it flips the conventional wisdom about electability on its head. And of course, [5:40] you saw Chuck Schumer endorse Haley Stevens because of, in his view, electability because she had [5:47] proven that she won tough races, all of her house races, for example. Speaking of Chuck Schumer, [5:52] who did get behind Haley Stevens and now is backing Abdul El-Sayed as they head into November, [5:59] I asked him yesterday about the rise of the democratic social swing at the party. What he thinks about that. [6:06] Is the rise of the DSA good for your party? Look, we are a big tent party. And being a big tent party [6:15] is a strength, not a weakness. Leader Schumer? I guess that's a yes. I guess so. I mean, what else [6:21] could he say? And this is something that even on the House side, Hakeem Jeffries is going to have to [6:26] deal with. The reason why is because regardless of whether the majorities flip in Democrats' favor or not, [6:32] the margins are going to be narrow and the DSA is coming in with an agenda and clearly a win like [6:37] this in Michigan. We'll see if El-Sayed can pull it off in the general, but it still gives them the [6:43] argument that we are fighting against corporations, the establishment class, all of that. They're going [6:51] to be putting, and I've heard this more on the House side, a lot of those DSA candidates are going to [6:54] start drawing some red lines and saying, hey, if you want to be Speaker, if you want to be able to get [6:58] your agenda done, these are the kind of things you have to address first. We'll see how that all plays [7:02] out. Democrats were duking it out in the Michigan primary. Mike Rogers is already making his case [7:07] for November. Here's what the Republican Senate candidates said on Fox this morning. So we have, [7:14] the excitement in the Republican Party here has never been higher. Our numbers in the Republican [7:18] Party are off the chart. People are ready for a change in Michigan, and that's what people have to [7:23] understand. Democrats have been in charge here 10 years in Lansing or better part of a decade, [7:28] and over a quarter century in the United States Senate. And only thing has happened is we are [7:33] worse in every metric category we have here in the state. David Chalian, what are you watching for [7:40] as Mike Rogers pivots to the general election? Well, it wasn't just Mike Rogers, but his allies, [7:45] like the campaign committee and the super PAC, SLF, put out digital ads this morning. You can just see [7:51] they're immediately framing it to make Abdul El-Sayed as far outside the mainstream as possible in this [7:58] battleground state. And I think you heard from Abdul El-Sayed today. I think you'll hear it, [8:03] no doubt, from Democrats as they sort of start unifying in Michigan. They will paint Rogers as [8:08] a total Washington, D.C. insider, only looking out for corporate interests and not your personal [8:14] interests. Another sort of just vote for Trump, right? Like that'll be. And so those two messages, [8:19] I mean, that's going to be the general election for Michigan as we head into these final 90 days. [8:23] And you saw Rogers there just immediately wanting to get out as soon as this primary closed to start [8:31] framing El-Sayed in that way. And this is how the two campaign committees framed the [8:35] general election as well, putting out ads just this morning. There's corruption, [8:40] and then there's Mike Rogers' corruption. Rogers took over $1 million from the drug industry, [8:47] more than 95 percent of all members of the House, then fought to keep our prescription drug prices the [8:53] highest in the world. Abdul Rahman Mohammed El-Sayed, the most radical Senate candidate in America. [8:58] I'm pretty dangerous. El-Sayed pledged support for the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, [9:02] a designated foreign terrorist group. All right, in Sayed, actually, El-Sayed [9:08] actually made that point in actually that press conference today where he noted that they're [9:12] saying his full name, Abdul Rahman Mohammed El-Sayed, which I'm sure you'll hear a lot more of. [9:19] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're already, again, we're already seeing exactly how this is going to play out, [9:23] and it's going to be a really tight race. One of the most interesting things, I think, in Mike Rogers [9:31] is the fact that he is not really commenting on national politics at all, which is a really [9:37] interesting strategy. It's essentially the opposite strategy of what we saw in New York in the mayor's [9:42] race, right? When he gets asked about these issues, he really hasn't been asked a ton about these issues. [9:46] He hasn't. My colleague asked him several questions about national politics. He's pretty much punted on all [9:52] of them. He said he's focusing on the local issues, which is an interesting strategy because you know [9:57] that Democrats are going to be, as you said, tying him in with Donald Trump, and that's fairly easy to [10:03] do. I think people forget that he was one of the last contenders to be FBI director before it went to [10:08] Kash Patel, and so he is very close with the president, and you're seeing how he's going to try to [10:13] to go that fine line between not breaking with the president, but also not directly talking about [10:21] it. And it's interesting. Yeah, they want to talk about local issues, but guess what? You're a senator. [10:24] You're going to have to deal with some national issues. And he was chairman of the House Intelligence [10:29] Committee. Exactly. I mean, like, he's got that background. Yeah, exactly. [10:32] And he's going to have to deal with the question.