Detroit, Michigan
ABDUL EL-SAYED STOOD on the steps of a small brick church, staring at the dozens of cameras and microphones pointed in his direction—and strangely defiant in what was shaping up to be the worst day of his U.S. Senate campaign.
asserted
what → stand → campaign
It was early Sunday afternoon, just hours after his onetime rival for the Democratic nomination, Rep. Haley Stevens, had announced she was endorsing Republican nominee Mike Rogers.
asserted
she → announce → Rogers
Just to make things worse, Stevens had announced her endorsement by joining Rogers at a large black community church, making a play for voters that El-Sayed had lost to Stevens in the primary and that he was struggling to win over fully in the general.
asserted
he → make → general
The church where El-Sayed appeared was also a black congregation.
asserted
Sayed → appear → ?
The whole point of the day’s “Souls to the Polls” event was to rally those still-skeptical black voters.
asserted
point → rally → voters
And to do that, El-Sayed had brought key supporters including James Clyburn, the senior House Democrat and civil rights veteran who had endorsed Stevens in the primary.
asserted
who → do → primary
All anyone seemed to care about was the rift between El-Sayed and Stevens.
asserted
anyone → seem → Sayed
Amid the bustle, El-Sayed refused to concede the rhetorical ground, reacting instead as he always does when he doesn’t like the question: He challenged the assembled reporters to ask something different.
asserted
He → refuse → something
“None of this matters—guys, guys, guys,” El-Sayed said, trying to shush the crushing mob of reporters that left poor Don Lemon standing in a shrub.
asserted
that → matter → shrub
“There’s a family—you can go like fifteen minutes that way, or fifteen minutes that way, or fifteen minutes that way,” he said, pointing left, right, and straight ahead.
asserted
he → ’ → ?
“And there are families who are preparing to send their kids to schools tomorrow that look like they did fifty years ago.
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they → be → schools
They’re worried about what they’re going to feed their kids for lunch.
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they → ’re → lunch
They’re worried that if one of their kids gets sick, they’re not going to be able to pay the bills.
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they → ’re → bills
Those are the things that matter.”
asserted
that → matter → ?
The gambit did not work.
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gambit → work → ?
After two futile attempts to solicit questions about something other than the Stevens saga, Roxie Richner—El-Sayed’s 24-year-old communications director—declared the press conference over.
asserted
Richner → solicit → conference
El-Sayed and the assembled dignitaries retreated back into the church for the proceedings, in what looked like a prelude to bigger defeats.
asserted
what → assemble → defeats
The Rogers campaign has shown signs of life in just the last two weeks, for the first time attracting modest crowds to its events.
asserted
campaign → show → events
Rogers himself has seemed more at ease in his speeches and interviews, having finally gotten some practice after dodging scrutiny while running uncontested in his party’s primaries.
asserted
Rogers → seem → primaries
Meanwhile, ads attacking El-Sayed as too extreme are saturating the airwaves and internet, and filling Michiganders’ mailboxes.
asserted
ads → attack → mailboxes
Many tap unabashedly into anti-Arab or anti-Muslim bigotry.
asserted
Many → tap → bigotry
But by Sunday evening, there were signs that El-Sayed might get through the Stevens fiasco just fine, or maybe even in a stronger position.
uncertain
Sayed → be → position
It was a scenario that El-Sayed advisers and supporters had suggested after news of the Stevens endorsement broke, and it
uncertain
news → suggest → endorsement
hadn’t seemed especially plausible until a loud, furious chorus of her fellow Democrats started denouncing her.
asserted
chorus → seem → her
Later came word from the El-Sayed campaign that it had raised $2.4 million in the hours following the Stevens news and the publication of the final New York Times/Siena poll, historically among the most reliable, showing El-Sayed ahead by 11 points.
asserted
Sayed → come → points
And then later in the evening, Stevens went on CNN to talk about her Rogers endorsement—in a performance even her longtime allies described as a train wreck.
asserted
allies → go → wreck
It was a wild twist to a wild day, following a wild few days that showcased both the promise and the peril of El-Sayed’s candidacy, on which not just Michigan’s Senate seat but a potential Democratic majority could depend.
uncertain
seat → follow → which
STEVENS HAD MOSTLY VANISHED from the news until last week, and she had not been on the campaign trail stumping for fellow Democrats, either.
asserted
she → vanish → Democrats
Her absence was conspicuous, given that the third Democratic candidate from the primary, Mallory McMorrow, was making regular and enthusiastic appearances.
asserted
candidate → give → appearances
But it also made sense given how heated the primary between El-Sayed and Stevens had become by the end, and the ongoing controversies over the subjects that had most divided them: El-Sayed’s position and rhetoric on issues tied to Israel.
asserted
that → make → Israel
The issue flared up again last week, following a series of events—including the appearance on October 23 of an anti-Rogers ad almost impossible not to see as antisemitic.
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issue → flare → ad
The ad was not put out by El-Sayed’s campaign, but by a PAC started by left-wing commentator Cenk Uygur.
asserted
ad → put → Uygur
That’s when Stevens’s fiancé, a lawyer and disability advocate named Jason Turkish with a record of donations to pro-Israel candidates of both parties, announced he was endorsing Rogers because he found El-Sayed’s views so objectionable.
asserted
views → ’ → Rogers
Turkish did so at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Oakland County, the Democratic-leaning northern Detroit suburb with a large Jewish population.
asserted
Turkish → do → population
Stevens told friends and her political contacts that she wasn’t abandoning El-Sayed, then went on CNN to say so publicly—although, when she did, she qualified her endorsement by saying he needed to say more to denounce antisemitic rhetoric, presaging a day of ambiguity and indecision from Stevens.
asserted
he → tell → Stevens
Party leaders, including Michigan’s veteran House Democrat Debbie Dingell, intervened at that point, eyeing Clyburn’s coming visit as a chance for El-Sayed and Stevens to appear jointly and demonstrate party unity.
asserted
Sayed → include → unity
Exactly who said what to whom at this point remains unclear.
uncertain
who → say → point
But the public sequence went something like this: Stevens released a statement confirming she would be appearing with El-Sayed but calling on him to “apologize” for statements linking Israel to affordability concerns in Michigan, and to “take down” an ad his own campaign put out that included a brief clip of Tucker Carlson.
asserted
that → go → Carlson
In reply, El-Sayed put out a statement making clear he wasn’t about to relitigate a primary he had already won.
asserted
he → put → primary
And then plans for the joint appearance went poof.
asserted
plans → go → poof
…and 58 more, not listed.
The Aporia
