Money Couldn't Buy Michigan: El-Sayed Beats Stevens in Most Expensive Primary Ever

Before we get started, I want to tell you about a new way to support Daily Detroit. We have a new Patreon tier, the 313 tier. That's right, $3.13 to support coverage that is being made in the 313. Join us, patreon.com slash daily Detroit. That's patreon.com slash daily Detroit. Help keep us fearless and free. Hello, friends, and welcome to a special election wrap-up edition of your daily Detroit. It is Wednesday, August 5th, 2026. Coming to you from our studio at Tech Town across the table from me is none other than the Prince of Brightmore himself. Norris Howard, how are you? The West Side is in the building once again, and I just got to say, I'm tired of being right all the time. We will talk about that in a minute. How are you living? You were outside last night. Yeah, I got home at 4 a.m. and still was refreshing results until about 5, 6-ish, then fell asleep for a little bit and then got up and got right back at it once I started seeing the final numbers come in. So it's been a long, long week for me. Well, you're faking, looking energized real well. Thank you. The caffeine is kicking up. And on the line is none other than Mr. Friday. Devin O'Reilly himself. How are you? I'm fantastic. I, you know, I had to be a part of this discussion, given how much we've talked about it, given how many takes I've thrown out there about this. And, you know, it's time to pat ourselves all a little bit on the back. But I want to know from Norris, where was the party at? Like, where was the late night spot last night? So the first move was, was the majestic theater, which is where the Abdul party was. And then... You had a number of McKinney parties, which I couldn't go to, but I heard that people ended up at like easy peasy and all over the place. And then there were some other undisclosed locations that I was able to go to for the after hours move, I should say. Sounds like you had the fun on the ground job. I did. I mean, it was rough at first, you know, considering that, you know, As I was telling people at the Majestic Theater, you know, we are going to be here all night. Like, they're not going to call this thing at 1130. And we can say that Norris was in fact right. And for the coffee bet, you won with the prediction. I let my looking at data go way too off the rails. You were right, Norris, Howard. You get coffee from me and Devon. Let's go. Listen, you know, I went conservative on the guest. I knew it was going to be tight, but I think it was even closer than anybody guessed. Yeah, for sure. And we're going to get into all of that. But before we do, I think there's a little bit of housekeeping. I want to talk about a couple of friends of the show who have been on the show had victory. So shout out to Justin Unwayneux. Yes, yes. I saw Justin earlier today downtown said, what's up? So, yeah, he won his race. And it looks like he'll be set up to go to state senate. Yes. And then Joanna Whaley.

has the potential to become the first trans member of the Michigan State Legislature. She's based out of Lincoln Park in that area. Yeah, and that could be huge. And again, historic. And so if you want to be a part of history, maybe that's somebody you should take a look at. Well, and I'm sure both of them will be back in here at some point. Absolutely. And then the third thing I want to mention, transit, because our audience is very passionate about it. Two to one victory, holy. This was a big victory for it. You know, at first, the number surprised me. I thought it would be closer. But when you think about, you know, the turnout between Haley voters and Abdul voters, you know, the Democrats had a huge turnout yesterday. And I think that kind of really buoyed the transit numbers, basically being a two to one margin. Yeah, it was a approaching 700,000 vote flip between. those who voted in Democratic primary and those who voted in the Republican primary. So that was a massive shift. I don't think that number will be as big in the general, but I think it is still pretty worrying for the Republican Party if you're seeing numbers like that. I think this is an important sign that Wayne County is truly... beginning to be ready to do the things that it needs to do to be like in lockstep and competitive, especially when it comes to younger talent because I had multiple people this morning reach out to me. specifically about transit, specifically under the age of 30, saying this is really important to me, and they're really glad that they saw it happen. Yeah, and they spoke with their votes, right? You know, that's the most important thing that you can do. But even bigger than that, it's kind of understanding how the region functions. And, you know, Devin, it feels like, you know, in the very near future, your city is going to be connecting way, you know, in an even better way than it does already to the city of Detroit and the rest of the region. And this is all good. Like, this is a thing that people have been asking for for the longest expansion. Obviously, it's going to be starting with the bus system, but it's a good foundation, a good start for people to be able to think, you know, a little bit larger about transit. Yeah, I mean, this is a long game. I mean, we've been talking transit for so long as I can remember, as long as I've been on this show. And it's a huge, it's a huge, not first step, but it's a huge step. And yeah, places like Dearborn, there's others, but places like Dearborn are certainly well positioned from an infrastructure standpoint, from a logistical standpoint, to really benefit from the new transit options and the new transit investment. All right, let's talk about the big races. Let's get into it. Yeah, so obviously we know the big one was the fact that Abdul El-Sayed has won the Democratic nominee for Senate, and it was razor thin, man. I mean, last I just saw was like a 0.7%.

