DETROIT — In a razor-thin race, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed defeated Congresswoman Haley Stevens to win the Democratic nomination for the United State Senate. The seat is open due to the retirement of Senator Gary Peters which was announced early last year.
El-Sayed scored ~48.5 percent of the vote, Stevens received roughly one percent less or about 16,000 votes. The remainder of votes went to Mallory McMorrow, who dropped out of the race in early July but won just over 61,000 votes.
The Republicans did not have a competitive primary as former Congressman and 2024 loser of the Senate race ran unopposed.
In the race for Governor, Democrats nominated Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson who won every county and nearly 1.25 million votes which represented over 83 percent of the vote. Genesee county sheriff Chris Swanson got just under 17 percent and about 250,000 votes. Turnout for the Democrats was just shy of 1.5 million votes showing enthusiasm for the fall election.
Republicans nominated John James, a Congressman with a track record of losing statewide races. James scored just over 50 percent of a depressed GOP turnout – scoring just over 466,000 votes – far short of Benson’s haul. Self-proclaimed “quality guru” Perry Johnson spent heavily out of his own pocket to receive roughly 35 percent of the vote.
The larger story of the night in both races was the large difference in turnout for Democrats and Republicans. The Democratic Party had over 1.5 million turn out for its competitive primary while the Republicans brought out less than 1 million for its competitive primary. This could be a sign of depressed Republican turnout as gas prices, healthcare prices and food prices continue to rise.
