Lobbyists Spent $70m to Defeat a Pro-Palestine Candidate. He Still Won

A progressive Democrat and fierce opponent of the genocide in Gaza has won a key primary race in the US, even after corporate and pro-Israel lobbying groups spent a record-breaking $70m (£52m) in a bid to defeat him.

Abdul El-Sayed, who in April described the Israeli government as “pretty damn evil”, beat establishment favourite Haley Stevens in the Michigan Senate Democratic primary by a razor-thin margin. He secured 48.5% of the vote while she got 47.5%.​

In total, fundraising committees known as super PACs spent almost $70m in a bid to prevent El-Sayed from winning. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) spent $30m, with the remainder of the money representing interests including oil, tobacco and private healthcare firms, according to figures compiled by Mother Jones.

Meanwhile, El-Sayed’s campaign spent around $6m on the race. “We just fought through the most expensive Democratic Senate primary in history,” his campaign said in an email on Wednesday.  

​El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former public health official who was raised by Egyptian immigrant parents in Detroit, campaigned on breaking up the private healthcare industry, getting big money out of politics and ending military aid to Israel.

​He supports challenging the US’s exploitative private healthcare insurance system, and championed the policy in a book he authored titled Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide.

In April he told CNN: “Killing tens of thousands of people makes you pretty damn evil.’It’s not how evil is this one versus that one – Hamas: evil, Israeli government: evil. We can say both.”

His victory is the latest in a series of progressive wins in the US that suggest Aipac is becoming less able to punish candidates who speak out against Israel’s mass killings and abuses, and US support for them.

Aipac spent more on trying to defeat El-Sayed than it has in any other race in its history.

“The expensive, financed, racist smears didn’t work,” broadcaster Redi Tlhabi wrote on X after his win. “There is hope yet. This is a political earthquake.”