DAVID MARCUS: Experts crowned El-Sayed — then Michigan voters turned his win into a near-disaster
Fox News opinion writer David Marcus reflects on Michigan's Democratic Senate primary, in which progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens. He argues that most of the media had treated the race as effectively decided in El-Sayed's favour, with late polling showing him with double-digit leads, whereas his own on-the-ground reporting suggested the contest was tightening considerably, particularly after Governor Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Stevens.
Marcus contrasts the pre-election narrative of a comfortable "socialist landslide" with the actual result, in which El-Sayed only scraped past Stevens by a slim margin rather than winning decisively as forecast. He uses the discrepancy to question the reliability of pre-election polling and media coverage, framing the outcome as evidence that Michigan Democratic voters were far more divided over the party's progressive direction than commentators had assumed.
- El-Sayed narrowly beat Stevens in Michigan's Democratic Senate primary
- Media and polls had predicted a comfortable El-Sayed win
- Author says his own reporting showed the race tightening pre-vote