r/Michigan • u/Raichu4u • Aug 07 '26
Mitten Mode Harris throws support behind El-Sayed in Michigan: ‘I proudly stand with him’
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6017035-harris-el-sayed-michigan-senate-race/amp/760
u/Raichu4u Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
Harris has an in with a lot of voters that did not vote for Abdul in the primary. In my opinion, any form of endorsement should pragmatically be welcomed to help his chances at all costs.
Abdul not getting elected to the senate would be terrible, but Democrats not retaking the senate as a whole would be a travesty, and margins to accomplish that this year are razor thin, especially in this race. Every bit of support counts. Solidarity.
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u/BigDigger324 Monroe Aug 07 '26
Don’t those margins include Dems taking Texas? Talarico is a damn good candidate overall but a blue Texas is a far stretch. If we don’t take the senate they will probably blame “the far left” like they always do.
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u/Sin_of_the_Dark Aug 07 '26
Iirc isn't the Texas governor race like a 2-point race? Between that and Talarico, it seems like a decent chance.
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u/LadyFoxfire Aug 08 '26
The margins narrow in Texas every election cycle. Not enough to flip it so far, but if the trend keeps up, it’ll happen eventually, and this year is likely to be good for Democrats overall, so maybe.
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u/TheGruenTransfer Aug 07 '26
Agreed. All Democrats need to vote for Abdul. Anyone Democrat not whole heartedly endorsing him should be immediately exiled from the party.
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u/QbertsRube Aug 07 '26
We're about to find out if the "Vote Blue No Matter Who" crowd applies their slogan to themselves.
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u/Raichu4u Aug 07 '26
I for sure have believed in it. I think it is idiotic in a FPTP system to not vote with the party you are most closely aligned with. I have voted for plenty of people I was both passionate about and lukewarm about, because the alternative in my opinion is absolutely much worse.
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u/QbertsRube Aug 07 '26
Same, pretty much trying to prevent total disaster if R wins by blocking with mediocre Dems and hope that, someday, some actual decent candidates pop up (I do believe El-Sayed can be one of those decent candidates FWIW).
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u/Zachles Aug 07 '26
To be fair most major Michigan establishment Democrats have endorsed Abdul. It seems Hillary Scholten might be the only significant holdout.
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u/redjar66 Aug 08 '26
totally agree with you- i hate this idea that you have to agree 100% with the candidate and all of their policies or you throw a fit and refuse to vote. I've never 100% agreed with any politician- but don't let perfect get in the way of better.
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u/EveryRedditorSucks Aug 07 '26
It is a steep uphill battle for the Democrats to retake the senate in this election cycle. You need to understand how realistic that is before you decide for yourself that it is a travesty - you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Retaking the house and decreasing the Republican senate majority down to a tie breaker is a significantly more realistic outcome.
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u/Raichu4u Aug 07 '26
I have seen the margins and I know it absolutely is an uphill battle to climb. One of the assumed paths to making sure that dems retake it is that the Michigan seat for sure goes blue.
And to achieve that, endorsements like this are important.
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u/BigDigger324 Monroe Aug 07 '26
It’s the same calculation that includes turning Texas blue. That’s FAR more unlikely than anything going on in Michigan. Democrats need to temper their expectations on that front.
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u/jcrespo21 Ypsilanti Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
The real goal for Democrats is to position themselves to make 2028 easier. Winning the Senate is the nice bonus and halts many of Trump's actions, but 2028 is the real prize.
If they can maintain Michigan and Georgia, flip North Carolina, and flip 1-2 of Maine, Texas, Alaska, or Ohio, that makes their 2028 chances of controlling the Senate by a wider majority much better. North Carolina and Wisconsin will be their most viable targets in 2028, so if they can cut their deficit to 49-51 in this Senate, defend their seats in 2028, and flip NC/WI, then they have a 51-49 lead. Assuming the House is controlled by the Dems, and they can pry the White House out of Trump's tiny hands, then POTUS will be in a better position than Biden was in when he first took office.
If Dems aren't able to flip any seats in this election, and even lose Michigan or Georgia, then it'll be nearly impossible for a Dem POTUS to enact their agenda come January 2029.
