The Left can’t agree. And now they are at each other’s throats.
And the Democrat Party’s civil war just broke out in a major way.
Democratic voters here are celebrating after Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist-turned-politician who has called for abolishing ICE and branded Israel’s war against Hamas a “genocide,” narrowly won the party’s U.S. Senate primary this week, edging out establishment-favored Rep. Haley Stevens in one of the most expensive and bitter nomination fights in Michigan history.
Fox News Digital canvassed the Motor City on Wednesday to gauge reaction, and the response from primary voters was jubilant — even as skeptics in both parties warn the party is drifting further from the political center ahead of a critical midterm.
Grassroots Enthusiasm For The Progressive Nominee
Downtown Detroit resident Justice Cook said he stayed up through the night tracking results. “I’m ecstatic that he won. I’m very happy that he won. I was rooting for him the entire way,” Cook told Fox News Digital. He added that he had once doubted El-Sayed’s chances: “Abdul put in the work — the groundwork. I saw him about four or five months ago, and I was always skeptical that he could pull it off, but when he pulled it off, I was just excited about it all the way around. So, go Abdul!”
Other voters pointed to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s own victory as inspiration for El-Sayed’s coalition. “I think it’s great and about time. I live in Detroit and I voted for him. We were watching deep into the night and I didn’t quite make it to him winning, but I woke up to good news,” said Amy Oprean.
Midtown resident Angela Barkley echoed the sentiment, telling Fox News Digital, “I’m thrilled — it’s who I voted for, it’s who I wanted to win. I think that he’s going to make really good things happen. I could see what Mamdani was doing for New York and I really hope that we get a little bit of the good things like that here.”
A Democratic Party Still Bracing For A Bruising November
El-Sayed, who would become the nation’s first Muslim senator if elected, built his campaign around “Medicare for All” and now advances to a general election against former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who ran unopposed for the GOP nomination. Following his win, El-Sayed called for party unity — a message several voters said they hoped Democrats would heed.
“Because we have so many different groups within the party, some people are not in favor of him, but if we get behind our candidate and support him, I think he’ll win — no brainer — in November. But we have to support him and unite behind him,” Cook said.
Not everyone shared that confidence. Detroit native Victor Gilbert predicted a nail-biter in the fall: “I think it’s going to be close. I think it was going to be a close call.” Voter Jordan Zignego pointed to the durability of President Donald Trump’s coalition in a state he carried in 2024 as a reason for caution, telling Fox News Digital, “It could go either way. I mean, I never thought Trump would be president, and I definitely didn’t think he’d be president twice. I mean, this country is f—ing ridiculous.”
Skepticism About A Divided Party’s Path Forward
Oprean, for her part, framed the primary as a referendum on the direction of the Democratic Party itself. “The whole country was watching, and I think he kind of signifies two different parts of the Democratic Party, and I think that him winning shows that people want something different,” she said.
She acknowledged the fight had left scars within the party’s ranks. “They don’t want business as usual because there’s just a lot of empty promises over the past 5, 10, 15 years … I think that there might be some hurt feelings, more than usual in this primary, but we got to just suck it up and band together,” Oprean said.
El-Sayed’s win adds Michigan to a growing list of contests — including New York City and Denver — where self-identified democratic socialists have muscled aside establishment-backed Democrats this cycle, a trend Republicans are eager to spotlight as they make the case that the modern Democratic Party has abandoned the political mainstream.