victory. It could be even smaller, not that the votes have finished tallying up. But the one thing I will say, because I was at the El Cyan party last night. And halfway through the night, the whole, the energy just drained out of the place because the Wayne County numbers started coming there, right? Everybody else is freaking out. The whole player, it's dead quiet. And, you know, it picked up a little bit when he regained the lead. But everybody's like, no, it shouldn't be this close. And, you know, I just want to tell everybody, like, Haley Stevens did take the time to build relationships and community up with the black church and with the more moderate black voters in the city of Detroit. And they supported her. Now, I expect those same voters to go out and support Abdul El-Sayed very, very strongly. And I think ultimately... What I don't want to see is the talking heads and intelligentsia and all the, you know, the people coming in from the coasts and all that, you know, talking down on Detroit voters and saying, you know, they don't know what they're talking about or they, why did they vote for Haley? No, this is a pragmatic voting cohort that saw a person that had a very deep relationship with and made a decision. And so. That was the big story to me for the night, as well as El Sayah's overperformance in places like Ingram County and Kent County. Yeah, I mean, I think his ability to pull huge vote tallies from those out, you know, out Michigan counties. Really, I think it's surprised a lot of what I was seeing, a lot of the more national pundits or a lot of the non-detroit connected people. When they were seeing the numbers coming in from some of these other areas in Michigan, they were blown away. I mean, we kind of know how this goes, but I was even impressed by how big he was able to run up the score in those areas. You know, I agree with Norris and the Detroit aspect of it. These are pragmatic voters. And they're not, I don't, you know, I didn't sense any reason why, you know, Haley got right behind Abdul, which was fantastic to see today came out, full-throated endorsement. Mallory McMorrow came out today, full-throated endorsement. Everybody is coalescing, getting on the same page. You know, the Detroit thing also, it's not for nothing that going back to the 60 million that was dropped on Abdul's head. from outside organizations. And a huge part of that in if you lived in Detroit was to portray the fact that Haley was endorsed by Barack Obama, which was just unfortunately not true. Fortunately, unfortunately, not true. And so there's a good, there's a good amount of voters who went to the poll yesterday in the city of Detroit who were voting for Haley based partly or majority on the fact that they felt like Obama was endorsing her. So there's that factor too. I don't know if they thought that Obama was directly endorsing them. I mean, talking to my neighbors, it's it there is a history of seeing the two of them together, and there wasn't that history with Abdul El-Sayed. Sure, but the ads, but I've known, the ads I was seeing were trying to portray it as an endorsement. And there's definitely people who felt that he had come out and endorsed. And that was a, that was a story that to have to clarify, no, he has not actually endorsed her. Yeah, no, it was definitely a thing that I think had.

