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

In the US, political parties do not pick their candidates — voters do, months before the general election. What primaries are and how they work. Abdul El-Sayed, a 41-year-old physician and former Detroit public health official, on Wednesday narrowly defeated four-term Congresswoman Haley Stevens to win the Democratic party's nomination for a US Senate seat from Michigan.Michigan Democratic Senate primary winner Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a press conference in front of the Spirit of Detroit statue. (Getty Images via AFP)The Associated Press called the race after nearly all ballots had been counted, with El-Sayed ahead by 14,893 votes — under a percentage point — out of more than 1.5 million cast. It was the largest turnout for a Democratic primary in the state's recent history, AP reported.That margin, and the coalition behind it, unsettled the Democratic party's establishment. Stevens had gone into the election with the endorsements of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, retiring Senator Gary Peters (whose seat is up for grabs), former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. Outside groups backing her spent more than $60 million on the primary, of which over $30 million came from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and its affiliates. She lost nonetheless.But why does a political party in the US need voters to pick its nominee months before the actual election?The system followed in the US turns states into their own testing ground, one which can also air an intra-party ideological war in public, as it did with the Democrats in Michigan this week.Also read: America’s Democratic Socialists are having the summer of their livesOne election, in two partsFederal elections in the US run on a two-year cycle.Every November in an even-numbered year, the entire 435-member House of Representatives comes up for election, along with roughly a third of the 100-seat Senate.The general election on November 3 this year is a "midterm" — no presidential contest, but every House seat, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships are on the ballot.Republicans currently hold both chambers of Congress under President Donald Trump; Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to flip the upper chamber, the US Senate, which is why the Michigan race carries weight.The general election is the party-versus-party fight.The primary is what comes before it: a state-run election, held months earlier, in which all registered voters — not party officials — pick each party's nominee.Whoever wins the Democratic primary is the Democrat on the November ballot. The same for the Republican side.The practice traces to the early 20th century, when the Progressive Era reformer movement pushed states to take candidate selection away from party bosses who had traditionally handed out nominations behind closed doors.Wisconsin adopted the first statewide direct primary in 1903 and it took effect for the 1904 elections. By the 1970s, after the tumult of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, primaries had become the dominant route to a nomination at every level, from local offices to the presidency.That convention had opened against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the assassination less than three months earlier of senator Robert F Kennedy, an anti-war candidate for the Democratic nomination.Vice-president Hubert Humphrey secured the nomination without having contested a single state primary, prompting anti-war delegates inside the hall and demonstrators outside it to erupt in protest. Televised images of Chicago police beating protesters shocked the country, according to the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, which studies the American presidency. The Democratic party responded by setting up the McGovern-Fraser Commission, whose 1970 report re-engineered the nomination process to shift power from party elites to primary voters — the model in use since.The primary system is unusual by global standards. Most democracies leave candidate selection to the parties themselves. In India, party boards, leadership and state units often decide who contests which seat. In the US, that decision is handed to voters at a ballot the state itself runs.DETROIT, MICHIGAN - AUGUST 05: Michigan Democratic Senate primary winner Abdul El-Sayed arrives to a press conference in front of the Spirit of Detroit statue on August 05, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. Sayed called on Michiganders to unite against Mike Rodgers as well as challenging him to multiple debates. Finn Gomez/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Finn Gomez / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP) (Getty Images via AFP)Fifty states, several rulebooksThere is no single American primary system. Election law is set by the states, and the mechanisms vary.In closed primary states, only voters registered with a party can vote in that party's primary. Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, Delaware, New Jersey and Wyoming are among the states that conduct closed primaries.In open primary states — Michigan is one — any registered voter can walk into a polling booth on the day and ask for a Democratic or Republican ballot.Semi-closed variants let independents in but not the other party's voters. Ballotpedia, a non-partisan online reference that tracks American elections, maintains state-by-state tables of who is allowed to vote in which contest.California and Washington run a different model altogether. Their "top-two" or "jungle" primaries put every candidate from every party on a single ballot; the two with the highest votes advance to November, even if both are from the same party.In practice, this can shut the other party out of the general election entirely for a given seat. If, say, two Democrats finish first and second in a heavily Democratic district, both names appear on the November ballot and no Republican does — voters then choose between two candidates of the same party.That, supporters argue, is the point of the primaries – a system designed to reward broad appeal over factional loyalty.In Washington's top-two primary on Tuesday, incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican state Senate leader John Braun advanced; the progressive challenger finished a distant third, Reuters reported.The caucus format — where party supporters gather in person at schools and community halls to publicly declare a preference — survives mainly in presidential nominating contests. Iowa is best known for its presidential caucuses, though even there, Senate, House and state races are decided through regular primaries. For most other nomination fights, the format has been displaced by the simpler ballot-box primary.Also read: US President Trump signs new orders to limit birthright citizenshipFundingCandidates raise money to spend on their campaigns. They run their own committees, which are subject to contribution limits set by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).Since the US Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, outside groups known as super PACs (political action committees) can raise unlimited sums from individuals, corporations and unions to spend on elections, provided they do not coordinate directly with a candidate's campaign.The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University has documented how those vehicles