Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary on Aug. 4. Since then, his biggest problem hasn't been Republican nominee Mike Rogers. It has been El-Sayed — specifically, the things he said when winning over progressive primary voters mattered more than convincing the rest of Michigan.
From Reuters:
El-Sayed, a 41-year-old doctor whose campaign focused on healthcare, the economy and an end to unconditional military aid to Israel, is the first progressive to win a statewide primary in a state that President Donald Trump carried in 2024. He will face Republican former congressman Mike Rogers in November's midterm elections.
Democrats, who had been deeply divided between El-Sayed and his more moderate opponent, U.S. Representative Haley Stevens, rushed on Wednesday to portray the entire party as behind him. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had endorsed Stevens, said Democrats would unify to defeat Rogers; Stevens herself vowed to help El-Sayed win.
"Whatever differences that we might have had in the primary, they pale in comparison to what unifies us," El-Sayed said on Wednesday.
While Democrats have racked up a series of electoral victories since Trump returned to office last year, the Michigan contest again highlighted a central debate that has riven the party: whether to back progressive insurgents who have harnessed the left wing's anti-establishment anger or moderate candidates who can appeal to swing voters.
The latest receipt comes from Oct. 21, 2023, only two weeks after Hamas terrorists murdered about 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped roughly 250. El-Sayed was already accusing Israel of perpetrating "genocide" against innocent Palestinians. Israel's major ground operation in Gaza didn't begin until Oct. 27.
Read the timing again.
Israel was still reeling from the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust; hostages remained in Hamas captivity, and El-Sayed had already reached for one of the most poisonous accusations available against the Jewish state. Nearly three years later, Michigan voters are getting another look at what he chose to say.
El-Sayed probably hoped his Aug. 24 appearance with Fox News' Jesse Watters would introduce him to voters outside his political home turf. Instead, he spent a long interview defending or explaining positions involving Sharia law, taxing the rich, government-run healthcare, transgender policies, Iran, and other issues Republicans would be delighted to discuss every day until November.
From Fox News:
El-Sayed, who said he would "never" push his faith on someone else, argued that there is evidence proving the Trump administration has targeted him because he is Muslim.
"There's statistical evidence that the president and the vice president like to target me simply as a function of my faith," he said.
The Democratic nominee condemned Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., over his proposed legislation that would prevent foreign nationals advocating for Sharia law from entering the U.S., including the No Sharia Act and Preserving a Sharia Free America Act.
"The idea, that you have somebody like Tommy Tuberville – who barely was good at coaching football – is out here trying to ban Sharia Law when there's less than 1% of the Muslim community in America, as if somehow Muslims are out here trying to push Sharia law, that seems to me to be deliberately targeting the Muslim Community, because they're different," he said.
Then there's Vice President JD Vance's family. El-Sayed took a swipe involving Second Lady Usha Vance and later faced renewed scrutiny over earlier remarks about the couple's children.
Vance publicly responded, and his mother, Beverly Vance Aikins, joked Tuesday that she would "probably punch" El-Sayed if she met him.
Lahren asked Aikins if she laughs off comments like El-Sayed’s or if she gets mad.
"I mean, it makes me mad, honestly, because he doesn't know JD and he doesn't know, you know, what type of person he is, and I do, but in the long run. I'm not going to do anything about it… I'd probably punch the guy if I ever seen him and then that would get me in trouble, said Aikins in jest. "So, I'll just go with the flow."
El-Sayed made comments about second lady Usha Vance and the Vance children during an April appearance on "The Allen Analysis Show," clips of which have recently resurfaced.
"I think they're jealous, honestly. I mean, JD is 42 years old. He's handsome. He's the Vice President of the of the United States," said Aikins.
"He's got a beautiful wife, four beautiful children and jealousy is the only thing I can think of," she added. "I mean, he can take all the shots he wants. It's going to go, you know, it's going to get no merit from any of us."
El-Sayed suggested in April that Vice President JD Vance’s political views are at odds with his own children’s biracial background.
"JD Vance has brown kids who he thinks are less American than everyone else. Like that's wild to look at your own kids and be like you don’t actually belong as much in this country that I brought you into," said El-Sayed. "Bro it must break you every time you hug your own kids."
The Michigan socialist said that he hopes Vance’s kids grow up to "undo" the vice president’s politics.
If Vance's mother is anything like what my mother was like, I hope for El-Sayed's sake they never meet.
El-Sayed has also spent the post-primary period repairing damage with Jewish Democrats. On Aug. 29, he apologized for his response to the March attack on Temple Israel in suburban Detroit; he said that "hurt people hurt people," while discussing the attacker's background and family losses in Gaza.
Meanwhile, he still won't fully break with Hasan Piker, the far-left streamer who campaigned with him and has generated his own catalog of radioactive statements. El-Sayed has tried to minimize the relationship as Democrats worry about Jewish voters and the broader Michigan electorate.
Primary campaigns reward candidates for exciting the people most likely to vote in primaries. General elections introduce millions of people who weren't listening before, and they tend to ask different questions.
El-Sayed wanted the Democratic nomination, and he got it. Now he wants Michigan voters to focus on affordability, healthcare, and working families while remarks about Israel, the Vance family, Sharia law, Hasan Piker, and even his old suggestion that America might find the American dream more easily in Canada keep resurfacing.
From Fox News:
“Contrary to what we’re taught: that we are the land of opportunity, where anyone with a dollar in a dream can make it. In fact, too few people have that first dollar,” El-Sayed said at the time.
“Economic data shows us that if you want to achieve the American dream, well, you should move to Canada because it’s twice as likely there. Here, where you start predicts where you end.”
Unearthed Audio Shows Abdul El-Sayed PRAISING Canada Over The United States As Being Better to Achieve the 'American Dream'
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 1, 2026
"If you want to achieve the American Dream, you should move to Canada because it's twice as likely there"
All he does is glorify foreign countries while… pic.twitter.com/wErz4nmFD2
Republicans don't need to invent a radical version of Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.
They can simply let Michigan hear the one who has been talking for years.
The general election is where old statements meet new scrutiny, and PJ Media will keep pulling the receipts. Join PJ Media VIP today and use promo code FIGHT to save 60% on your subscription.
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