for sure, a impact on the race. I mean, we saw people tell, you know, other outlets and other content creators that that was part of their calculus going into the voting booth. But I also think just, you know, just straight up and down. I think, you know, the black voting electorate has always been kind of more gun shy when it comes to some of these big sweeping ideas because I think... In previous times, outside of things like, you know, the Voting Rights Act, you know, moving very quickly in government has always given black people moments of pause because when things don't work or when things fall apart or when things don't go right for the greater electorate, it's our communities that usually suffer. And so I think a lot of people are just thinking we need to just actually stabilize what's going on. Let's just get Trump out the box. Stevens is going to be more agreeable, or going to be more, quote, unquote, electable, so on and so forth. But I think the big story here, and you only just briefly mentioned it, Devin, is the fact that this is the most expensive primary ever, ever. Outside money spent $60 million and they still lost. That's incredible. It was wild to see and like my wife who's not engaged politically. She just does it doesn't. deal with that BS. When the news is coming on yesterday, and we're talking headline, we're watching ABC, we're watching headline news. And the first thing they're talking about is the Michigan primary, the Michigan Senate primary. And she asked me, she's like, why are we talking about, why are they talking about this on national news? I had to explain, like, this is really, this has become kind of the national political story because Michigan became the litmus test for, can you? You know, where, how much does money matter anymore in elections? And we talked about on the podcast. And, you know, can you not say can you buy an election, but that's part of it. Can you buy an election? And how much does money influence elections? And this was a resounding win for people who believe that money shouldn't buy elections. And, and hopefully maybe, I don't know, a warning shot, a salvo to say, maybe this election, this upcoming general, it's going to be different. This midterm is going to be different because you can't just drop a bunch of money on someone and win. But I don't know. We'll see. It may have worked in Michigan. It may not work other places. I don't imagine that all of a sudden these big corporations and special interest groups are not going to stop. Stop throwing money. But, you know, hey, you want to keep lending in on fire. Go for it, man. That's your prerogative. But I don't think it works very much anymore. Well, it gets into this question about our media as well. Front of the show, Matt Friedman wrote an interesting piece about TV spending, and I'll link to it in the show notes. But if you look at what happened with the Abdul El-Sayed race, and then you also look with Perry Johnson losing, who spent tens of millions of dollars as well. And then on top of that, though, on top of that, if you look on social media, you think that Abdul El-Sayed was going to win this thing by so far. And I know that I've talked to a number of people who are feeling very disconnected because they don't understand how it could be so close.

Because, you know, their bubbles kind of keep them in a certain way. There's a lot of questions about like what media actually reaches people and like what actually works in general. And it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out. Yeah, I mean, you know, I look at, you know, what was going on in terms of the TV landscape and the ads. And obviously, like we said, a big part of that $60 million went to the TV ads and the mailers and stuff like that. But I think what we've also realized is not only did the ads start to have a negative effect, I believe, but I think also people are starting to become significantly more savvy. when it comes to what the claims that the ads are making. So also down ballot, we had another historic way, which was Donovan McKinney against Shri Thanedar, which is for the 13th district. And... This will be the first time in almost a decade where now the city of Detroit, for all intensive purposes, because the Republicans not going to win the 13th district. It is going to have black representation again. It hadn't for a long time. And not only is this big, but there was also a massive multimillion dollar deficit that Donovan McKinney was running against. And yet he was able to beat that by, first of all, wholly professing his connections to... DSA and the progressive movements and so on and so forth, talking about Medicare for All, talking about free child care, talking about the affordability crisis. And those were the things that resonated with the people. And meanwhile, Shri Thanedar Tanedars Camp happened to run ads that saying the guy was taking money from Trump donors. And people went, that doesn't even make sense. On top of that, though, Shri Thanedar has... Shri Thanedar just has a questionable record when it comes to constituent services. Like a incumbent that doesn't seem so off to so many people, I don't think it's beaten. No, no. I think not only do they not get beaten, but I think also if you were to have a tangible thing to say this is what I brought back. to the district. When he's flip-flop positions so many times, remember when APEC hated him and then they spent money on him this cycle? Yeah, and then he threw money into the crypto and then used the crypto to fund his re-election campaign. It was all stuff that made people just feel icky. Yes. And that's really the best way that, like, because listen, for a lot of people, the APEC stuff, the dark money stuff, it goes over their heads. But when they sit down and have a conversation with, you know, somebody like us or one of their more political friends, it just gives them the ick.

