All eyes have been focused on this race:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/michigan-senate-results
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and its affiliated groups have spent close to $30 million backing Stevens — their largest investment ever in a single race — as they seek to defeat progressive favorite Abdul El-Sayed in the Aug. 4 primary.
Stevens has largely avoided discussing the organization directly, even as its spending has reshaped the race. Asked twice about AIPAC during a July campaign stop in West Michigan, she responded for more than 800 words without mentioning the group a single time. Israel came up only once, when she said she “wanted to see the U.S. and Israel working together to rebuild Gaza.”
El-Sayed has embraced the contrast. The son of Egyptian immigrants, he has called Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a “genocide,” described the Israeli government as “evil,” and repeatedly argued that AIPAC’s influence distorts Democratic politics.
“The reason that we’ve seen this war fought is because of the impact of AIPAC in our politics,” El-Sayed said during a recent debate.
El-Sayed has spent about $3.2 million from his own campaign account on advertising, with around $1 million in outside spending. His campaign has instead emphasized grassroots organizing, saying it has recruited more than 10,000 volunteers statewide.
Asked how many volunteers Stevens has, her campaign said it has “hundreds across Michigan.”
“This election will come down to the many versus the money,” El-Sayed wrote.
Once-firm support for Israel has eroded within parts of the Democratic Party in the fallout from the war in Gaza. As divisions over Israel have deepened, criticism of AIPAC has intensified.
Earlier this week, 103 House Democrats voted unsuccessfully to block $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel, the clearest sign yet of the party’s divide. Among them was New York Rep. Pat Ryan, who had previously voted to send aid to Israel and accepted support from AIPAC.
“I expect groups like AIPAC will not support me in my future elections and frankly, I don’t want their support,” Ryan said on social media, later adding that he was returning the money.
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Americans are getting sick and tired of Jewish Lobby groups spending many 10s of millions of dollars to get pro Israel candidates elected that continue to support a genocide by a rogue country and global pariah. Our morally bankrupt politicians are bought and paid for by lobby money, that especially features the Military-Industrial Complex.
They are voting to do things that the VAST majority of Americans strongly oppose.
El-Sayed was outspend by a 10 to 1 factor with support of special interest groups.
These SUPER Pacts our undermining our democracy!!!!
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6am: Personally, I would have preferred the candidate that stands the best chance to win in the open election in November in order to give the party that cares about Americans the most and isn't controlled by a pathologically thinking lunatic a chance to take over the Senate but it looks like the other one will win. However, the ANTI Donald Trump sentiment is probably strong enough for either to win.
The former public health official has defeated Rep. Haley Stevens, NBC News projects, despite facing a huge advertising disadvantage.
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Voters in Michigan just flipped the bird to AIPAC and their record, $30+ million spent to defeat this candidate.
It ended up being a razor sharp close win but winning after being outspent by the opposition by a factor of 10 to 1 is one heck of a win.
And the opposition has 30+ million in their coffers that in this case is not just gone but may actually serve as a battle cry to elect this guy in November........this is the anti establishment guy that represents the people and is fighting against the establishment, Trump, Rs and massive lobby and special interests money.
I've had the opportunity the past 24 hours to actually listen to this guy and read what he has been saying.
The reports about him being antisemitic are despicable lies!
He is against funding a genocide by Israel with our tax dollars...........so am I.
He is against spending US tax dollars to fund any country's military, including Israel.........so am I.
Watch and listen to his actual words and not the BS from people that lie about him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKLugHNXHVY
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From the biggest liar on the planet and El-Sayed making it clear that Donald Trump is lying about him by telling us how he really feels!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofZ4HLaewNc
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
https://forward.com/opinion/843488/abdul-el-sayed-detroit-rabbi/
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After reading and hearing really bad things about El Sayed , mostly sourced from AIPAC and Rs, thanks to their immense 30 million campaign using negative tactics and outright lies prior to the election, I had a bad impression of what he stands for.
Thanks to actually following him for a couple of days, listening to his actual words I was enlightened with the truth.
Wow! What a stark contrast to my wrong impression.
He won against a fellow D. Will the losers unite with him in November to defeat the R??? That's what matters. I say yes, even with corrupt, democracy distorting AIPAC likely to put up another attempt to defeat him, using their massively outsized power for their anti American, special interests.
I have never been so appalled as I was this week at the despicable tactics of El Sayed's extremely powerful political enemies in attempting to destroy him with blatant lies using.
