El-Sayed wins Michigan Senate primary; CatholicVote warns of ‘radical socialist policies’

Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in the state’s Aug. 4 primary, NBC News projected early Aug. 5, defeating establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens and advancing to a November contest against Republican Mike Rogers.

CatholicVote Vice President of Advocacy Joshua Mercer urged Michigan Catholics to oppose El-Sayed in the general election.

“Abdul El-Sayed campaigned with radical streamer Hasan Piker, who praised Chairman Mao and said America deserved 9/11,” Mercer told Zeale News. “Bishop Robert Barron has warned Catholics about this new wave of Democratic Socialist candidates who are essentially communist. Catholic voters in Michigan must reject Abdul El-Sayed’s radical socialist policies and elect Mike Rogers to the Senate this November.”

Rogers secured the Republican nomination without opposition. The two candidates are competing to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters in a battleground-state race expected to play a significant role in determining control of the Senate.

El-Sayed’s victory was a major defeat for the Democratic establishment. Stevens had been endorsed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Peters, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., former Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other prominent party figures. Outside groups supporting Stevens spent tens of millions of dollars attempting to defeat El-Sayed.

El-Sayed received support from leading figures on the party’s left, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

The nominee has rejected the socialist label, insisting shortly before the primary that he is “simply not a socialist” and describing himself as a capitalist who supports extensive government regulation.

His victory nevertheless adds to the momentum generated by a string of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) primary wins that has alarmed establishment Democrats. The organization’s candidates have defeated incumbent or establishment-backed Democrats in New York and other states while campaigning on a national program that, as Zeale News previously reported, calls for a government-takeover of major industries, noncitizen voting rights, taxpayer-funded abortion, the eventual abolition of police and prisons, and a new constitution that would abolish the House and Senate and establish a new federal legislature. 

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., a leader of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, warned shortly before the Michigan election that DSA members “are not Democrats.”

“They’re trying to use the Democratic Party as a vessel for their ideas,” Gottheimer told Fox News, pointing to socialist activists who had expressed support for the Communist Manifesto and Leon Trotsky.

El-Sayed’s most prominent connection to the socialist movement has been Piker, whom his campaign featured at two Michigan university rallies in April. The streamer also appeared with El-Sayed at a Detroit pool party on the eve of the primary and attended his election-night gathering.

As Zeale News previously reported, Piker called Chinese communist dictator Mao Zedong “one of the great leaders of this world” during a 2025 livestream. Piker said in 2019 that “America deserved 9/11,” although he later said he should have used more precise language and defended the remark as criticism of U.S. foreign policy.

El-Sayed rejected calls to distance himself from the streamer, arguing that sharing a platform with Piker did not mean endorsing everything he had said.

“I think we play this game where we do this platform policing, and we pretend like we’re not allowed to talk to certain groups of people because they said something we disagree with,” El-Sayed said in April.

El-Sayed also drew criticism when RNC Research circulated campaign footage in which he characterized America’s founding in terms of the displacement of Native Americans and slavery.

“Founded on the removal of a whole people,” El-Sayed said. “Founded on the idea that we could compromise on whether or not people as a function of the color of their skin could be enslaved by other people.”

Separately, a resurfaced 2018 campaign interview showed El-Sayed supporting the issuance of driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

“We’ve got to make sure that in this state we are not discriminating against documentation status,” he said. “Right now, if you’re undocumented, you don’t get access to a driver’s license. You’re stuck.”

El-Sayed added that withholding licenses and other state services was “ridiculous” and constituted discrimination. His campaign did not tell Fox News whether he still holds that position.

His current campaign platform calls for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while his healthcare plan pledges to codify the abortion “rights” previously defended by Roe v. Wade in law and to promote and defend what the campaign calls “reproductive and gender-affirming care.”

El-Sayed and Rogers will face each other in the Nov. 3 general election.