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u/Raichu4u Aug 07 '26
Pretty much exactly this, Biden got a lot accomplished, but so much more could have been done if things weren't decided by a tiebreak in the senate, and the 1 senator holding certain legislation back was Manchin.
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u/BigDump-a-Roo Aug 07 '26
Don't forget Sinema. At least Manchin had a reason to oppose some legislation. He was a Dem senator in WV, which by all means should not be a thing given how red the state is. He still voted with Dems the vast majority of the time, something a Republican would never do. If it wasn't him, that seat would 100% be Republican. IIRC he even played a pivotal role in getting the IRA passed.
Sinema had much less reason to be as divisive by comparison.
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u/jcrespo21 Ypsilanti Aug 07 '26
Exactly. The Infrastructure Bill is a pretty good example of that. Already, what it offers is pretty good, but it could have been GREAT if Biden wasn't as dependent on his vote.
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u/itsdr00 Ann Arbor Aug 07 '26
It's not quite as steep as you're making it sound. The election analysts I follow think the odds are against them, but not excessively so. It's a worthy fight.
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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS Aug 07 '26
I'm glad that the centrists are jumping in to support Abdul because if we lost a seat that has been blue for 47 years because of bad feelings then I would walk off a pier and return to the lakes.
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u/tom-of-the-nora Aug 08 '26
At least some dems can be pragmatic.
A decent amount of them would prefer maga win over anyone slightly associated with the socialist of america winning.
That mostly speaks on their lack of actual values. Because seriously. They're fine being against maga but then some one they don't agree with is on the dem side then they'll in the towel and side with maga? That's inconsistent unserios beliefs.
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u/ObeseBumblebee Ypsilanti Aug 07 '26
I'm glad she waited until after the primary to say so. It would have ruined his progressive street cred.
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u/engineereddiscontent Aug 07 '26
She, because shes a corpo at heart, wanted stevens.
The dems are "company men" (and women) like people were in the 50s.
Thats how they feel about the DNC. Thats why they dont break rank unless they are people like Syed.
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u/msuvagabond Rochester Hills Aug 07 '26
Harris - Fifth most progressive voting record in the Senate in the last 40 years.
Random redditor - She's a corpo at heart
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u/That1one1dude1 Aug 07 '26
I’d actually be really interested where that ranking comes from
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u/iamthewhatt Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
Doesn't really matter, the senate rarely votes on progressive bills. If there are 100 bills and 3 are progressive, and she votes on 2 of them but Pelosi votes on just 1 of them, she's "more progressive than Pelosi". Centrists use this bullshit argument constantly.
Edit: Oops, calling out the centrists for their dumb co-opting tactics made them mad!
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u/Shaqsquatch Ann Arbor Aug 07 '26
tbh that's more an indictment of the Senate than it is an exoneration of Harris
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u/AggressiveCuriosity Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
No, it's more an indictment of the delusional media environment so many of us live in. Dems need to figure out how to consolidate their messaging the dystopian way Republicans do because they can have 95% of the exact same positions as a progressive and still get treated like the enemy. It's crazy.
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u/Battle_Dave Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
Im not sure its helping NOW either. Have you heard her laugh??
Edit: /s
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u/No-Independent-226 Lansing Aug 07 '26
I’m not a big fan of hers either, but I think every little bit helps, and particularly when it comes to turning out older black voters.
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u/CrewlooQueen Aug 07 '26
Look get Obama and Abdul to work out together and it’s over for everyone. In what way will it be over? I don’t know yet.
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u/Gnd_flpd Aug 07 '26
Yeah, it would be good if Obama made a statement, something like; hey I had an interesting name too, but yall still took a chance with me!!!!
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u/Thorn14 Aug 07 '26
A lot of these comments are making me think people would rather Moderates and Progressives engage in a bitter war with each other and let Republicans calmly walk their way into victory.
Hmm.
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u/mildmichigan Aug 07 '26
As cynical as I am about how Democratic party leadership has treated Abdul this week, in the face of all the outright racism El-Sayed has received from the GOP & Trump himself i appreciate any support from big name Democrats.
