The plan was simple. Keep the progressive out of the Senate. That was the plan. Then the numbers changed. Rep. Haley Stevens was supposed to crush Abdul el Sayed among working-class voters. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer led the charge to circle the wagons.
Former President Barack Obama was invoked to help her. But the polls told a different story. Four straight polls now show el Sayed ahead by double digits. He leads by 9.4 points in the RealClearPolitics average. A new Tavern Research poll puts him up by 10 points. The establishment is reeling. They thought they could stop the tide. They were wrong.
This is where it changes. el Sayed is now leading with a high-fiving ad featuring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The message is clear. AOC says, "That's the part they can't stand," regarding government-run healthcare.
She claims, "That's why billionaires are spending millions to bury Abdul and this movement." el Sayed told MS NOW, "That poll seems to be funded by AIPAC." Independent fact-checkers found no link to the pro-Israel group. But the narrative stuck. Activists are now knocking doors in Detroit. Lila Brickner, co-Chairwoman of the Detroit DSA, told Politico's Playbook, "He's fighting for the same things that a lot of our candidates are also going to be fighting for, and so that's why we're out knocking doors." The far-left wing has descended on the state.
The real fight is about values. el Sayed told donors a win would send a message to the governing class. He said, "You put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different." He clarified he meant Sen. John Fetterman, whom he said "got elected on a set of values, and is now completely throwing those values in the mud."
In Wisconsin, similar efforts to deny the nomination to Francesca Hong have failed. Her lead has grown even after David Crowley reentered the race. The establishment tried to block the socialist wave. Instead, they made it stronger.
The Democratic establishment is fooling itself if they think they can stop this movement with old tricks. They are fighting a war they already lost. They have lost total control and their radical base has taken over.
