SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 8.6.2026 UPDATED
If truth be told the Wall Street Journal and its favorite tabloid The New York Post are praying for a victory in November by Dr. El-Sayed.
The WSJ editorial page will be in overdrive excoriating the Doctor for the next six years. It will be great for circulation and provide plenty of Red Meat to the WSJ crowd.
Wall Street Journal Opinion 8.5.2026
The March of the El-Sayed Democrats
His victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary sets up the race of the year in November.
Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday is no surprise in this year of rising radicalism in the party. But maybe hold off on French Revolution 2.0. Democratic voters made the race far closer than pollsters predicted, and now Mr. El-Sayed will have to persuade voters beyond Ann Arbor and the white liberal gentry.
Mr. El-Sayed, an articulate 41-year-old public-health official, was expected to roll over Rep. Haley Stevens. But his lead was 1% on Wednesday when the race was called. The narrow victory suggests many Democrats had second thoughts about nominating a man with radical views hailed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the next great progressive hope.
Progressive is an understatement. Mr. El-Sayed now says he’s a “capitalist,” distancing himself from the Democratic Socialists of America, but his agenda remains the full Bernie Sanders. He continues to support Medicare for All. He favors a wealth tax and an enormous expansion in federal entitlements for child care and more. He wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying the agency “is about normalizing paramilitary force on our streets.”
He has a particular animus toward Israel and has campaigned with Hasan Piker, the Mao Zedong fanboy and Soviet Union admirer who has said the U.S. “deserved 9/11.” Mr. El-Sayed wants to cut off all U.S. military aid to Israel, which he accuses of genocide in Gaza.
Top photo: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed Democrat nominee for US Senate from Michigan
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