Michigan Democrats sought Wednesday to turn the page on a bitter Senate primary, as Republicans made their opening attacks on newly anointed Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed. 

El-Sayed, a former local public health official running on an unabashedly progressive agenda, narrowly defeated the more centrist Rep. Haley Stevens in a divisive primary for the open Senate seat in battleground Michigan. He is now set to face Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in what will be a major test for Democrats’ left flank as it seeks to prove that a progressive message can carry candidates over the finish line outside of deep-blue territory. 

The stakes in November are high. Senate Democrats see a path to winning control of the chamber, but holding the Michigan seat would be crucial to that effort.

Republican groups responded to El-Sayed’s win by quickly trying to cast him as too extreme for Michigan. The state has swung back and forth between the parties in recent presidential elections but hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate in more than 30 years. 

President Donald Trump on social media referred to El-Sayed’s win as “Great News for the Republican Party” while branding the Democratic nominee a “Communist loser who hates Jews and Israel.”

U.S. policy toward Israel became a flashpoint in the Democratic primary. El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim senator if elected, has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and criticized Stevens over her votes to continue funding for Israel’s military and over the roughly $30 million spent on her behalf by the super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. 

The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a digital ad that called El-Sayed “the most radical Senate candidate in America,” while, Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC with ties to the chamber’s GOP leaders, launched a six-figure statewide digital ad campaign slamming the nominee as “dangerously radical.”

“From calling to disarm the police to his close ties to extremist figures, Abdul El-Sayed is uniquely dangerous and unqualified,” SLF executive director Alex Latcham said in a statement. “From now until Election Day, SLF will do everything within its power to support Mike Rogers and stop Abdul from endangering Michigan families.”

SLF has said it will invest $45 million on Michigan’s Senate race this year, the group’s largest investment for a Democrat-held seat. 

Speaking early Wednesday morning before the race was called, El-Sayed said he was well-positioned to take on Rogers and withstand the GOP attacks, arguing that he’d won the nomination despite the tens of millions in spending against him during the primary. 

“As folks ask, if and when we win this race, how are you going to beat Mike Rogers and their money, I want you to remind them that if we come through … that we’ll have taken $70 million on the chin and kept fighting back,” he said.

El-Sayed also said his message would resonate with Michiganders who were more focused on affordability than with politics. 

“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. I don’t know what will happen if I get sick because I can’t afford my deductible,’” he said. “We are not a purple state. We are a state in need of a movement to take our politics back.”

Over the course of a bitter primary, El-Sayed and Stevens traded attacks at times, sometimes in personal terms. But both sought to move past that fight Wednesday. 

El-Sayed, who once referred to Stevens as the “least capable candidate in America,” called her “one of the most committed public servants that you’ll ever meet” as he spoke at a Detroit news conference after the race was called. Stevens, who previously dismissed El-Sayed as a “celebrity candidate,” said in a statement Wednesday that she was “proud to offer my support as he takes on Mike Rogers in the general election.”

Rogers, who was unopposed for the Republican nomination, narrowly lost a close Senate race two years ago to Democrat Elissa Slotkin as Trump was carrying the state by a slightly wider margin on his way to a second term in the White House. In a statement Wednesday, the former congressman contrasted his experience in national security, as a former chair of the House Intelligence Committee and former FBI agent, with El-Sayed’s appearances with progressive livestreamer Hasan Piker, who once said America “deserved 9/11.” (He later clarified that his remarks were meant as a criticism of U.S. foreign policy.)

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said in a Wednesday memo that the party was well-positioned to hold the Michigan seat, dismissing Rogers as a “deeply flawed candidate.” 

The DSCC launched its own six-figure ad campaign Wednesday tying the GOP nominee to the pharmaceutical industry and calling him corrupt.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and DSCC Chair Kirsten Gillibrand, who had backed Stevens during the primary, issued a joint statement Wednesday praising El-Sayed’s “energetic campaign.”

“Democrats are united by a common purpose: putting a check on Donald Trump by defeating his Republican enablers and taking back the Senate,” they said. “We look forward to working with Abdul and Democrats across Michigan to win this seat in November.”

The Michigan Democratic Party is planning a general election campaign kickoff event Friday with all the Democrats running statewide and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, now a Michigan resident and potential 2028 presidential contender.