Senate Majority PAC plans more than $60 million for El-Sayed
The Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC had announced plans to spend more than $60 million on communications in support of Abdul El-Sayed and $33 million on television for Troy Jackson by Election Day. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the campaign arm for Senate Democrats, had invested more than $21 million in El-Sayed and $8 million in Jackson. The super PAC had not announced an investment in Minnesota.
Allies of establishment Democrats said the party apparatus had not only backed El-Sayed and Jackson but had gone beyond ordinary support for them, describing its backing as stronger than for other progressive candidates. Those allies said progressive candidates had unnecessarily pulled time and money into races that should have been easier for Democrats, to the detriment of other campaigns. Progressives said the party’s establishment was not doing everything possible to help them win, according to people familiar with the conversations.
The Wall Street Journal said Democrats had a chance to retake the Senate, a proposition that seemed far-fetched earlier in the year. These disputes remained unresolved in the final days before Election Day.
El-Sayed narrowly won Michigan’s Democratic primary despite a push from party leaders to back Stevens. Maine Democrats selected progressive Troy Jackson after Graham Platner, another progressive who had won the primary over Schumer’s preferred candidate, dropped out amid sexual assault allegations. Minnesota’s nominee, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, also a progressive, won easily against another candidate seen as Schumer’s pick. Analysts viewed Minnesota as a lean Democratic seat, though Republicans still saw a chance.
Michigan is one of the most important races for control of the Senate and a test for Democrats. If El-Sayed, a former public health official, wins, the result would bolster the argument among progressive Democrats that their candidates can win hard races in purple states in America’s heartland. That argument runs against a long-held belief among top Democrats that only moderates can win battleground races. Maine voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, and Michigan had not elected a Republican senator in more than three decades; nonpartisan analysts consider both Senate seats tossups.
Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens had been the party leadership’s pick in the Democratic primary against the more progressive El-Sayed. After previously endorsing El-Sayed, she endorsed former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers on Sunday. Their disagreement centered on Stevens’s disapproval of El-Sayed’s critical comments about Israel’s actions in the Middle East. Israel is among the most divisive issues within the Democratic Party, and top Democratic leaders swiftly criticized Stevens’s move. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York called it a “despicable betrayal” in a social-media post and said, “Senate Democrats are united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed.” The disagreement came days before the election.
Since January, Ohio, Alaska and Iowa—normally solid Republican states—had become tossups, while North Carolina was seen as leaning toward Democrats. Schumer had been heavily involved in recruiting candidates in several of the most competitive states but had not prevented progressives from becoming nominees in states viewed as easier Democratic victories. The Wall Street Journal said those races were unexpectedly tight in a year when the Republican Party was having difficulty retaining Trump’s 2024 coalition.
Progressives were also nominees in several key Senate battlegrounds, including Michigan and Maine, as well as in several competitive House races across the country. The House was expected to have more than half a dozen Democratic socialists in office next year, and Democratic socialists were already in charge of, or competitive in races to lead, some of the country’s biggest cities. According to a Wall Street Journal poll, voters in general had moved toward a more populist approach to governing.
Establishment allies also said Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont had not pulled his weight for the candidates he backed. According to a spokesman for the senator, Sanders had donated just over $2 million to El-Sayed and roughly $1.5 million to other candidates. The report said Sanders had campaigned hard for El-Sayed and other progressives and had almost $22 million on hand as of the last campaign filing. Those allies said his signal that he was unlikely to run again for president had made the remaining cash available for spending. Spokesman Jeremy Slevin said Sanders “is doing everything in his power to end Trump’s rubber-stamp Republican Congress,” adding that Sanders had spent more than $16 million on rallies and campaign staff in competitive states. Representatives for Schumer, El-Sayed and Jackson did not respond to requests for comment.
Last month, Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley stood beside Ocasio-Cortez at a press gaggle in Michigan to boost El-Sayed and criticized the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, claiming it was not giving an “equitable investment in progressive and diverse candidates.” Pressley referred to the Democratic nominees in Michigan, Florida and Mississippi. Nonpartisan analysts considered Florida and Mississippi long shots for Democrats and likely Republican seats. Party leaders’ allies responded that her comments did not match the amount the DSCC and Senate Majority PAC had spent in Michigan, in particular.
The DSCC and Senate Majority PAC had since sent money to Mississippi, where Schumer had helped recruit the nominee, a moderate, according to a person familiar with the matter. Neither group had made major investments in Florida for state representative Angie Nixon. The Senate Majority PAC did not respond to a request for comment. The DSCC said in a statement: “The DSCC’s job is to win a Senate majority, which is why we have heavily invested in states critical to our path.”
Nixon, who joined the Democratic Socialists of America this year but rejected the socialist label, beat a heavily funded moderate backed by party leaders in the August primary. She said in an interview that she now had a “good working relationship” with Democratic leadership, which had helped her raise money. She also said that if she lost on Tuesday, one factor would be that not enough resources were flowing into Florida to help her.
The Senate results also carry implications for the 2028 presidential contest. During a recent fundraiser with El-Sayed, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said, “If Abdul can win in Michigan, anybody can win anywhere.” The report said Ocasio-Cortez was considering a run for president or a challenge to Schumer’s New York Senate seat in 2028. Matt Bennett, co-founder of the centrist Democratic organization Third Way, said he wanted all Democratic candidates to win but worried that if they did, it would negatively affect a 2028 presidential primary. He said, “We are worried about the people who are planning to run as a moderate reading this wrong. Not because they’re not smart but because the story line takes hold” that Democratic voters are more progressive than they actually are.
Progressive organizers and leaders believe a strong showing in the midterms would position them to shape the conversation among the 2028 Democratic presidential candidates. Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, a grassroots progressive group founded by Sanders and now operating independently of him, said, “There are centrists who don’t want to see us win, and who will lay any setbacks on Election Day at the feet of progressives.” He also said, “We’re going to be the center of gravity.”
Both factions want a Democratic Senate, and a win could ease tensions between them. The Wall Street Journal said Tuesday’s results were poised to sharpen the dispute over the party’s direction regardless of the outcome. If Democrats fall short in the Senate, each side will blame the other; if they are victorious, each side will claim the credit and declare its vision vindicated.