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'We took on the machine': El-Sayed celebrates triumph over outside spending after clinching Democratic nomination in bitter Michigan Senate primary
Joseph Gedeon
“They spent an unprecedented amount of money to beat us” Abdul El-Sayed said, after officially winning the Michigan’s Democratic nomination for US Senate.
El-Sayed remarked on the millions in outside spending while holding his first press conference in downtown Detroit as the newly minted nominee. “But it turns out the commercials are the part of the television show most people don’t want to watch,” he added.
“We took on a machine. You’re not supposed to be able to beat $70m dollars of outside spending – a record amount of money spent in a campaign against a Democrat in a primary in any campaign,” he said. “You’re not supposed to be able to beat that. And what we showed is that the power of our many is greater than the power of their money.”
Key events
It’s worth noting that Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan was the latest win for progressives across the country, many of whom challenged establishment-backed Democrats in key races across the country.
Last month, Democratic socialist Melat Kiros unseated the long-serving US representative Diana DeGette in Colorado’s primary elections.
And in New York, Brad Lander, Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, who were all backed by mayor Zohran Mamdani, also won races in the June congressional primaries. Lander won his race comfortably, defeating the two-term Democratic representative Dan Goldman. Valdez won against Antonio Reynoso – the handpicked successor of Nydia Velázquez. And Chevalier toppled Representative Adriano Espaillat, the powerful five-term incumbent who chairs the congressional Hispanic caucus.
Despite progressive nominee Cori Bush’s loss in Missouri against pro-Israel incumbent Wesley Bell on Tuesday, Michigan insurgents in two key House races also claimed wins.
A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest developments out of the Middle East at our dedicated live blog.
This includes the latest news that Iran and Oman have agreed a route for ships transiting the strait of Hormuz and are finalising the draft deal for jointly managing the vital chokepoint.
However, Iran’s foreign ministry said that that any reopening of the strait would depend on the US fulfilling what Tehran sees as its commitment to end its own naval blockade of Iran’s ports.
Senate confirms Erica Schwartz to lead CDC after almost a year without a permanent director
By a vote of 51-44, mainly along party lines, the Senate confirmed Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), after the agency has been without a permanent director for almost a year.
Tim Kaine of Virginia was the only Democrat to join all Republicans and vote yes on Schwartz’s nomination.
Bernie Sanders congratulates El-Sayed on primary win and taking on 'the entire billionaire class'
Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, congratulated the progressive Democrats he endorsed, who won in Michigan’s closely watched primary elections –including the Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
“Congratulations to Will Lawrence, Donavan McKinney and Dr Abdul El-Sayed on their historic victories last night,” Sanders said.
The senator highlighted El-Sayed’s victory, commenting on his success despite the funding disparities between El-Sayed and his rival, Haley Stevens.
“Abdul took on the entire billionaire class, faced more than $60 million in spending against him, and WON,” Sanders added in his statement on social media.
Todd Blanche rides the fence in Pirro-Trump reflecting pool battle
During a press conference at the Department of Justice earlier today, the acting US attorney general, Todd Blanche, avoided siding with Donald Trump or the US attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, over her decision to dismiss vandalism charges at the reflecting pool against Olympic canoeist David Hearn.
Blanche said that he did not want the “message” to be that “because Trump expressed appropriate frustration at the damage done to the reflecting pool” that Pirro is not “working every day to combat violent crime and to make the city safe”.
These comments come as Blanche awaits the final vote in the Senate for his confirmation as attorney general. Two key Republican holdouts, senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, said they would now vote for Blanche’s nomination after he said in writing that a planned $1.8bn slush fund for Trump’s allies was dead. However, Susan Collins, a moderate Republican senator from Maine, said she would note vote to confirm Blanche – citing the creation of the so-called “anti-weaponization fund” as part of her reasoning.
Blanche is hoping to gain the votes of two other GOP lawmakers in order to shore up his position – Lisa Murkowski and Bill Cassidy.
Cassidy, the outgoing senator from Louisiana who lost his primary earlier this year to a Trump-backed challenger, said in a radio interview on Wednesday that he had still not made his decision. “I’ve got to be convinced that he is an attorney general who just happens to have once been President Trump’s personal attorney, as opposed to President Trump’s personal attorney who is now the attorney general,” Cassidy said. “I think there’s a big difference between the two.”
A quick note that we can expect a vote today on Erica Schwartz’s nomination to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This would mean that the beleaguered public health agency finally has a permanent director in almost a year, since the last Senate-confirmed leader – Susan Monarez – was ousted by Robert F Kennedy Jr last August, after they clashed over the health secretary’s vaccine policy.
Schwartz received a majority of the votes to advance her nomination out of the Senate health committee, and is expected to be confirmed along party lines. During her confirmation hearing Schwartz, who previously served as deputy surgeon general in Donald Trump’s first administration, was questioned about how she would handle Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism as a longstanding supporter of childhood inoculations.
David Smith
A former megachurch pastor who endured 15 years of conversion practices is set to become the first transgender member of Michigan’s state legislature after winning a Democratic primary election on Tuesday.
Joanna Whaley comfortably defeated Frank Liberati, a former state representative, and Gary Schlack in the primary for the second district of the Michigan statehouse, a Democratic stronghold.
Earlier this year Liberati sought to have Whaley disqualified from the ballot over her name change, but the Wayne county clerk’s office dismissed the challenge, finding that Whaley’s candidate affidavit was legal and proper.
Whaley, 38, who grew up in a Catholic family, previously spent two decades working as a pastor at an evangelical megachurch.
Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of the US Congress, posted on X on Wednesday: “So proud of my friend, Joanna Whaley! She faced indignities from her opponent, channeled the energy into knocking on doors, doubled down on her economic agenda, and she defeated that former Dem legislator (who took the low road against her) by 30+%! Way to go, Joanna!”
Whaley, 38, who grew up in a Catholic family, previously spent two decades working as a pastor at an evangelical megachurch.
Meanwhile, Democrats are reacting more positively. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, congratulated El-Sayed on his “hard-fought victory” on social media.
“Trump and the GOP are trying everything to rig the rules and silence voters – but they can’t stop a Democratic Party united around working people and accountability,” the Democrat governor wrote. “On to November! Let’s take our country back.”
The Republican backlash to El-Sayed’s victory continues, with the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton writing on X that “the Democratic party has lost its mind”.
In a separate post, he lashed out at the Democratic senator Chris Murphy for expressing his enthusiasm for El-Sayed’s triumph, writing: “Senate Democrats are ‘excited’ for Abdul El-Sayed who proudly campaigns with extremists who say America deserved 9/11 [referring to 2019 comments from leftwing influencer Hasan Piker]. The Islamic-Marxists truly are taking over the Democratic party. We must never give them power.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), which spent roughly $30m in a failed effort to defeat El-Sayed in the Democratic primary, says it’s committed to opposing him in the general election, signaling plans to spend for Republican Mike Rogers.
“Our members remain determined to ensure that voters reject Dr El-Sayed and his radical anti-Israel agenda in November,” the group’s statement said.
“While disappointed that some of our Aipac-backed candidates did not prevail, our community is proud to support pro-Israel Democrats and Republicans who stand for our values, and we are encouraged that voters in races across this primary season continue to broadly choose leaders who support a strong US-Israel partnership,” it added.
Aipac’s brand has struggled as of late to capture new voters, with El-Sayed’s victory underscoring the continued momentum of progressive candidates. But the funding power and influence of the lobbying group still remains, with some Aipac-supported candidates triumphing on Tuesday.
