对左翼而言，这是中期选举周期中最受瞩目的竞选。无论是那位以推动扩大国内监控权力而闻名的共和党前联邦众议员，还是那位直言不讳、促使民主党就美国对以色列政策进行深刻反思的进步派人士，都将在选举日之后脱颖而出，成为密歇根州的下一任参议员。
For the left, it’s been the marquee race of the midterm cycle. Either a Republican former U.S. representative known for pushing domestic spying powers or an outspoken progressive who forced a reckoning over U.S.–Israel policy among Democrats will emerge from Election Day as the next senator from Michigan.
阿卜杜勒·埃尔-萨耶德若在周二晚间的选举中获胜，将成为首位穆斯林美国参议员，为这场被视为检验民主党左翼在摇摆州吸引力的竞选画上句号。如果他击败迈克·罗杰斯——一位忠实的特朗普盟友，其竞选团队经常散布针对民主党候选人的仇视伊斯兰教论调——这一结果几乎必将鼓舞进步派，为2028年总统大选蓄势。
Abdul El-Sayed would be the first Muslim U.S. senator if elected Tuesday night, capping off a race that’s been viewed as a referendum on swing-state appeal for the Democratic Party’s left flank. If he defeats Mike Rogers, a loyal Trump ally whose campaign often peddled Islamophobic tropes against the Democratic nominee, the results will all but certainly embolden progressives ahead of the 2028 presidential election.
如果埃尔-萨耶德落败，则可能引发中间派的反弹，并在民主党力争夺回参议院之际，让民主党失去一个关键的参议院席位。
If El-Sayed loses, it will likely trigger a centrist backlash — and cost the Democrats a critical Senate seat as the party fights to take back the upper chamber.
周二，密歇根州全州投票站于美东时间晚上9点关闭，全州各地的选民焦急等待计票结果。
Polls across Michigan closed by 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, with anxious voters across the state awaiting the returns.
在阿拉伯裔和穆斯林人口众多的迪尔伯恩市，跨党派的选民表示，他们对针对埃尔-萨耶德的仇视伊斯兰教攻击性广告感到愤怒，这些广告在竞选最后几天充斥于电视广播和社交媒体信息流。
In the heavily Arab and Muslim city of Dearborn, voters across party lines said they were outraged at the Islamophobic attacks ads targeting El-Sayed that became a staple of airwaves and social media feeds in the campaign’s final days.
“我是穆斯林。我看到了很多广告，很恶心，因为我们是好人，”竞选州众议院席位的共和党人格斯·塔拉夫说。“我爱这个国家。”尽管两年前唐纳德·特朗普因选民对拜登政府支持以色列感到不满而赢下了迪尔伯恩的多个选区，但塔拉夫表示，他的社区今年正在背弃共和党。
“I am a Muslim. And I’ve seen a lot of ads, and it’s disgusting, because we are good people,” said Gus Tarraf, a Republican running for a state House seat. “I love this country.”Although Donald Trump carried many precincts in Dearborn two years ago due to voter frustration over the Biden administration’s support of Israel, Tarraf said his community is turning on the Republican Party this year.
“没有多少阿拉伯裔美国人对特朗普政府感到满意，”他说。“所以，他们认不认识你并不重要，一旦他们知道你在共和党候选人名单上，那就完了。”埃尔-赛义德愿意批评美国对以色列的政策，这在竞选的最后几天引发了肥皂剧级别的戏剧性事件，当时他初选时的前对手、中间派民主党众议员海莉·史蒂文斯宣布她将转而支持罗杰斯。
“Not a lot of Arab Americans are happy with the Trump administration,” he said. “So it doesn’t matter if they know you, as soon as they know you are on the Republican ticket.”El-Sayed’s willingness to criticize U.S. policy on Israel animated soap-opera-level drama in the final days of the race, when his former primary opponent, centrist Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens, announced she would switch her endorsement to support Rogers.
