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North Carolina Representative Chuck Edwards has called it quits on his reelection race.“After much prayer and reflection, I’ve decided to withdraw from my reelection campaign,” Edwards wrote on X early Wednesday morning. “I will complete my current term.”The congressman’s sudden exit came after the House Ethics Committee recommended that he be censured for “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers.”In a 25-page report published Monday, the committee listed out numerous occasions on which the married Republican had seemingly violated House rules relating to sexual harassment and hostile workplaces, revealing in detail how he made the women in his employ feel uncomfortable or unsafe.The list included “intimate” and expensive dinners, casino dates, strip club visits, expensive gifts, massages, and an insistence on personally handling the women’s yardwork or Christmas tree decorating—which Edwards skipped House votes to make time for.Edwards even wrote and performed poetry for one of his female staffers, hired a singer to perform Ed Sheeran’s “Hills of Aberfeldy” at one of their birthday parties, planned full-day excursions with them, and wrote personal notes expressing his “effusive affection.”The committee report also noted that many messages were missing from Edwards’s phone, including a photograph that depicted 30 different types of ice cream that he had delivered to one of his staffers’ houses, and her subsequent response that “this seems a bit excessive.”The report found no evidence that Edwards had engaged in sexual activity or “explicitly propositioned” the women, but found plentiful evidence that he had repeatedly made his staff feel scared and uncomfortable with his behavior.Yet Edwards’s exit from the race comes months after the legal deadline to do so (the deadline to withdraw was back in December). As a result, his name will most likely remain on the ballot come November, and any votes he receives will still be counted toward him, as explained by the state Board of Elections.

Voters went to the polls in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Virginia and Washington state on Tuesday. We continue to look at the results of those primary elections, with The Nation’s John Nichols calling it “a very good night for insurgent candidacies and for outsiders,” especially for candidates that campaigned around the fight against AI data centers.

Voters went to the polls in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Virginia and Washington state on Tuesday. We continue to look at the results of those primary elections, with The Nation’s John Nichols calling it “a very good night for insurgent candidacies and for outsiders,” especially for candidates that campaigned around the fight against AI data centers.

Once completed, the 2,177-kilometer GCC Railway will connect six Gulf kingdoms and provide alternative routes to Europe and Asia.

Coming into Election Day, Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary was widely expected. A blowout seemed possible. Instead, his victory margin will likely be less than two percentage points. (NBC News declared him the winner early Wednesday morning, but other outlets were still holding back.) But his triumph over Representative Haley Stevens, while far narrower than polls were predicting, is still a monumental event in both Democratic and national politics. And it sets up major tests for both the progressive and center-left wings of the party over the next three months. El-Sayed did not deliver a resounding defeat to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and other parts of the center-left Democratic establishment who backed Stevens, as his supporters hoped. The election returns suggest that El-Sayed struggled with rural voters, in particular. Looking forward to the general election, that data has to worry Democrats, who tend to lose elections to Republicans because they are blown out in small towns. That said, stepping back from the last few weeks, when El-Sayed’s victory seemed certain, this is still a huge win for progressives and a major defeat for the center-left. AIPAC spent more than $30 million to boost Stevens, a massive outlay for a Senate primary. Whitmer and many other prominent Michigan Democratic officials implored the state’s Democrats to back Stevens. The center-left both in Michigan and nationally leaned into the case it regularly uses to defeat progressive candidates: electability. Stevens, centrists claimed, would have a better chance of winning in a general election than El-Sayed. That that argument didn’t fully resonate in Michigan, the swingiest of swing states, is a huge setback for the center-left. If El-Sayed wins in November, that electability case against progressives will be even more weakened, perhaps easing the path to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the party’s 2028 nominee. Speaking of November: As I wrote recently, Democrats with fairly progressive records (Barack Obama, Sherrod Brown, Tammy Baldwin) have won in Midwestern swing states in the recent past. But what’s untested in swing states is 2020s progressivism that generally embraces the term socialist (although El-Sayed himself has said many times that he is not a socialist) and deep skepticism of American traditions and norms. It will be important for El-Sayed to emphasize populist economics and stances on other issues that most voters agree with, such as backing abortion rights and not funding Israel’s military. But this is not the time for either the candidate or his supporters to float more controversial ideas, like abolishing prisons or defunding police. I was dismayed to see Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong, another progressive, fumble recently when asked about her past comments criticizing the Thanksgiving holiday. Can El-Sayed and his supporters discipline themselves, the way that Mamdani and his camp did in the months leading up to the general election in New York last year? They need to.The party’s center-left needs to show some discipline too. Many centrists really disagree with El-Sayed’s stances on Israel and other issues. Others probably don’t want to see El-Sayed win in Michigan, thereby further emboldening the party’s progressive wing. But they must keep in mind that a Senator El-Sayed will vote against Trump’s agenda far, far more than a Senator Mike Rogers. That’s what’s at stake here. And those stakes are really high. So airing their frustrations about El-Sayed, particularly attacking him from the right, will only help Rogers. Don’t do it. It’s an earthquake in Democratic politics to have Bernie Sanders’s candidate defeat Gretchen Whitmer’s candidate in Michigan. But the real goal must be to keep Donald Trump’s candidate from winning this seat. Haley Stevens could have done that. But Abdul El-Sayed will get that chance. He’s electable. He just won an election. Now Democrats, center and left, in Michigan and beyond, need to do everything possible to get him elected in November.

Progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed has been declared the winner of Michigan’s closely watched Democratic Senate primary, narrowly beating out Congressmember Haley Stevens, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies. AIPAC and its affiliated groups spent as much as $46 million to help Stevens in what has become the most expensive Democratic Senate primary contest in U.S. history. El-Sayed will face former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November to fill the seat now held by Democratic Senator Gary Peters, who is retiring. If El-Sayed wins the general election, he would become the first Muslim senator in U.S. history. His key supporters included Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the United Auto Workers. “Dr. Abdul El-Sayed worked unbelievably hard in this race,” says John Nichols, executive editor of The Nation, pointing out that El-Sayed campaigned in rural counties across Michigan. “It was literally about physically going to the people early, and then again and again and again, and talking to them about issues.” We also speak with Andy Levin, a former Democratic congressmember from Michigan who lost to Stevens in 2022 after AIPAC spent $4.3 million on her campaign. El-Sayed’s rise represents “a movement of Americans who are saying, 'Enough of politics as usual,'” says Levin. “’We’re done with the parties as they are. We need some way more active effort for us to be able to have living wages and healthcare and education and childcare and retirement.’”

Progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed has been declared the winner of Michigan’s closely watched Democratic Senate primary, narrowly beating out Congressmember Haley Stevens, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies. AIPAC and its affiliated groups spent as much as $46 million to help Stevens in what has become the most expensive Democratic Senate primary contest in U.S. history. El-Sayed will face former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November to fill the seat now held by Democratic Senator Gary Peters, who is retiring. If El-Sayed wins the general election, he would become the first Muslim senator in U.S. history. His key supporters included Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the United Auto Workers. “Dr. Abdul El-Sayed worked unbelievably hard in this race,” says John Nichols, executive editor of The Nation, pointing out that El-Sayed campaigned in rural counties across Michigan. “It was literally about physically going to the people early, and then again and again and again, and talking to them about issues.” We also speak with Andy Levin, a former Democratic congressmember from Michigan who lost to Stevens in 2022 after AIPAC spent $4.3 million on her campaign. El-Sayed’s rise represents “a movement of Americans who are saying, 'Enough of politics as usual,'” says Levin. “’We’re done with the parties as they are. We need some way more active effort for us to be able to have living wages and healthcare and education and childcare and retirement.’”

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan’s Democratic Senate Primary, U.S. Military Reportedly Used Up 80% of Its Key Missile Interceptors in Iran War, National Guard to Continue Washington, D.C., Deployment Through 2029, Costing $1.4 Billion, GOP Congressmember Edwards Drops Reelection Bid After Sexual Harassment Allegations, Third immigrant Dies in Detention at Notorious ICE Jail Delaney Hall, Italy to Place All 27 of Its Major Cities Under the Country’s Highest Heat Alert, Man Arrested on Suspicion of Arson in Connection to One of Three Blazes in the Washington Area, Justice Department Subpoenaed Freelance Reporter Matthew Cole, Federal Judge Grants DOJ Request to Dismiss Cases Against Oath Keepers Who Participated in the Jan. 6 Insurrection, Protesters Demand Gov’t Action on Puerto Rico’s Ongoing Water Crisis, Far-Right BJP Loses Major Local Election in the Indian State of Bihar, Russian Missile and Drone Strikes Kill 17 People in Ukraine, Jordan to Convene Emergency Meeting on “Imminent” Israeli Takeover of Al-Aqsa Compound in Jerusalem, U.N. Human Rights Experts Send Letter to Mamdani and Hochul in Support of Home Health Aides