The right person for American democracy and American's won this race!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/29/aipac-j-street-zionism
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Like many Americans, I cannot UNsee what I just witnessed here. AIPAC has been exposed and defeated, despite them outspending the better candidate by a factor of 10 to 1.
For the umpteenth time, I am NOT antisemitic, just like I'm NOT anti American for speaking out against Donald Trump and corruption in American politics.
And I will, from now on be speaking out against AIPAC, thanks to witnessing first hand how nefarious this special interest group really is, despite my personal friendships and tremendous respect for Jewish Americans.
EXPLAINER
News|US Midterm Elections 2026
Pro-Israel group unleashes its spending power to help elect Haley Stevens to US Senate against progressive doctor.
What are the other PACs?
The other $30m that flooded the race with pro-Stevens and anti-El-Sayed ads has mostly come from PACs that are funded by other PACs and dark money groups, which have not fully disclosed their donors.
It’s like a Russian doll – a PAC within a PAC within a PAC within a social welfare nonprofits – dark money group.
AIPAC has previously used shell PACs to conceal its spending in Democratic primaries.
The largest non-AIPAC spender in the race is a newly formed group called A Stronger Michigan with more than $17m. The PAC has been mostly bankrolled by a nonprofit called Center Forward, whose stated mission is to foster partisanship.
A Stronger Michigan has also received funds from another PAC that was established this year, Michigan Forward 2026.
In turn, FEC records show, Michigan Forward 2026 was funded by businessman Daniel Lubetzky; the American Chemistry Council, a trade association for the chemical industry; and American Foundation for Good Governance, another nonprofit.
Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that AIPAC and other political action committees (PACs) have spent more than $54m to help Stevens.
A dark-money group called the Center for Democratic Priorities has also spent about $6.5m on ads supporting Stevens, according to local media reports – increasing the grand total to more than $60m.
The Center for Democratic Priorities has not reported its spending to the FEC.
AIPAC’s election arm, United Democracy Project (UDP), has spent north of $30m on the race – $30,638,639.63 to be exact – as of Saturday evening.
The amount represents a record for AIPAC, which has been using its enormous spending power to derail candidates who oppose unconditional aid to Israel.
AIPAC directs UDP and is also the largest donor to the political action committee (PAC).
Of the $100m UDP has raised this election cycle, $30m came from AIPAC, which operates as a social welfare nonprofit, making it difficult to track its donors.
The tactic of funnelling funds from nonprofits to election PACs to help influence US elections is known as “dark money”.
Aside from AIPAC, UDP is largely funded by wealthy pro-Israel advocates, including:
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metmike: And here's the thing. After being outspent by AIPAC by over 10 to 1, much of it going into false narrative rhetoric repeating lies about this PRO AMERICA candidate, He won anyway!!!!!!!
By
Andrew Mark Miller, Kiera McDonald, Fox News
PublishedAug. 5, 2026, 4:57 p.m. ET
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Instead of covering El-Sayed's actual positions, the right attempts to discredit him by telling us that evil group X contributed to his campaign and that he spoke at a conference where evil group X or evil person X was also speaking at so he must be one of them with the exact same positions.............without actually telling us what El-Sayed's positions are.
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https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/black-power
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AI Overview
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While El Sayed is no MLK, similar attempts and tactics to discredit him based on misleading and mischaracterizing exist.
Without a doubt, he is the ANTI Swamp candidate if there ever was one.
When some of my Jewish friends accuse the NY mayor or Sayed of being antisemetic for criticizing Israel, I respond that half the Israeli Jews must also be antisemitic for opposing Netanyahu. My observation is that those assertions come from older American Jews and that younger Jews are drifting away from their support of Israel. Polls confirm this. A new relationship is emerging. In addition to the left distancing itself from support of Israel, there are those in the MAGA cult who resent the broken promise of no more forever wars. They blame Netanyahu for making Trump start this war which I think lets Trump off easy for this stupid choice. I think that Trump was a little too full of himself after the Venezuela coup and thought he could bomb them into regime change. Ooops!
I'm ok with cutting military aid to Israel, but sales of defensive weapons like the Iron dome should not be denied to Israel. Hamas and Hezbollah have been firing missiles at Israeli civilians for years. (some on the left favor a total ban).
I saw a report by Fareed Zakaria that talked about the change in the nature of warfare with drones. A weaponized drone costs about $35,000. A missile designed to shoot down that drone costs 4 million dollars. Other reports intimate that China is supplying Iran with drones. They probably are happy to see the US bogged down in another quagmire.
The only way out for Trump is a humiliating deal that even he, the great liar in chief, cannot spin as a win. I cannot see the ending.
Thanks very much, joj!
