Before the vote, another vote: How US primaries decide who gets to run for midterms & why the Michigan election mattered

Abdul El-Sayed defeated four-term Congresswoman Haley Stevens on Wednesday to win the Democratic nomination for a US Senate seat from Michigan. El-Sayed got 14,893 more votes than Stevens in a record turnout. This primary win showed how voters pick candidates before the general election, unsettling the party’s powerful establishment leaders.