By Jeffrey Blehar
Tuesday, August 04, 2026
Michiganders head to the polls today to cast their
primary votes, as August heats up into a battle between the Democrats and the
Democratic Socialists in two of the most tightly contested swing states in
America. The State of Wisconsin (where DSA state representative Francesca Hong
looks likely to romp in the Democratic gubernatorial primary) will be addressed
next week. But the fury of Michigan’s progressive class will fall upon the
Democratic Party tonight, and it looks like it will be ugly.
There is only one race to discuss. In the Democratic
Senate primary to replace the retiring Gary Peters, serial candidate and
progressive activist Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is facing off against Representative
Haley Stevens, of Michigan’s eleventh district.
El-Sayed is the “glamour” candidate in the race: He’s
relatively young, crisply bearded and dressed, and loudly endorsed by both
Hasan Piker and the Democratic Socialists of America, and his rise is powered
by both the younger vote in places like Ann Arbor, but also — needless to say —
by the state’s burgeoning Muslim population. (Michigan is only 2.5 percent
Muslim, but their communities are politically well-organized, and they vote.)
He promises to be a “change” candidate — he has announced he will not vote for
Senator Chuck Schumer as Democratic leader in the next Congress, should he win.
His political positions are demonstrably insane, as you
would expect from an officially approved Democratic Socialist: Medicare for
All, the abolition of all medical debt, a national billionaires tax, abolition
of the Senate filibuster, expansion of the Supreme Court — basically all of the
positions you associate with the far left. (The DSA’s new official platform
calls for the abolition
of the Senate — has anyone asked El-Sayed why he’s running for a place in
an institution his own people are sworn to destroy?)
And El-Sayed’s campaign against Stevens has been
conducted in a way his supporters would likely characterize as “brash,” but
which appears as “Trumpish” to neutral observers and “thuggish” to you or me.
El-Sayed has referred to Stevens as “the
least capable candidate in America” and “a suit with a large AIPAC bank
account” while denouncing Israel and capitalism writ large in increasingly
strident terms.
His focus on Israel instead of capitalism writ large — to
the point where he sometimes seems to be running a foreign-policy-based
campaign in a state with an electorate like Massachusetts’s — has been
noteworthy and suggests he is driven by different demons than the average
Democratic voter in Michigan: When people notice that the energy surrounding
the DSA is bound together by thinly veiled antisemitism, they are largely thinking of the headlines
generated by El-Sayed. (“Every definition of a Jewish state ends up in some
articulation of illiberal values, every single one,” El-Sayed told CNN.)
And it seems to be working — at least for now. El-Sayed’s
opponent Haley Stevens, although a doctrinaire progressive in every previously
understood sense of the word, has had the ill-starred luck to become the
“establishment” candidate in this race, running a thoroughly Midwestern,
Michigan-centric campaign for Senate. The powers that be in Michigan Democratic
politics — including Governor Gretchen Whitmer — have all coalesced behind her.
(Another candidate in the “establishment” lane, Mallory McMorrow, dropped out in early July.)
But it probably won’t be enough to stop the good “doctor”
from winning tonight. (El-Sayed earned a medical degree and prefers to be
addressed as “Dr.” but has never practiced medicine.) The RealClearPolitics polling average of the primary
currently places him firmly ahead of Stevens, 50.5 percent to 40.5, and every
poll taken since early July has shown Stevens trailing El-Sayed by double
digits. (In other words, he has both the numbers and the perception of
momentum.) Polling in Michigan is notoriously terrible, and a big miss tonight
is certainly possible. But if El-Sayed loses, it would run counter to
Democratic trends in nearly every other big state.
And if El-Sayed triumphs as expected? Then that’s when
the fun starts for Michigan Republicans, who have not won a Senate seat in the
Wolverine State since the hazy days of Spencer Abraham and the Republican
Revolution of 1994. Despite how terrible a year 2026 is expected to be for the
GOP, their nominee — respected GOP veteran Representative Mike Rogers — matches
up perfectly against the sectarian DSA-driven madness of El-Sayed. Rogers currently leads in early polling of the general election,
though not by any convincing margin.