在要求埃尔-赛义德为一个外部政治行动委员会的广告道歉后，史蒂文斯在社交媒体上表示，她是在感到被埃尔-赛义德的竞选团队“拒之门外”之后做出这一决定的，并补充说她听到了“黑人选民、犹太选民和其他人关于这些信息伤害有多深”的反馈。她说，罗杰斯给了她“希望，相信他能够秉承约翰·麦凯恩的传统：一位愿意把国家置于党派之上、在良知需要时敢于对抗自己阵营的参议员。”
After demanding an apology from El-Sayed for an outside PAC’s ad, Stevens said on social media that she came to the decision after feeling “shut out” by El-Sayed’s campaign, adding that she’s heard from “Black voters, Jewish voters, and others about how deeply these messages hurt.”Rogers, she said, gave her “the hope that he can serve in the tradition of John McCain: a senator willing to put country before party and stand up to his own side when conscience requires it.”
史蒂文斯在最后时刻对罗杰斯的支持，在底特律和迪尔伯恩的三个投票站引发了选民的翻白眼和愤怒。接受《拦截》采访的选民中，没有一人表示这促使他们投票给罗杰斯。
Stevens’s late-breaking endorsement of Rogers drew a mix of eye-rolls and outrage from voters at three precincts in Detroit and Dearborn. None of the voters interviewed by The Intercept said it had swayed them to vote for Rogers.
“人们已经提前投票了。人们已经缺席投票了，”努拉·伊斯坎德说。“我不认为很多人会改变主意。所以我觉得这只是虚伪。”据一些接受《拦截》采访的人说，史蒂文斯选择在底特律一座黑人教堂内宣布支持，可能也引发了罗杰斯希望争取的黑人选民的反感。一位受访者说，教会社区一直在议论周末的事件——而且不是正面的议论。
“People have already early voted. People have already absentee voted,” said Noora Iskander. “I don’t think many people change their minds. So I think it’s just hypocritical.”Stevens’s decision to make the endorsement while inside a Black church in Detroit may also have generated backlash from the Black voters that Rogers was hoping to win over, according to some who spoke to The Intercept. One said the church community has been buzzing — and not positively — about the weekend’s events.
“遗憾的是，她去了一座黑人教堂，把它当作背景板，”迪尔伯恩选民多萝西娅·莎伦说。“这对黑人社区来说，真的是一记耳光。”
“Unfortunately, she went to a Black church to use it as a backdrop,” said Dearborn voter Dorothea Sharon. “It really was a slap in the face for the Black community that that happened.”
选举之夜，曾背书萨伊德、并将在下届国会担任密歇根州资深参议员的民主党参议员斯洛特金，呼吁支持者“退一步，远离过去几天发生的所有戏剧”，暗指史蒂文斯。她拒绝接受将此事描绘成像她这样的中间派与像萨伊德这样的进步派之间权力斗争的叙事。
On election night, Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who endorsed El-Sayed and will be the senior senator from Michigan in the next Congress, asked supporters to “take a step back from all the drama we’ve had in the last couple of days,” in an allusion to Stevens. She resisted narrative portrayals of a power struggle between centrists like her and progressives like El-Sayed.
“让我向所有媒体解释一下，密歇根州是一个独立思考的州，我们不听命于任何人，”斯洛特金在密歇根州萨伊德的竞选观摩派对上说。“没人能指导我们如何思考我们的投票，我们自己拿主意。这不是进步派对温和派，而是你属于‘战斗派’还是‘逃跑派’。”
“Let me just explain to all the media that Michigan is an independently minded state, we take orders from no one,” Slotkin said at the El-Sayed watch party in Michigan. “We don’t take guidance from anyone on how to think about our vote, we make up our minds. And it’s not progressive versus moderate, it is whether you are on team fight or team flight.”
身为犹太人的斯洛特金表示，选民应关注“密歇根州历史上首次能同时选出一位犹太裔参议员和一位穆斯林裔参议员这一理念”。尽管萨伊德因被指控将反对美国援助以色列等同于反犹太主义而面临严厉审视，但罗杰斯竞选团、共和党和特朗普公然表现出的伊斯兰恐惧症和仇外心理，鲜少有人追究。但在迪尔伯恩，这种言论显然伤害了接受《拦截报》采访的几位选民。
Slotkin, who is Jewish, said voters should focus on “the idea that the state of Michigan can send one Jewish senator and one Muslim senator for the first time ever in history.”While El-Sayed has had to face intense scrutiny over accusations of conflating opposition to U.S. aid to Israel with antisemitism, little accounting has been made of the blatant Islamophobia and xenophobia from the Rogers campaign, the Republican Party, and Trump. But in Dearborn, the rhetoric had clearly hurt several voters who spoke to The Intercept.
