DETROIT, MICHIGAN, USA, 06 August. - (ANA) - At 1 am in Detroit, as votes continued to be counted in a tight senate race, progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who held a narrow lead against his Democratic opponent Haley Stevens, appeared on the stage of his campaign headquarters and said, "Tomorrow we begin to mend fences."

 

He was speaking in a packed room of supporters, many of them young volunteers who had knocked on thousands of doors in one of the state’s biggest grassroots campaigns that was up against the most expensive campaign in senate primary history.

 

American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has reportedly put in $30 million to Stevens campaign in an attempt to defeat El-Sayed, with $60 million total in outside expenditures for the race.

 

"Right now, we are on track to vastly outvote the historical numbers that we should have expected. And that tells you about the kind of movement that we were able to inspire," said El-Sayed, as he stood behind a lectern with the words written: Michigan is not for sale. He chose the word movement rather than campaign, a nod to the wave of progressive wins across the country during the 2026 midterms.

 

"Across that movement that we built, there was an inspiration in the idea that we would take our government back—a government of the people, by the people, and for the people instead of government of the corporations by the special interests and for the billionaires," he said, drawing on the words famously used by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address, as he sought to unify a country divided by civil war.

 

"We're still standing," he said, as he rejected the notion of a purple state, but rather one where many people are united in not being able to afford to pay their rent.

 

"We are not a purple state. We are a state in need of a movement—to take our politics back," he said.

 

"When we come through this, if we come through this, inshallah," he said, as he was met with cheers and applause. "That we will have taken $70 million on the chin and kept fighting back."

 

He then turned to the general election, saying that despite the tough primary, it pales in comparison to the importance of the race against Republican candidate Mike Rogers.

 

"There is so much more that unites us, however much we disagree with our Democratic opponent, there is so much more that unites us than divides us," he said. "Tomorrow, we begin to mend fences. Whatever happens tonight, we have a responsibility to assure that we unite to make sure that Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the US Senate."

 

He was then met with more chants of "Abdul" as he continued urging for unity ahead of the general election, as the votes continued coming in during the early hours of Wednesday.  

 

In her election night speech, Steves also urged unity and said she remained optimistic about the results, though by the end of the evening most of her supporters appeared to have left the venue.

 

"The race is closer than predicted. El-Sayed did a good job meeting the moment," David Frank, professor of rhetoric and political communication at the University of Oregon, told The New Arab.

 

As of 3:30 am Michigan time, just over 91 percent of the vote had been counted, with El-Sayed holding a narrow lead of around 25,000 votes.

 

NBC had projected him as the winner with 48.8% while Stevens is at 47.2%, while CNN remained cautious and continued to cover the remaining votes.

 

In another progressive win in Michigan, William Lawrence, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, won the Democratic primary for the state's 7th Congressional District, defeating two establishment-backed candidates.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/06 August 2026 - - -