have reshaped primary contests since.Aipac's affiliated super PAC, United Democracy Project, has become one of the most active such vehicles in Democratic primaries. Its Michigan spending on Stevens was the group's single largest 2026 investment, Reuters reported.It has had mixed returns this cycle.In Missouri on Tuesday, former congresswoman Cori Bush — a vocal critic of Israel who had lost her seat in 2024 after the Aipac-affiliated super PAC spent over $8 million against her — failed in her comeback attempt against Congressman Wesley Bell, whom the group had backed with a further $3 million.In Michigan, it lost outright.Members of the media reflected near campaign signage ahead of a primary election night watch party with Representative Haley Stevens, a Democrat from Michigan, in Detroit. (Bloomberg)Who conducts the voting?Unlike India, which has a single national Election Commission overseeing polls across the country, the US has no federal election authority that organises and oversees elections.The US Constitution leaves the “time, place and manner” of elections to the states, and each state administers its own polling — including primaries — through a chief election officer, typically the elected secretary of state, working with county and municipal officials who staff and manage polling stations.The federal Election Assistance Commission, set up after the 2000 presidential vote, offers guidance and certifies voting equipment, but does not conduct elections itself.The Democratic splitIn a country with a first-past-the-post system and no third-party route to the Congress, ideological factions do not split off to form new parties. They contest primaries.The Democratic party's internal argument between its progressive and centrist wings has therefore played out, seat by seat, in primary elections through 2026.El-Sayed's campaign platform included Medicare for All (a universal, single-payer healthcare system), an end to unconditional US military aid to Israel, and campaign finance reform. He has called Israel's military campaign in Gaza a "genocide", a characterisation rejected by the Israeli and US governments.Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York — the two most prominent progressives in Washington — endorsed him early.Stevens ran as a mainstream Democrat with a legislative record and establishment backing, and said during the primary that no one owned her vote.The result maps onto a longer pattern.Zohran Mamdani, now mayor of New York City, endorsed a slate of progressive congressional candidates in an earlier Democratic primary there, most of whom defeated establishment-backed opponents. Evanston mayor Daniel Biss captured a Democratic nomination for an Illinois House seat. Analilia Mejia won a special election to Congress from suburban New Jersey.What made Michigan different was the setting. The New York and Illinois wins came in deep-blue districts.El-Sayed won a statewide primary by a narrow margin in a swing state — one that Trump carried in 2016, lost in 2020 and won again in 2024.Bloomberg's analysis of Tuesday's results found El-Sayed took 54.2% of the vote in the sixteen Michigan counties with above-average college attainment, and 43.2% in the rest. His largest lead — 61% — came in Kent County around Grand Rapids, historically Republican-leaning territory with a fast-growing Latino population.Stevens ran up her numbers in majority-Black precincts of Detroit and Flint, backed by the Congressional Black Caucus' political action committee and the Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus.That educational split is considered one of the defining fault lines of American politics after 2016, when non-college voters helped elect Trump. It now appears to cut through the Democratic coalition too.United Auto Workers Michigan Political Director Art Reyes III speaks during a primary election night event for Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)Why Michigan carries the weightThe Democrats' path to a Senate majority requires holding both Michigan and Georgia while flipping four Republican-held seats — including at least two in states Trump won by double-digit margins in 2024.El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman who narrowly lost the state's other Senate seat to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in 2024 and has Trump's endorsement. Rogers ran unopposed in the Republican primary on Tuesday, which meant his party did not need a contested nomination fight of its own.The National Republican Senatorial Committee has already reserved $45 million in Michigan advertising to support Rogers, AP reported.If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim member of the US Senate.Democrats also picked their nominee for Michigan governor on Tuesday. Secretary of State — the elected official who serves as Michigan's chief election officer and custodian of state records; not to be confused with the US Secretary of State, who is the country's top diplomat — Jocelyn Benson defeated Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson. On the Republican side, Congressman John James — Trump-endorsed — beat businessman Perry Johnson, who had lent his own campaign over $30 million, according to state campaign finance records cited by AP.Also read: 'Creative, unconventional ways': US Central Command asks military analysts for new ideas to punish IranWhat is next?Wisconsin holds its Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday.Milwaukee County executive — the elected head of the county's executive branch — David Crowley, endorsed by two-term Governor Tony Evers, faces Democratic socialist state representative Francesca Hong. Minnesota Democrats will pick a Senate nominee the same day, choosing between centrist Congresswoman Angie Craig and progressive Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan.The harder question may come in November. El-Sayed has three months to build a coalition wide enough to win a general election. Aipac has said it will campaign against him. His supporters point to Tuesday's turnout — the highest for any Democratic primary in Michigan's history — as evidence that a grassroots operation running against establishment politics can bring voters out where a conventional campaign cannot.That claim is now on the ballot.Prerna Madan leads the explainers and immersives team at Hindustan Times, bringing more than eight years of editorial experience across India's three largest English-language newsrooms — Hindustan Times, The Times of India and The Indian Express. Her career spans the full range of modern news journalism: digital-first production, print news desks covering metro, national, and front-page, and editorial decision-making at the planning and commissioning stage. From managing coverage of Assembly elections and the Union Budget to steering the reporting, editing and production of in-depth reporting into the Delhi-NCR’s pressing issues, Prerna has honed journalistic storytelling that spans genres, topics and formats. Running through her current work is a facility for complexity — translating consequential, difficult material in the fields of policy, science, environment and politics into rigorous, accessible journalism that sets out to answer two critical questions: why it matters, and what happens now. Prerna holds a degree in English Literature from the University of Delhi and a postgraduate diploma from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication.Read MoreUsPoliticsDonald Trump