It just makes them feel icky. And, you know, they get the, you know, corporate pack money, so on and so forth. It may make them feel icky. And so for me, the way I look at it is that you had a major race where somebody was able to overcome those financial deficits and lean on kind of what they were talking about as far as ideology. And I think it completely negated the TV ad situation. So if I'm a TV station owner, I am furious and very concerned. I look at also a few other indicators that I think we need to talk about. One, we need to stop thinking that lawn signs vote. No, they do that. Because so many people were like, oh, Abdul is going to, there was no world where Abdul El-Sayed was going to win Oakland County. No, not in my, not in my purview, you know. And the reality was, if you look at the lawn sign gap, it was like 20 to 1 Abdul, but Haley was within two points. But I do think it shows the enthusiasm gap. It's not nothing, Chair. I kind of disagree here. It's not nothing here. The enthusiasm gap was played out with the lawn signs. It shows you who had the enthusiasm behind them. It may not show you the exact vote total how it's going to shake out, but it showed you who had people actually fired up to vote for them. I'm going to go get a lawn sign. I'm going to put it out there and say, I'm voting for Abdul. The Haley Stevens. voters were the quiet voters who were, uh, not so sure, didn't want to necessarily say it. So I do think it says something. But she may not say. I was about to say, but she, she lost. But she lost. But she lost. It was close. And that leads me to my second point, the polling was hot garbage. Hot garbage. Yeah. I mean, listen. All around. All around. All around. And I think also because. Too many of the polls were hitting the fringes, right? You got this super highly, we're just talking about it, the super highly engaged, highly enthusiastic of dual voters. And then you had the, you know, mostly older, mostly like... I only pop on two weeks before the election to see who talking about what and then I go vote on election day or I cast my absentee ballot and I don't think nothing of it. But I think the major issue with the polling is that the reason why this was so close was the fact that you had a massive black electorate and middle class electorate in Wayne and Oakland and McComb counties that nobody ever was talking to. Right? This regular beneath $300 or beneath $100,000 voters or beneath $70,000 voters who literally cannot answer the phone to do these surveys. They are at work. I mean, there's a, I think there's a hundred, there's a different, a hundred reasons why someone wouldn't answer the phone, won't answer a poll. I think it's even more the way people get their information, going back to Jerry's point. It was just so diverse. I mean. I wouldn't believe, I don't believe polls anymore because I, because what's your sample? A thousand people, 500 people from where? It depends. Who are these people? Like, I just, I don't think, I think we're so diverse where you get, where you get your media. What are you watching? Like, there's too much. It's not 1885 where you can just know everyone's watching the same.

The same ads, seeing the same TV ads, seeing the same newspaper ads. And then we say, okay, so where are we, where is the, where's the votes going to fall? Who are you supporting? It's so much more complicated than that. But I want to, I want to ask everybody a question, though. I want to ask everybody a question, which is, how is it then that us here at Daily Detroit got so close to get, I mean, almost pin on the needle, correct? about this race and many of the down ballot races based off our conversations how are we able to get this correct when so many other outlets just completely screwed the pooch on their predictions. Because we are in these streets, Norris. I mean, I know that. We are on the ground. But I'm trying to get academic about it. But you know what else? I mean, we don't live by the tweet box. True, true. And that's really easy to fall into different, I mean, not to like quote Haley Stevens here, but there is something to it, especially in a state like Michigan, which I will point out. is older, isn't as much online, has a bunch of opinions that they're not going to share. Civility politics is alive and well in this state, and they're not going to share those opinions online. And I know that from the inbox messages and emails that I'm getting from our listeners about their concerns about what it is that's going to be needed to make this coalition work. Yeah. So I don't know what this means, I guess, in practice. I don't know what this means for, Polls going forward, I think all three of us are going to be very skeptical, and I don't think I would impart anyone to not react very much to any single poll that you see for better or worse. I would just highly caution that, and I hope we've all learned our lesson. I'm not going to be giving any kind of public reactions or takes on any single poll. from here on out because I just think that's reckless. Yeah, and even the trends are difficult to look at. Why don't we talk about what it would take to build that coalition and to do that? I'll take one of the notes that we got from one of the many people named David that listened to this show. Word to David. Wait, word to this David and all the Davids. Word to the Davids. I'm going to be honest, I don't have the same enthusiasm for Abdul El-Sayed as others. He has some major hurdles to overcome. One, being called a socialist. What does that even mean? Two, campaigning with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. That looks good in the primary, but not the general election. Three, telling people to vote uncommitted in 2024. Some people feel that screwed over Kamala Harris. Four, the Jewish voters who feel that he supports organizations that want to destroy Israel. In 2024, Michigan went for Trump and Elissa Slotkin. I feel 2026 will be in reverse. Jocelyn Benson for governor and Mike Rogers for Senate. What do we think about what it would take to pull that coalition together? I mean, first of all, let me jump up. Let me jump up. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Because I, I, thank you. Thank you. Because I got to talk to David here. So first of all, I'll take the broadest premise here. I do not see any scenario that Jocelyn Benson wins governor and Mike Rogers wins senator.