It's always great to have your comments, especially because they come from a sharp, objective mind that also happens to be Jewish, live in NY and be registered to vote in the D party..........those last 3 wonderful elements that help define who you are, my mind needs to imagine in order to incorporate it into the big picture.
More "to the point" views in this new thread that no doubt you also read:
AIPAC
Started by metmike - Aug. 9, 2026, 10:51 a.m.
You never liked Netanyahu but initially disagreed with the term genocide to describe his behavior in Gaza but were able to adjust based on the reality which I give you credit for. Having a brother that lives there would certainly make any sibling concerned about their loved ones safety with attacks from the various entities in the Middle East that hate Israel with indoctrinated hate (made even worse by Netanyahu).
I was about to agree on the issue of the Iron Dome (related to that) but thought about it more. This would give Israel the ability to attack relentlessly with impunity and no fear of being attacked back. But it's purely defensive, right?
I see another side to this.
We just need to judge how Israel behaves when it has an upper hand and doesn't need to worry about a much weaker foe that can't attack Israel with missiles/bombs but still justifies it with "Israel is defending itself". GAZA!
I wish we had past discussions on MarketForum with my comments from before October 7th. You would be blown away. I not only defended Israel all the time, I just assumed they were always right and the rest of the Middle East was always wrong, THEN read about the latest news and interpreted all the facts to line up with that assumption.
Looking back, I definitely had a smoldering level of Islamophobia. I grew up in Dearborn, MI and watched the town being taken over by "The Syrians" which is what we referred to all Arabs as. They initially moved to the low income South(rough) side of town so the ones that went to the public school in my district, were some bad dudes at school and we stereotyped them all to be that way in the 1960s and 1970s.
They came there for the jobs at Ford Motor Company that had the "city within the city" on the South Side. FMC hauled in all the raw materials and had every factory they needed to make every part for their cars. And they had great jobs with huge benefits and paid many billions in taxes to the city of Dearborn, which gave us citizens unbelievable service. For instance, in the Winter(they had a lot of snow back then) not only did we have the best snow removal on the streets, Dearborn removed the snow on all the sidewalks, including residential sidewalks! They bought a huge property 40 miles away with a lake on it and turned it into "Camp Dearborn" and only allowed in cars with somebody with proof of living in Dearborn.
The "Syrians" continued to expand to the East Side in the 80's where they pushed out the "Americans" including the dominant Catholic families, including my parents that moved to the West Side of Dearborn, with the least amount of Arabs in 1990, which is now mostly Arab American(note the change in terms).
The Catholic School that I attended no longer exists(buildings demolished) and the Catholic parish has now combined with other parishes because they don't have enough Catholics left. At my Catholic School, for 12 years I was taught that the Jews today are descendants of God's chosen people, the Israelite's and that Islam was a false religion.
Starting over 2 decades ago, most of the business on the main streets within a few miles of where I grew up had all the words outside of the business in Arabic. So "Americans" could not read what it said!
That was the back drop to my subtle Islamophobia and my putting Jewish people on the highest pedestal a person could have for any race or religion.
My lack of respect and distrust for Arab Americans started eroding quickly 30 years ago when they started moving into the neighborhood that my parents moved to in order to escape "The Syrians". I would visit my parents for 2 weeks at a time, several times/year after our kids were grown. I had many discussions with 1 of the neighbors, who was an educated man that I liked a great deal. He often invited me over to smoke his hookah pipe with him. I passed on that but liked talking with him on the other side of the fence in his backyard.
A couple years after 9-11, I had a very sweet chess playing student Muhammad that moved here from California because their Muslim family was being targeted and persecuted. His Dad was a professor and Mom adhered to pretty strict, traditional Islam. I watched poor Muhammad getting bullied at school, including by one of the best principles that I have ever worked with as a chess coach to 6,000+ students under a dozen+ principles at 5 schools.
I had several long discussions with his Dad, who moved here to take a position as a professor at the University of Evansviile. WOW! That friendship by itself opened my eyes about how vicious the hatred directed at them was. They could trust nobody, not even the teachers. I was one of the few people they trusted, allowing me to give Muhammad transportation to and from chess tournaments. Sadly, after only a year they moved away because of how the people here treated them.
I developed a new sense of empathy for ALL Muslims in the United States which replaced the previous distrust that came from never even knowing any of them personally.
And I realized that the VAST majority of people that hated Muslims after 9-11 probably didn't have any as friends or really understand that the vast majority of Muslim Americans are good people.
