But then came four straight polls showing el Sayed ahead by double digits. He is now leading by 9.4 points in the RealClearPolitics average just a few days before Tuesday’s primary.

This includes a Tavern Research poll in which el Sayed is up by 10 points over Stevens. Earlier this month, the same pollster had Stevens up by 1, prompting el Sayed to tell MS NOW, “That poll seems to be funded by AIPAC.”

Independent fact-checkers found no evidence linking the poll to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel group that spends heavily in the primaries and has become a progressive boogeyman. But now that the same poll finds el Sayed ahead outside the margin of error, his campaign has been blasting the results out.

El Sayed is up on the air with a high-fiving, Medicare-for-all’ing ad featuring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). “That’s the part they can’t stand,” a beaming AOC said of el Sayed’s support for government-run healthcare. “That’s why billionaires are spending millions to bury Abdul and this movement.”

Socialists and others from the Democratic Party’s far-left wing have descended on the state. While el Sayed isn’t a member or endorsee of the Democratic Socialists of America, other candidates in Michigan are. But these activists and organizers aren’t ignoring el Sayed’s Senate campaign. “He’s fighting for the same things that a lot of our candidates are also going to be fighting for, and so that’s why we’re out knocking doors,” Detroit DSA co-Chairwoman Lila Brickner told Politico’s Playbook.

El Sayed told donors at a Zoom meeting that it would send the Democratic governing class a message if he won. “You put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different,” he said. He later clarified during a debate that he wasn’t referring to Stevens, but Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), whom he said “got elected on a set of values, and is now completely throwing those values in the mud.”

In Wisconsin, establishment efforts to deny the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to DSA-backed state Rep. Francesca Hong have clearly not gone according to plan. Hong’s lead has only grown since Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s reentry into the race despite the latter being endorsed by incumbent Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI). Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes dropped out of the race on Thursday, apparently concluding Hong was unbeatable.

Even Platner, who withdrew from the race against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), was replaced by a candidate from the same wing of the party in Troy Jackson.

Some of these candidates have tried to position themselves closer to the mainstream. El Sayed denied to former White House press secretary Jen Psaki on MS NOW that he is a socialist. Hong has walked back support for defunding the police. Jackson has tried to distance himself from Platner, as have Democratic operatives associated with that abortive campaign.

But their continued competitiveness also comes from an angry mood among Democratic voters who are tired of losing to President Donald Trump, fed up with their own party’s entrenched leadership, and willing to at least contemplate far more radical change than under Obama or during the first-term, anti-Trump Resistance.

DSA LEADERSHIP PLANS FOR A 2028 NATIONWIDE GENERAL STRIKE: A ‘PERFECT STORM’ FOR ORGANIZING

The failures of former President Joe Biden, the defeats of Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Kamala Harris, and the inability of Democratic congressional leaders such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to break through have left many Democrats with little patience for electability arguments or appeals for calm.

It looked like perhaps there were enough Democrats left who were willing to stand up to this movement. We’ll find out on Tuesday whether that is true or if the Democratic establishment was simply fooling itself.