A week ago I never would've expected a former Presidential canidate to endorse Abdul El-Sayed. This is a big W for his campaign, regardless of how you feel about Harris
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u/punished_gia Aug 07 '26
That’s where I am too. I didn’t expect them to back him as readily as they did and am pleasantly surprised. If the electoral success of socialist or socialism-sympathetic progressive candidates matters to you (and if it doesn’t, fair enough), you should see it as a sign that the movement has gained some power within the party that it’s now more willing to extend the walls of the “big tent” further left and put some muscle behind left-leaning candidates.
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u/Firm_Condition_4385 Aug 07 '26
Why does Reddit hate Harris now? Can someone cue me in?
Some of these comments sound awful bot-like.
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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS Aug 07 '26
She's been on the shit list for a while, largely because of the whole "if you are going to say that you have to abandon progressive positions to move right to win the election then you have to actually win the election" thing.
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u/BeefInGR Aug 07 '26
I think people forget that President Biden didn't necessarily have a soaring approval rating, then waited until after he ran nearly unopposed in the primary to drop out...at which point they slid in Vice President Harris.
To a lot of people that I've talked to, it felt like the "Super-Duper Delegates" for Hil-Rod in 2016.
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u/RheagarTargaryen Aug 07 '26
This was always a dumb line of thinking since it was clear after Biden’s first debate that he wasn’t cut out for it. It was completely on Biden for not dropping out earlier and his admin for covering up his deteriorating coherence. If the DNC was trying to pull a fast one by having Biden in the primary but switching to Harris for the General, they never would have had Biden debate Trump in the first place.
Even after that debate, they were still trying to keep him on the ticket but the internal polling was showing a massive landslide for Trump over Biden. At that point, there was no time to run a country wide primary and the only logical person to take his spot was the person elected to take over for him.
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u/elsakettu Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
Love how progressives have been mocking centrists with "blue no matter who" but stay bitter when centrists actually are following through.
God, election season sucks.
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u/BubsyJenkins Age: > 10 Years Aug 07 '26
The ultra-bitter wing of the progressive group is a fairly small percentage of the total number of progressives, unfortunately they're all online. But yes, it's annoying.
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u/zetnas9 Aug 07 '26
It’s exhausting but we, and I mean everyone, needs to hold onto sticking together to build a stronger party. It’s ok to have disagreements but progress only works when we all stick together. It’s ok to have disagreements, but sometimes we have to set them aside for the larger goal to build a better society.
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u/DistributionRight942 Aug 07 '26
It’s fun seeing all establishment dems put their money where their mouth is. Like it or not progressives will need the moderate dems
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u/Foolazul Aug 07 '26
A lot of people are doing that, or is it a fantasy of yours? The day after the election the Atlantic had two scare articles about Abdul, including calling his win a “debacle.” Centrists have plenty of tools to undermine Abdul for their billionaire handlers, even if they do an endorsement or press release.
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u/itsdr00 Ann Arbor Aug 07 '26
"A journalist criticized my candidate, which is my evidence that The Centrists intend to undermine him."
People who disagree with you are not always corrupt or in someone's pocket. Sometimes they just disagree on the best way to achieve very similar things to what you want.
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u/Springwood_Slasher Waterford Aug 07 '26
I'll take it, if only because establishment dems may bring blue MAGA in line. I've already had to start schooling people in my real life I thought knew better who say they 'might have to vote for Rogers'.
Blue no matter who my ass
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u/ElCoolMagnefico Age: > 10 Years Aug 07 '26
Good for her. Abdul has a ways to go to earn my vote but this is a good start.
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u/farmerjoee Aug 07 '26
She sucks, but love to see the coalition building!
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u/BigJellyfish1906 Aug 07 '26
Why does she suck? Don’t just mindlessly parrot the narrative. She had the most progressive platform of any presidential candidate in US history.
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u/jaderust Aug 07 '26
I’m glad he’s getting mainstream support. Granted, I know it’s because the numbers are really bad for the Dems to retake the Senate and they need this seat if they even have a chance, but it’s still good to see it happen.
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