Yes, the Left Won Big Last Night
Before the votes had even been counted, some were treating last night’s Michigan result as a defeat for the Left. This is hard to square with the fact that well beyond Abdul El-Sayed’s win, progressives and socialists won major races.
Last night’s victory by Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Democratic primary was yet another high-profile rejection of the Democratic elite by their previously loyal voters — arguably the story of the party in the second Trump era. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)
Something has shifted among the Democratic electorate.
That was already clear from Zohran Mamdani’s trouncing of establishment royalty Andrew Cuomo in the New York mayoral race last year, punctuated by a series of yet more socialist wins over establishment incumbents seven months later. And it was clear from the primary election in Maine, where Democratic voters rejected their own governor in favor of a left-populist firebrand dogged by scandals who had never held political office.
But the victory of Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan over the Israel lobby–backed centrist Haley Stevens may eclipse even these as both a victory for the broad left and for anyone who genuinely cares about democracy.
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