Haley Stevens’s Political Suicide Mission

We are days from the November elections in a year that otherwise looks bleak indeed for the Republican Party. And yet in Michigan’s crucial Senate race — in a state with reliably Democratic DNA, a state that despite its recent (and narrow) flips for Donald Trump in two presidential years hasn’t sent a Republican senator to D.C. since 1994 — nominee is facing unexpectedly sharp dissent from within the Democratic tent.

The rest of the statewide Democratic Party (reluctantly, but obediently) got in line behind El-Sayed, who narrowly won the August 4 senatorial primary. And yet that primary was bizarre indeed, one of two Midwestern primaries whose polling averages seem to have been unusually skewed by progressive hopes versus on-the-ground reality. (The other race was Francesca Hong’s in nearby Wisconsin.) El-Sayed had been put up in the polling averages by something like ten points, only to ultimately eke out victory by 13,792 votes.

About the Author

Jeffrey Blehar

Jeffrey Blehar is a National Review staff writer living in Chicago. He is also the co-host of National Review’s Political Beats podcast, which explores the great music of the modern era with guests from the political world happy to find something non-political to talk about.

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We are days from the November elections in a year that otherwise looks bleak indeed for the Republican Party. And yet in Michigan’s crucial Senate race — in a state with reliably Democratic DNA, a state that despite its recent (and narrow) flips for Donald Trump in two presidential years hasn’t sent a Republican senator to D.C. since 1994 — nominee is facing unexpectedly sharp dissent from within the Democratic tent.

The rest of the statewide Democratic Party (reluctantly, but obediently) got in line behind El-Sayed, who narrowly won the August 4 senatorial primary. And yet that primary was bizarre indeed, one of two Midwestern primaries whose polling averages seem to have been unusually skewed by progressive hopes versus on-the-ground reality. (The other race was Francesca Hong’s in nearby Wisconsin.) El-Sayed had been put up in the polling averages by something like ten points, only to ultimately eke out victory by 13,792 votes.

About the Author

Jeffrey Blehar

Jeffrey Blehar is a National Review staff writer living in Chicago. He is also the co-host of National Review’s Political Beats podcast, which explores the great music of the modern era with guests from the political world happy to find something non-political to talk about.