"Stop aid to Israel": The progressive candidate who won in Michigan storms the Senate

Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive candidate who stunned the Democratic Party by defeating pro-Israel candidate Haley Stevens, reiterated his anti-Israel stance during an interview with NBC, stating that security aid to Israel must be ended completely.

"I love and admire Judaism and the Jewish people, but they are not the same thing as AIPAC and Israel. I want our tax dollars to be invested in providing good schools, in funding healthcare, in repairing our roads here in Michigan, instead of being sent abroad to subsidize foreign militaries. It's not just Israel, by the way. It's also Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, and Pakistan," El-Sayed said.

El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for the Senate in Michigan, confirmed in the interview that he spoke with Barack Obama after his victory in the primary elections last week and said he hopes the former president will join him on the campaign trail this coming fall. "It was a really warm and inspiring conversation," El-Sayed told NBC News' "Meet the Press" about his conversation with Obama.

"I was grateful for his advice," he added. "It was very warm, very welcoming, and I know he knows the critical role that Michigan is going to play in holding [President Donald] Trump accountable, in winning back the Senate, and in building the future that we need." El-Sayed aims to use Obama's legitimacy among more establishment voters of the Democratic Party in order to get them to vote for him in the midterm elections.

El-Sayed narrowly defeated Congresswoman Haley Stevens on Tuesday in the Democratic primary for the Senate, thereby opening a new round of national-level dialogue about the future of the Democratic Party.

El-Sayed, a physician and former county health department director, won the primary with the support of several national-level progressive figures, including Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Congressman Ro Khanna.