That means that thousands, tens of thousands of people have voted for Jocelyn Benson for governor and then walked over there and voted for Donald Trump, basically, in a different uniform for senator. I mean, that to me is preposterous at the highest level. So start there. But two David's actual specific concerns. One, I don't even know about the socialist part. As far as I'm concerned, Abdul is not an avowed socialist. He's not DSA. He said multiple times he's not a socialist. He's a Democrat. He said he's a capitalist. He's a Democrat with progressive views. And if you actually listen to what he talks about, I would I would tell you that his views are very much in line with strong union, strong labor, Democrats. So first of all, Abdul is not a socialist. He's a Democrat. And anyone who would have won, Haley would have been called a socialist by by Maga and by whoever she was up. Again, so every Democrat in this cycle, every Democrat is going to get called a socialist. The idea is it just becomes noise. Secondly, the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez part, you know, despite your feelings or any individual feelings on her, she is one of the most popular and recognized political figures, politicians in the country right now. And she's more popular than not. Of course, she's wildly popular among Democrats. But she is a big name. And she is an incredible speaker. And she can get out on the stump and she can talk to people. And she's incredibly likable to a lot of people. And she on the stump will be. Definitely a net positive. Now, of course, Abdul is going to have to balance that with dragging out some of the old, you know, Democratic stalwarts. I know that Debbie Dingell is a big supporter of his. He, you know, if he can get the Gary Peters, the Haley Stevens, you know, you build that coalition of people. But having Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on your roster, that is huge. That's, you know, all-star level talent right there. So that's a plus. I'm sorry to tell you. It is. And then the third, which was, what was the third one, Jared? Telling people to vote uncommitted in 2024. Oh, the uncommitted stuff. You know, I just feel it's people are trying to play this holier-than-thau game where scolding people in 2024 for voting uncommitted for what they felt was an extremely flawed and poor candidate. Sorry. You're referring to Joe Biden specifically. I'm referring to Joe Biden and I'm referring to Kamala Harris. It was both of them. It was both of them. I mean, that's hard to say, listen, in this community I'm going to tell you here in Detroit. Gamal Harris still polls really strongly, even nationally. She does, but she got Mollywopped in the election, so it didn't actually, you know, I'm sorry. Proof is in the pudding, my friends. She was not a great candidate. And if you want to think, if you want to debate, she's a great candidate, I don't know what to tell you. There's not much back. There's not much support you have for that. So that's so on that side. And then you want to say, oh, well, I, you got to win me back over or else I might sit this out. Well, aren't you just doing the exact same thing? Aren't you uncommitted? So the problem seems to be you.

And then the Israel stuff, I mean, I'm just, I'm done with that BS. Like, no, I would like anyone to point to anyone who wants to please share in any comments or whatever, an actual verifiable quote statement, whatever, where any candidate, specifically Abdul El-Sayed had anything to say about destroying Israel or harming Jewish people in America, I guarantee you there's no quote like that because it doesn't exist because you've made that up in your brain and fantasized, you know, quotes that don't exist. So that's just some BS. But I think also we do have to, we do have to acknowledge that there is and will be misinformation and disinformation in this campaign. It's already started. Like we have to be honest about that. And so, David, what I will say to you is. Please be careful of the sources you are taking in. First of all, thank you for listening to Daily Detroit. We try our best to verify everything we say and not make it conjecture or be something that we pulled out of our butts on AI or whatever. But I think the way I will respond to you is to say that when it comes to certain things like the uncommitted movement, listen, we got to be honest, okay? The vast majority of voters. in Western Wayne County still went for Kamala Harris during that, during that campaign. The vast majority of black voters in this county will go to Abdul El-Sayed because they, this is a democratic stronghold. So the, I think the assertion, I'm not saying that that doesn't matter. And I do think that El-Sayyad... does need to speak more to that specific rift. I've said it before on this show, and I'm not going to walk that back. But I will say that you are going to still have a D plus six environment going into the general election nationwide. That's the advantage for El Sayette. And then you're also going to have additional democratic support because the black vote is now going to coalesce behind Abdul El-Sayed. And I think at that point, it's going to be a difficult coalition to beat. I'm already seeing the comments from people talking about, well, how can Haley so quickly endorse? And it wasn't that, you know, so, like, how could that be two-faced, whatever? I'm going to say something that's going to get me in trouble. Politics is about building coalitions. Nobody has enough votes to do it on their own. Now, in this current world, we're very clear about some things in 2026 that we weren't clear about in 2024. Number one, Project 2025 is real. I don't know why people thought that was a falsehood. I know, but I'm just saying. Here's the thing. There is a significant group of our country, unfortunately. that unless you are white-white, it's just a matter of who they line up first. Okay? So the reality is, the reality is, is whatever your beef is about uncommitted or whatever your beef is about not being listened to in the next couple of months, everybody's got to figure it out because at the end of the day, it's just a matter of order, not if, when it comes to persecution of any group that's not white-white. And you know what? It's hard to say any better.

