{"id":574,"date":"2026-08-05T16:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T16:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=574"},"modified":"2026-08-05T16:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T16:40:11","slug":"progressives-make-major-gains-in-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=574","title":{"rendered":"Progressives Make Major Gains in Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Abdul El-Sayed earned a narrow victory in the Michigan Senate primary on Tuesday, coming from third place and withstanding a $62 million onslaught from his main opponent, Haley Stevens. He won a statewide primary in a swing state on a message that prominently featured Medicare for All. And he won despite Stevens\u2019s outside backers using an eight-year-old quote from the most popular politician in the Democratic Party, Barack Obama, praising her for being part of his administration.<\/p>\n

Read more The AIPAC Universe Comes Together for Sequel in California<\/a><\/p>\n

Those facts and that framing do not necessarily reflect the way a lot of progressives are feeling right now. But if the past two weeks of bad polling had not appeared and the last survey of the race was the mid-July poll showing Stevens up by seven, that mood would be markedly different. Expectations setting can really take one\u2019s eyes off the 50 percent-plus-one nature of American elections. El-Sayed was outspent and had the bulk of the establishment against him, and he won.<\/p>\n

More from David Dayen<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Progressives had a near-sweep in Michigan, in fact. Will Lawrence took advantage of establishment infighting and used his focus on data centers in a mid-Michigan toss-up district to romp to victory. DSA member Donavan McKinney won a primary challenge in Detroit, defeating millions of dollars from incumbent Shri Thanedar, who finally got into a one-on-one race his money couldn\u2019t talk him out of. The co-founder of the Uncommitted movement, Abbas Alawieh, won his primary and is on track to become a state senator. There were other significant gains up and down the ballot.<\/p>\n

A perceptive piece in Drop Site News pointed out that discontent with the way that Michigan\u2019s legislative trifecta turned out led to progressive energy and eventually these victories. I wrote about that at the end of 2024, actually, and one of the discontented I talked to was a housing organizer named Will Lawrence. \u201cPeople have fought for decades to realize this,\u201d he told me. \u201cA lot of people are really pissed off. Because they feel like it\u2019s been squandered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t mourn, organize.<\/p>\n

One thing is clear from last night\u2019s results: We\u2019re going to get a test of the long-held conventional wisdom about whether progressive Democrats can win in swing seats. The national environment is certainly in Democrats\u2019 favor no matter who they are: Waves can cover ripples. But the strategy for victory could upend the idea that there\u2019s only a narrow range of ideas that can be victorious in Democratic politics as played at the big boys\u2019 table.<\/p>\n

Lawrence\u2019s campaign released a memo this morning outlining their path to victory in Michigan\u2019s Seventh Congressional District, rooted in taking on \u201cSilicon Valley billionaires and DC insiders determining the future of our towns and our country,\u201d as campaign manager Stevie O\u2019Hanlon writes. The memo ties incumbent Republican Tom Barrett to the state\u2019s big utility companies as a means to tie him to data centers. And it highlights Lawrence\u2019s organizing muscle, citing a local reporter calling it \u201cthe most impressive grassroots operations that a Lansing-based congressional effort has built in the 30 years I can speak to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more A. Philip Randolph: Socialist on the March<\/a><\/p>\n

Ultimately, the race has an incumbent who has voted almost uniformly with Donald Trump, who is severely underwater with voters, while exhibiting the same kind of self-enrichment (paying campaign vendors who employ his wife, filing for an impossible $20,000 in mileage reimbursements) that Trump is known for. Meanwhile, the challenger is reaching deep into his opponents\u2019 coalition to find voters disenchanted with data centers and rising costs. Putting aside ideological or factional concerns, the Democrat is poised to win with a smart and strategic campaign.<\/p>\n

El-Sayed has a similar message and approach, and a similar story he can tell about his Trump dittohead opponent. Whether the establishment House and Senate campaign arms back up these candidates with financial support will be a big factor. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is out with a statement saying that \u201cDemocrats are united by a common purpose: putting a check on Donald Trump by defeating his Republican enablers and taking back the Senate. We look forward to working with Abdul and Democrats across Michigan to win this seat in November.\u201d We will see if they back that up with cash.<\/p>\n

To that end, the DSCC released a memo on the race that committed to an early six-figure digital ad buy attacking Republican nominee former Rep. Mike Rogers for taking $1 million from the drug industry and voting to keep prices high. The memo makes the case that Rogers\u2019s corruption and Trump\u2019s unpopularity will carry El-Sayed to victory. While that\u2019s not necessarily an endorsement of the Democratic nominee\u2019s politics, it does state unreservedly: \u201cAbdul El-Sayed is in a strong position to hold this seat, and he will be elected U.S. Senator in November.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the fall campaign is more likely to feature a united front than a divided one. And having more than one way to beat a Republican is a good scenario for Democrats.<\/p>\n

Read more Sen. Wyden Report: Banks Systematically Ignored Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s Crimes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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One thing is clear from last night\u2019s results: We\u2019re going to get a test of the long-held conventional wisdom about whether progressive Democrats can win in swing seats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[281],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-tagged-abdul-el-sayed-congress-democrats-dscc-election-2026-haley-stevens-michigan-mike-rogers-politics-will-lawrence"],"yoast_head":"\nProgressives Make Major Gains in Michigan - Frontier Housing Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=574\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Progressives Make Major Gains in Michigan - Frontier Housing Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One thing is clear from last night\u2019s results: We\u2019re going to get a test of the long-held conventional wisdom about whether progressive Democrats can win in swing seats.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=574\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Frontier Housing Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-05T16:40:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13a8c63a4bd3b73600b541c1532fc247\"},\"headline\":\"Progressives Make Major Gains in Michigan\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-05T16:40:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574\"},\"wordCount\":872,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/8dfb05c9feeaced91f276806a920425f.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Tagged: Abdul El-Sayed,\u00a0Congress,\u00a0Democrats,\u00a0DSCC,\u00a0Election 2026,\u00a0Haley Stevens,\u00a0Michigan,\u00a0Mike Rogers,\u00a0Politics,\u00a0Will Lawrence\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574\",\"name\":\"Progressives Make Major Gains in Michigan - Frontier Housing Report\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/8dfb05c9feeaced91f276806a920425f.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-05T16:40:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13a8c63a4bd3b73600b541c1532fc247\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=574#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/8dfb05c9feeaced91f276806a920425f.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/8dfb05c9feeaced91f276806a920425f.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1333,\"caption\":\"Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a news conference at the Spirit of Detroit shortly after winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Detroit. 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