Abdul el Sayed was supposed to win the Michigan Democratic Senate primary by a comfortable margin this summer, but the polls missed what was really brewing on the ground. An expected 10-point romp turned into a nail-biter; he won by roughly 1 percentage point.
That underperformance was driven by a coalition of relative moderates, Jewish Democrats, and black voters who nearly empowered Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), the “establishment” candidate in the race, to pull off the upset.
As the nominee, el Sayed has failed to win over a critical mass of intraparty doubters. A steady stream of Democrats, including current and former party officials and lifelong blue voters, have publicly said they’ll decline to support el Sayed — with many affirmatively backing former Rep. Mike Rogers, Michigan’s GOP nominee.
Whether these defections will be numerous enough to overcome a bad national political environment for the GOP is one of the biggest questions of the cycle. But the underlying phenomenon is real. Last week, things got even more interesting as Stevens’s fiance came out swinging against el Sayed and backed Rogers.
One of the catalysts for his righteous rant was an economically illiterate pro-el Sayed PAC ad that scapegoated Israel for Michiganders’ affordability concerns. The Anti-Defamation League called the ad a “case study in antisemitism.”
The spot was produced by an anti-Israel fanatic who backs el Sayed’s campaign. He’s also the uncle of Hasan Piker, the streamer and influencer whom el Sayed invited to Michigan, where the pair campaigned side by side on five occasions.
Piker has repeatedly stated that he hates the United States, has expressed support for various terrorist organizations and communist dictatorships, and has seethed that “America deserved 9/11.”
That same individual just last week lashed out at Jews in Michigan, comparing Jewish enclaves to “KKK neighborhoods” and railing against what he called “Jewish supremacy.”
In a profane tantrum against Jewish Democrats who’ve decided to support Rogers, Piker demanded that they “go live in Israel,” yelling about one woman whom he addressed as “you f***ing idiot. You f***ing moron … You f***ing psycho.”
El Sayed hand-selected this man to be his campaign surrogate. He’s also received support from an unhinged bigot who screamed that Israeli Jews should go “back to Poland,” a country whose Jewish population was almost entirely wiped out during the Holocaust.
Late in the week, Stevens herself appeared to agree to attend a Democratic unity event alongside Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), her mentor, and el Sayed — but her unusual and skeptical statement on the matter raised many eyebrows.
She said she’d been assured that el Sayed would finally condemn that appalling PAC ad and grapple with his own contributions to the catch-all “blame Israel” narrative that he flogged against Stevens in their primary.
Stevens seemed doubtful that el Sayed would follow through, publicly asking voters and journalists to hold him to account. (For what it’s worth, el Sayed’s former confidant and bodyguard believes Stevens was right not to trust el Sayed on this point.)
El Sayed then retaliated with a snippy statement of his own that once again sidestepped the antisemitic ad, using the occasion to deploy yet another anti-AIPAC tirade. He then effectively disinvited Stevens from the “unity” event, a move that Clyburn subsequently rejected. A mess.
Having received a final cold shoulder from el Sayed, Stevens made a shocking appearance with the Republican Senate nominee at a church in Detroit on Sunday, then made her endorsement of Rogers official.
“Hey, Michigan, as you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” Stevens said in a video posted on her social media feeds. “And he’s right, and that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today. I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign.”
The Rogers campaign’s initial response to this development was a simple expression of solidarity. “Mike welcomes her,” a spokesperson said.
A prominent political journalist reported that after el Sayed officially cut Stevens loose, Rogers reached out to her with an olive branch and an invitation. It all came together very quickly.
For her sin of supporting the Republican in the Senate race, Stevens’s congressional staff resigned en masse.
This is a very high-profile preview of a wrenching fight that is going to play out within the Democratic Party in the years ahead. Pikerism is rising.
GUY BENSON: ABDUL EL SAYED’S CHRONIC BRAZEN LYING
That returns us to the core question of this race, one of the most consequential of the year: Will dramatic and much-publicized opposition to el Sayed prove prevalent enough among Democrats and independents to give Rogers a viable path to victory, even in this political environment? Or will Michigan’s purple-blue hue, coupled with a blue-tinted cycle, sweep el Sayed into the Senate in spite of his flaws and vulnerabilities?
Tuesday will reveal the answer, but this internecine chaos leading up to Election Day cannot be what Democrats had in mind as a closing impression on voters.