No, I agree, Jared. So I won't say that better. I'll just say to Norris's point, you know, when you're talking about what is the path, what is the path to victory? You said it's coalition building. There was a fantastic turnout from Democratic voters yesterday. I think they showed their enthusiasm. If all the Abdul voters show up again in the general, which I think they will and then some, and then you can you can pull 80%, 85, 90% of Haley voters. You don't need every single one, but you get 90% of the Haley voters. You're done. That's a wrap. You win. Rogers is toast. I'll say this, though. And I want people to listen very carefully when I say this. The people who need to build the coalition are not the Abdul voters. They're not the progressive voters because guess what? They just won. They just won big. They won in the Senate race. They just won in the 13th. They just won in Ingram County with Will Lawrence. They just won with Chris Gilmer Hill in state district 8. They just won with Joanna. They just won. They've won up and down the ballot. So the people who actually need to work on the coalition building are the folks who are in the middle because it seemed like all the progressives are on the same page. So now, I think the question that people need to be asking is, okay. Here is where the vast majority of the Democratic electorate is. And I'm not just talking about the voters. I think the voters for the most part will just go with who the nominee is. I'm talking about the apparatus. The apparatus has to make a decision. The party has to make a decision. The leadership has to make a decision. Do we stand wholeheartedly by who the people said the nominees are or do we go kicking and screaming? And I think so far what we've seen is that There's going to be a push behind El Sire and the rest of these candidates. And I hope that that stays that way. On the money, Norris, and even to your point, that's, you know, in a nutshell, what people said yesterday is they like what Abdul is saying more than like what Haley was saying. And so that's the message that needs to carry. And if you actually listen to the message, it's a pretty strong democratic one. Money out of politics. Money in your pocket. Medicare for all. You tell me where that sounds terrible to anybody. I mean, so yes, Abdul's message is the message we are going with. We're rolling with that. And we can fold in some other ideas. We can fold in some other kind of, you know, democratic ideals, progressive ideals. But like, that's the message we're going with. So let's go. Well, I am very interested to hear your thoughts, daily Detroit at gmail.com. We've always kept it honest with you no matter what. No, and, you know, I think it's really important that we end on this particular note, which is, you know, here at Daily Detroit, we want to do our best to provide the best information that we can while, you know, being fairly unfettered in what that truth is. There are a lot of things that we report on that we don't necessarily agree with in terms of the outcome. There are a lot of things that we report on that we think could or couldn't have been done better, but we think and we know that it serves you better.

for us to stand up here and give you the real. Truth of the matter and get down to the things that can help you go through life a little bit more informed. And so I say this to say, if you haven't joined the Patreon already, join the Patreon. In fact, we have a brand new tier, a $3.13 tier if you want to support with 313. There you go. It's never been easier. Very appropriate. And I mean, honestly, look, I know people, I know listeners have mixed feelings about the political coverage, but let me tell you something. I think, again, what it has proved is if you were a listener of Daily Detroit over the past, you know, six months or so, you kind of knew, you kind of knew what was going on because I think we kept people pretty informed. And it turned out that our takes were about as accurate as any national, statewide, or otherwise media. And by the way, Kamala Harris has endorsed El Say it today as well. Well, all right. See, there we go. That's a coalition right there. With that, I am Jer stays. I'm Norris Howard. I'm Devin O'Reilly. Thank you so much for listening. Remember that you are somebody. And we'll see you around Detroit.