August 5, 2026

Good Wednesday evening. In this edition: Progressive El-Sayed defeats centrist Stevens in Michigan Senate primary.

• Plus, Pirro, Schwartz, Edwards and Blanche.

Campaign 2026

Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a centrist backed by the party establishment, in the closely watched Democratic primary for Michigan's U.S. Senate seat.

• The Associated Press called the race Wednesday morning as Mr. El-Sayed held a 1-point lead over Rep. Stevens with 99% of votes counted.

The result is a major win for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which has clinched a string of victories this cycle.

• It came despite outside groups spending more than $55 million on ads boosting Rep. Stevens, including more than $30 million from AIPAC.

Most of the progressives' victories have come in safe blue districts or states, so it remains an open question whether Mr. El-Sayed can win a general election in a key battleground state.

• "They want to tell us that here in Michigan, we're a purple state. That somehow everybody walks around wondering, 'I wonder where I stand on a left-right spectrum?' When really up and down the state what you hear is, 'I wonder how I can afford my rent? I wonder how I can afford my groceries?'" he told supporters late Tuesday night.
  
  

• "We are not a purple state. We are a state in need of a movement to take our politics back."

He will face former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) — who clinched the GOP nomination after running unopposed — in the general election race to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI).

• "The choice this November is simple: common sense or complete insanity," Mr. Rogers said in a statement.
  
  

• "Abdul doesn't represent a vision for the future. He's leading a movement grounded in ideological fanaticism. His agenda would make our communities less safe and our state less affordable."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who endorsed Rep. Stevens in the primary, said he would work with Mr. El-Sayed as the party tries to retake the upper chamber this fall.

• "Democrats are united by a common purpose: putting a check on Donald Trump by defeating his Republican enablers and taking back the Senate. We look forward to working with Abdul and Democrats across Michigan to win this seat in November," he said in a joint statement with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), the chair of Senate Democrats' campaign arm.

Mr. El-Sayed, an epidemiologist who earned a medical degree from Columbia University, sought to unify Michigan Democrats after the contentious campaign and praised Rep. Stevens as "one of the most committed public servants that you'll ever meet."

• "As bitter and as divisive and as cynical as the campaign against us might have been, I want us to realize that there is so much more that unites us now," he said at a Wednesday morning press conference in Detroit.

Rep. Stevens also said she would be "proud" to lend her support to Mr. El-Sayed, highlighting his record as "a doctor, a community health official, a Rhodes Scholar, and a dedicated Michigander."

• "Donald Trump and Mike Rogers want us to come out of this primary tired and divided, so their billionaire backers can come in and let multimillionaire Mike Rogers walk away with this Senate seat," she said in a statement. "I'm not going to let that happen."

Mr. El-Sayed, the child of Egyptian immigrants who would become the first Muslim senator in U.S. history if elected in November, pushed back against those seeking to weaponize his name or faith.

• "My name is not raising your gas prices. My name is not taking us to war. My name is not the reason you can't afford your groceries," he said. "You know what is? Their B.S. policies."

Watch Mr. El-Sayed's press conference.

• Elsewhere in Michigan, Rep. John James (R-MI), a Trump-backed second-term lawmaker, secured the GOP nomination for governor. He will face Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in the race to succeed two-term Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI).
  
  

• Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) also lost his reelection campaign to democratic socialist Donavan McKinney in the 13th District, making him the sixth incumbent House Democrat to lose a primary this cycle.

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In other news…

• President Trump said he hasn't decided whether to keep Jeanine Pirro as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia after she dropped charges in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandalism case. "I haven't made a determination," he told reporters late Tuesday night in Los Angeles. Ms. Pirro filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying the damage was "the result of a botched installation and not vandalism" and that prosecutors had been misled by the Interior Department before announcing the charges. The president said Ms. Pirro was "totally wrong" and claimed that "everybody saw the vandalism." Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to defend Ms. Pirro and said President Trump was within his rights to fire her. "Hypothetically, if the president chose to fire a United States attorney, it turns out he's allowed to do that because he's the president of the United States," he told reporters.
  
  

• The Senate voted 51–44 to confirm Dr. Erica Schwartz as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) joining all Republicans in favor. The nation's top public health agency has been without a permanent leader since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Susan Monarez in August 2025 after less than a month on the job for what she described as refusing to rubber-stamp his vaccine agenda. Dr. Schwartz, who holds a medical degree from Brown University and served in the U.S. Navy until 2005, vowed at her confirmation hearing to stand up to political pressure and "never compromise on the science."
  
  

• Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) announced he will end his reelection bid after the House Ethics Committee recommended he be censured for "persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct" toward two young female staffers. "After much prayer and reflection, I've decided to withdraw from my re-election campaign. I will complete my current term," he wrote on social media. "Serving Western North Carolina has been the honor of my life. Thank you for your trust, prayers, and support." Republican leaders in western North Carolina are set to meet next week to select a replacement for Rep. Edwards on the November ballot.
  
  

• Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said he wasn't worried about his nomination for attorney general after Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said she would oppose him. "No, I'm not worried about what's going to happen over the next couple of days," he told reporters. Mr. Blanche is currently one vote shy of confirmation after securing the support of Sen. John Curtis (R-UT). Sen. Collins, who's locked in a tight reelection battle, said she was concerned about the Justice Department becoming more political. "Mr. Blanche has taken several actions that have further eroded the Department's independence, and that is the basis for my vote to oppose his confirmation," she said in a statement. Mr. Blanche can afford to lose just two Republican votes given Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) extended absence. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) remain undecided.

For your radar…

• The Senate Homeland Security Committee meets Thursday to vote on a resolution holding Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after the former longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases pleaded the Fifth and refused to answer questions during a hearing last week on the origins of COVID-19. Watch LIVE on C-SPAN at 8:30am ET.

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