After a long night of counting, projections, and waiting for the Associated Press to finally make it official, progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has secured his party’s nomination for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat (replacing outgoing Senator Gary Peters).

The victory, however, was hardly the landslide many progressives had hoped for – and predicted. El-Sayed defeated establishment-backed U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens by fewer than 15,000 votes in one of the closest statewide Democratic primaries in recent Michigan history.

Now comes the much tougher assignment.

Republican Mike Rogers has spent months arguing that El-Sayed is too far left for Michigan, and Republicans are likely to seize on the razor-thin primary as evidence that even Democratic voters were deeply divided over his candidacy.

Earlier polling also suggested Rogers performed better against El-Sayed than against Stevens in a potential general election matchup.

Winning is winning, but Democrats hoping for a dominant nominee instead got a nail- biter that dragged well into the next day.

If El-Sayed couldn’t put away a fellow Democrat by more than a sliver, November against a well-funded Republican in one of the nation’s marquee Senate races may prove to be a far steeper climb.