Pakistan, Aug. 7 -- Barely had Abdul El-Sayed secured the Democratic nomination for Michigan's Senate seat when US President Donald Trump branded him a communist and Republicans began presenting his victory as proof that the opposition party had surrendered to its far left. Democratic leaders, including some who had supported his opponent Haley Stevens, moved just as quickly to close ranks behind their new nominee.

El-Sayed is the first unabashed progressive to win a statewide Democratic primary in a state carried by Mr Trump in 2024. He now faces Republican Mike Rogers in a contest Democrats can scarcely afford to lose if they are to have any chance of recovering the Senate.

Yet the result also exposed a change in the way political can...