Abdul El-Sayed offers a template for Democrats to defeat Trumpism | Peter Beinart

The candidate has crafted a progressive nationalism and shown his party how to turn Republicans' financial advantage against them

Every now and then, a Senate race sets the direction for an entire party. In 1991, a state official named Harris Wofford - advised by a foul-mouthed Cajun named James Carville - upset his far better-known Republican opponent to win a special election in Pennsylvania. He did it by promising to expand access to healthcare - and thus created a template for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign the following year.

If Abdul El-Sayed can follow up his victory in last night's Democratic Senate primary by winning the general election in Michigan this fall, he will have created a template of his own. Despite his closer-than-expected margin of victory, his campaign offers a model for how Democrats across the country can answer the political challenge posed by Donald Trump.