That lead is likely illusory; Michigan is still a
Democratic state in its basic DNA — only Trump has cracked its statewide code
for the GOP since the days of Governor Rick Snyder, and those were very
different days indeed. But it has always preferred stolid, boring Democrats
like Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, who quietly brought home important wins
for their state’s economy.
El-Sayed offers none of that to his voters, only a
monomaniacal focus on socialist sloganeering and anti-Zionist rhetoric. It may
still work in November, given Trump’s national unpopularity. But the race will
be competitive nonetheless, because Detroit cares a lot more about the fate of
the auto industry than it does the fate of Gaza.
Max Miller Must Go
Unless you’re the sort of semi-freakish political
grognard I once was, you probably had no idea that Representative Max Miller,
of Ohio’s seventh congressional district, even existed until a few weeks ago.
But the old heads remember. I specifically remember him from what now
feels like a lifetime ago, right after the disastrous end of the first Trump
administration in 2021. I remember in the fall, former Trump press secretary
Stephanie Grisham published her memoir, in which she revealed a fairly shocking
tale about a (then-unnamed) White House aide who had turned violent on her both during and after their
relationship:
I couldn’t sit there and listen
to that [President Trump speaking about him kindly]. Although I had not
intended to, I confided the same story about the physical abuse that I had told
Mrs. Trump. I told the president that this “great guy” had anger issues and a
violent streak. I was not some stranger making a wild accusation. I hoped that
he would take me seriously, that he would do something.
He didn’t. Because that man’s name was Max Miller, and Miller is a “made man” in Trumpworld.
Miller was Trump’s “advance guy” all throughout his wild 2016 campaign, and
Trump grew affectionately close to him as the curator of his music playlists,
among other things. Miller was instead kept within the Trump fold after the
news broke, with the charges against him dismissed as disloyalty — during a
time, post-January 6, when Trump had few friends at all.
Then Miller rekindled an old relationship with Emily
Moreno — who, as it happens, is the daughter of now-Senator Bernie Moreno (R.,
Ohio). (The timing is complex here and not worth explaining in detail; Moreno
was already contemplating his first run for Senate in early 2021, for what
would briefly become JD Vance’s seat; he withdrew from that race in deference
to Vance and now holds Sherrod Brown’s seat. Brown is currently threatening to
topple Vance’s replacement, Senator Jon Husted. Confused yet?)
Miller got engaged to Emily Moreno in 2021; the two got
married in August 2022. In between, Miller announced a campaign to primary
“disloyal” Republican Anthony Gonzalez in Ohio’s seventh district, with Trump’s
direct endorsement. (Gonzalez had voted to impeach Trump after January 6, and
Trump wanted revenge.) Gonzalez dropped out of the race rather than be wiped
away, and the seat was Miller’s. A daughter followed in November of 2023.
And then Emily Moreno filed for divorce in August 2024.
Think about that for a moment: married for only two years, only nine months
removed from giving birth to her firstborn daughter — and she wanted out. (The
divorce was finalized last December.)
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happened here
(or that Stephanie Grisham’s warnings went sadly unnoticed or ignored all those
years ago), but if you wish to dismiss the recently revealed divorce filings —
wherein Moreno presents evidence that Miller not only physically abused her,
but their infant girl as well — then perhaps you will listen
to the words of Senator Moreno himself:
Out of concern for the safety of
my family, I hoped to keep this matter private but Max Miller’s increasingly
erratic and dangerous behavior has made that impossible.
As he has admitted privately, Max
Miller needs serious psychological help. He is a danger to my daughter, and I
hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter.
If there are any basic standards
of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. He should
not serve in the House of Representatives. I believe Max Miller needs to seek
professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake. I
believe he should not be free to continue endangering others until he does.
The Ohio primary was in May; the deadline for Miller to
drop out of the race is tomorrow, August 5. Miller is currently dug in to his position, publicly refusing to go. (Perhaps a
phone call from Donald Trump is necessary.)
Otherwise it will be up to the voters to retire him, or
Congress to expel him. A lot of people want to make this about Bernie Moreno,
for the obvious reason that he’s more important politically than some
replacement-level House member. I don’t see how that can be done within the
bounds of decency — but then again you see all sorts of mad things around here
at the Carnival, a place not known for its decency. I do know this, however:
Max Miller must go. Either now or in November.
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