州参议员候选人阿巴斯·阿拉维耶的父亲、在2024年“未承诺”运动中发挥重要作用的民主党人，在被问及针对穆斯林的广告时，明显情绪激动。
The father of state Senate candidate Abbas Alawieh, a Democrat who played a prominent role in the 2024 Uncommitted movement, grew visibly upset when asked about the ads targeting Muslims.
“这些人软弱无能，一事无成——他们在经济、医疗、未来方面没有任何方案，”Zouheir Alawieh说。“这就是他们攻击我们穆斯林、攻击我们作为人类的原因。以前从来不是这样的。这是一种耻辱。美国是一个黑人、白人、黄种人，穆斯林、基督徒、犹太人可以自由共同生活的地方。不要试图撕裂我们的社会。”在迪尔伯恩之外，El-Sayed试图通过自嘲只支持“烤肉卷法”来化解针对他的反穆斯林污蔑。然而，这些伊斯兰恐惧症攻击说服了至少一位选民将选票投给了Rogers。
“These are weak people who don’t have anything to do — they don’t have any programs for our economy, for our health, for our future,” Zouheir Alawieh said. “That’s why they are attacking us as Muslims and as human beings. It’s never been like this. This is a shame. America is a place where the Black with the white with the yellow, the Muslim with the Christian with the Jews, can live freely. Don’t try to tear up our society.”Outside Dearborn, El-Sayed has tried to defuse the anti-Muslim smears against him by joking that he is only in favor of “shawarma law.”However, the Islamophobic attacks convinced at least one voter to cast her ballot for Rogers.
“我不想生活在伊斯兰教法之下，”Joann说，她是一家律师事务所的职员，在底特律投票后拒绝透露姓氏。
“I don’t want to live under Sharia law,” said Joann, a law firm employee who declined to give her last name after she voted in Detroit.
她说，对伊斯兰统治的恐惧是她的主要考量，尽管她也担心El-Sayed竞选承诺的“全民医保”。
The fear of Islamic rule was the main issue for Joann, she said, although she also worried about El-Sayed’s campaign pledge of Medicare for All.
“我工作了一辈子，把所有积蓄都投进了医保，但随后我得让其他人免费享受？对我来说这似乎不公平，因为我为它工作了一辈子，而且我们甚至不确定当我们真正准备退休时它还在不在，”她说。
“I’ve worked my whole life, put all my stuff into the Medicare, but then I’ve got to let other people get it for free? It doesn’t seem fair to me when I’ve worked my whole life for it, and we’re not even sure that it’s going to be there when we really get ready to retire,” she said.
然而，正是El-Sayed竞选活动的这一信息激发了密歇根州许多其他居民的热情。接受《The Intercept》采访的许多选民表示，他们更关注切身经济问题。
Yet it was that very messaging from El-Sayed’s campaign that excited many other residents in Michigan. Many voters who spoke to The Intercept said they were more focused on pocketbook issues.
“是汽油价格、食品价格。我是说，钱从口袋里流出去的速度太快了，”Leigh James在底特律的Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church投票后说。
“It’s the gas prices, the food. I mean, money is running out your pocket so fast,” Leigh James said after voting at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit.
詹姆斯说，她步行前往投票站是为了避免用汽油。“我正想省钱，”她说。“所以谢天谢地我住在附近。”
James said she had walked to the polling place to avoid using gas. “I’m trying to save,” she said. “So thank God I live in the neighborhood.”
其他选民说，他们受到埃尔-赛义德个性的鼓舞，一名女子形容他是一名“斗士”。在迪尔伯恩投票给埃尔-赛义德的努拉·伊斯坎德说，她赞同他支持“全民医保”、其可负担性纲领，以及他对巴勒斯坦的声援立场。
Other voters said they were inspired by El-Sayed’s personality, with one woman describing him as a “fighter.”Noora Iskander, who voted for El-Sayed in Dearborn, said she approved of his stance in favor of Medicare for All, his affordability platform, and his solidarity with Palestine.
“我觉得他会带来很多变革。他会吓到很多人——我认为这是好事，因为如果不吓到几个人，就无法真正向好的方向改变，”她说。
“I think he’s going to make a lot of change. He’s going to scare a lot of people — which I believe is a good thing, because you can’t really change for the better if you don’t scare a few people,” she said.