Despite that, I still separated my newly discovered affection for American Muslims, from the Middle East countries trying to wipe God's chosen people off the face of the earth. How can you NOT hate people trying to do that???
Bibi Netanyahu provided me with the wake up call that finally and completely obliterated that status forever.
I now see both sides with as much objectively as possible, including the sad reality that Israel, under a diabolical psychopath is a rogue state and he must go ASAP for the relationship between Israel and the rest of the world to begin healing. Not just Middle Eastern countries........the rest of the world!
I realize that antisemitism will never be wiped out and intense, indoctrinated hatred for Jews by countries in the Middle East will remain a stark reality that will always require Israel to use extreme measures to defend itself(I used to be convinced that the only way they weren't wiped out a long time ago is because they were God's chosen people and they were given special gifts that enabled them to use incredible brilliance to not just survive but to THRIVE).
Regardless of where it came from, their survival and dominance in the Middle East really is a miracle.
Everybody roots for the underdog, in this case I considered it the underGod.
There's a long history not mentioned that scholars, philosophers and religious experts have spent much of their life analyzing and writing about and I've tried to understand.
However, I teach my pupils in chess that the most important move is what your opponent did last. That's because that last move tells you the most about their strategy and what they are thinking. It's the same way in many realms of life that feature uncertainty (Donald Trump is a rare exception where a person can almost assume the opposite by listening to him).
With that general principle applying right now in the Middle East, one has to look at Netanhahu's actions in Gaza being the most defining "last move" by Israel.
In addition to him convincing Donald Trump to attack Iran. Not just 1 time but 2 times now.
I agree strongly that he convinced Donald Trump that this 2nd time would be as easy as the first time and Trump was fresh off the easy victory over Venezuela.
I personally think that it makes it much worse. His people, like Tulsi Gabbard and VP Vance were telling him this was a bad idea and using facts from the United States Intelligence Agencies. For him to ignore them and get into a war for Israel to make himself an historical legend because brilliant, charismatic Netanyahu understands how to manipulate Donald Trump's diseased brain, for me at least makes it even worse because he committed treason and betrayed the United States for a self serving interest, serving another country to make Donald Trump great...by every definition of what he did.
It seems impossible for him to finish this 2nd term knowing this and 100 other things that make him blatantly unqualified to be president but it will all boil down to around 16 Rs in the Senate that need to vote for impeachment to provide the 2/3rd majority to impeach and REMOVE Donald Trump from office after the House impeaches him with a majority.
I speak out against Donald Trump BECAUSE I LOVE THE UNITED STATES. Similarly, when I speak out against Bibi Netanyahu and the current leadership in Israel, I want them removed ASAP so that the country of Israel can begin healing.
However, I'm now speaking out and exposing AIPAC too because of their mind boggling, greatly over weighting of their ANTI American, pro Israel objectives, using their immense power/money to interfere in our elections.
Can you imagine if a group that existed entirely to help Russia or help China came in to spend 30 million in a state election primary to get a pro Russia/China person elected?
Or any other country?
Well it just happened for the umpteenth time with AIPAC and its time to expose this group for doing it, even though, as Larry mentioned much of it is coming from Christians in the United States. Regardless of the sources, it's still just as nefarious!
I get how "special" Israel has been to our country more than anybody because of how I was raised. But now its time to, not just stop enabling and supporting their genocide but to hold them accountable, just like we should be holding Russia accountable.
I would be ok with helping with an Iron Dome but only if they change, starting with new leaders.
Hey Mike et al,
I didn’t have a good place to put this but I figured this thread is as good as any since it’s about MI.
Flying today for the first time in over a decade! Especially because I haven’t flown in so long, flying is still fascinating to me and I’m always at a window looking out! On way to CO, 1st stop is in Detroit, my first time in Michigan. The views of W Lake Erie, my first time seeing Erie, were awesome. Noting the fair wx cumulus over land areas due to heating in the early afternoon while mainly clear over the cooler lake:
Great pictures, Larry! Thanks for sharing.
Is this what your 2nd image is of:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi_Nuclear_Generating_Station
Hey Mike,
Great eyes! I’m pretty sure that’s it based on location.
Thanks, Larry!
I thought maybe the pilot had told everybody that was outside the window and that's maybe why you took a picture of it.
Maybe it was just random.
I grew up in the Detroit area and am extremely familiar with the history there because my Dad was in great opposition to nuclear power(unfounded fears) to the point of being an anti nuclear power activist.
I am in the complete opposite, PRO nuclear power camp.
You telling us where the area that the pictures were from and seeing the 2 cooling towers made it easy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooling_tower