Jim Geraghty of National Review Online highlights the latest questionable Democratic candidate for US Senate.
After watching former Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner’s campaign go about as horribly as it possibly could have, some Democrats may well be having second thoughts about the latest table-pounding radical to come down the pike. Up until recently, Abdul El-Sayed looked like the safer bet in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary; the winner takes on Mike Rogers in what may well be the GOP’s best shot at picking up a currently Democratic Senate seat. Get to know El-Sayed, who, despite a dramatically different life story than Platner, has some strange parallels to the recently withdrawn Nazi-tattooed candidate.
It might surprise you to learn that former Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner was not, technically, a Democratic Socialists of America party candidate. (Easy joke: Platner was more of a National Socialist type.) DSA members may have been rooting hard for Platner, but he was never formally a member of their cadre.
No, the candidate who’s really thrilling DSA hearts, and who they’re really pulling for, is Abdul El-Sayed, one of two leading Democrats competing for the nomination to succeed retiring Senator Gary Peters in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race, with the primary set for August 4, 2026.
His rival is Democratic Representative Haley Stevens, who has a lifetime 1 percent out of a 100 rating from Heritage Action. Needless to say, Stevens is described as a “centrist” and “moderate.” (A Democratic lawmaker’s reputation for “moderation” in mainstream media coverage is entirely reflective of his or her persona and tone of voice and has nothing to do with their positions or voting record.)
Still, El-Sayed is indeed the more radical of the two remaining options for Democrats in this primary.
El-Sayed insists that like Platner, he is not a Democratic Socialist; it’s apparently just a giant coincidence that the Democratic Socialists of America has “already shifted organizers, volunteers and resources toward battleground Michigan.”
