Progressive Senate Candidate Who Campaigned With Hasan Piker Surges to Primary Lead In Latest Poll

Screenshot via social media

Progressive candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, jumped to the lead in the Democratic Party primary this week – narrowly overtaking state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-MI).

The Emerson poll of 519 likely primary voters showed El-Sayed with 24% of the vote to McMorrow’s 23.6% of the vote, while Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) landed in third with 13.4% of the vote.

The poll is particularly significant given the headline-grabbing scandals surrounding El-Sayed in recent weeks.

El-Sayed became the center of a heated debate on the left after he appeared at a campaign rally alongside Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who is known for his outlandish rhetoric. Piker has stirred controversy for saying things like “Hamas unironically is the lesser evil” compared to Israel, “It doesn’t matter if f*cking rapes happened on October 7. It doesn’t change the dynamic for me,” and “Oh my god, 9/11 2 is going to be so sick. Give Saudi Arabia a nuke so they can do 9/11 2.” Piker, in recent months, has also traveled to China and Cuba, where he praised those countries’ authoritarian communist governments.

El-Sayed has also had some personal missteps, with a call leaking to the press that included him warning staff that his voters are likely “sad” on the day the Ayatollah Khamenei was killed. He warned it was a “risk” to condemn the recent synagogue and preschool attack in Michigan.

However, those scandals seemed to either have no impact on El-Sayed’s campaign or, conversely, they actually helped him, as the Emerson poll is an 8-point gain from the same poll taken in late January. Mallory, meanwhile, has gained 2 points since January in the poll, while Stevens has dropped 4.

Screenshot via ECP

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