As Trump increases extreme attacks, Democrats – finally – rally around El-Sayed | Michigan

Faced with extreme attacks from Donald Trump and his allies, the Democratic establishment is finally rallying around progressive Abdul El-Sayed, the party’s candidate in the closely watched US senatorial elections in Michigan. But the approval is not always unqualified and often even omits his name.

At a rally in Port Huron on Sunday, the US president launched the latest in a wave of Islamophobic diatribes against El-Sayed, falsely calling him a “jihadist” and a “member of the Muslim Brotherhood” while invoking the September 11 attacks.

But prominent Democrats have lined up to support El-Sayed. That same weekend, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders rallied behind him in Grand Rapids, and former President Barack Obama stood alongside him in Detroit. A few days earlier, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez toured the state with him.

This final show of solidarity marks a turning point for a party that was bitterly divided over El-Sayed’s nomination in August, which it narrowly won by defeating a moderate pro-Israel candidate supported by much of the central party machine.

Michigan’s Senate race — which could help decide which party controls the entire chamber — is close, according to polls, which generally give El-Sayed a small lead over his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.

Top Democrats are increasingly traveling to Michigan to support a candidate that many party leaders did not support in the primary — while making it clear they are not fully aligned.

In an effort to narrow the gap, Republicans have doubled down on their incendiary attacks. Trump has repeatedly called him “Mohammed” this month, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee has run ads using his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.

El-Sayed, born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrants, called the attacks a diversion. “He knows my name is Abdul. He says it every day,” he said in a statement, accusing the president of trying to “use my name and my faith to distract us” from the cost of gas, groceries and health care.

A former health official for Detroit and Wayne County, El-Sayed is running on a platform that supports the universal health care system proposed by Medicare for All and calls for removing corporate money from politics, taxing billionaires and corporations, and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He also called for an end to US military aid to Israel, while calling the war in Gaza a genocide.

A Marist poll last week put El-Sayed at 50 percent and Rogers at 48 percent among likely voters. As of early October, its ad spending was behind by nearly two to one.

Obama’s appearance Saturday in Detroit was the clearest sign of change in the Democratic Party hierarchy. He joined El-Sayed on stage on the first day of early voting — his first public show of support for El-Sayed since the August primary — as a protest organized by white nationalist and January 6 rioter Jake Lang took place outside.

The former president compared the attacks on El-Sayed’s name to those he himself faced. “I remind them his name was Barack,” El-Sayed said.

Obama, whose 57 percent approval rating in a May CNN poll is the highest of any living president, also rejected the idea that El-Sayed is radical. “What’s so radical about wanting everyone to have health care? he asked, saying El-Sayed would “finish the work we started” with the Affordable Care Act.

But Obama acknowledged he disagreed with El-Sayed, who consistently criticized some of his decisions as president. “We’re not going to agree on every detail of every issue,” he said. “You know who else doesn’t agree with everything I do? Michelle Obama.”

Both Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders transferred $1 million to El-Sayed’s campaign. Former Vice President Kamala Harris appeared with him in Detroit last month.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, speaking at the same rally, told the crowd she was counting on El-Sayed as a partner in confronting Trump’s agenda in Congress. Yet she also said that she and El-Sayed “don’t agree on everything — and that’s okay,” and previously argued that condemning left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, with whom El-Sayed campaigned, shouldn’t be difficult.

Others were more cautious. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who has now endorsed El-Sayed, said his views on Israel were “very different from mine,” while former Congressman Sander Levin supported him despite what he called a “significant disagreement” on the same topic. Rep. Hillary Scholten said she would not campaign with anyone associated with Piker.

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, historically pro-Israel, gave a similarly evasive response on CNN Wednesday, when anchor Boris Sanchez played a clip of a black pastor saying that some voters feared El-Sayed would prioritize overseas issues, like Gaza, over Michigan’s needs.

Booker spoke about his Michigan family roots and “winning back the Senate” without mentioning El-Sayed by name. When Sanchez pointed out that it wasn’t “a ringing endorsement,” Booker remained unmoved and the segment continued.

But the coolest response came from Haley Stevens, the pro-Israel congresswoman whom El-Sayed beat in August by less than a point. She had been backed by groups including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), which spent nearly $30 million to support her – the lobby’s largest investment in a single race.

Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday whether she was still fully behind him, she said she was “part of the team.” “You did not mention Abdul El-Sayed in your last response,” Bash noted. Stevens responded that she had urged El-Sayed to give a speech addressing the concerns of black voters, and that had not happened.

In the primary, Stevens defeated El-Sayed in Wayne County, home to Detroit’s black majority, winning about 51 percent of the Democratic vote to 45 percent. Obama urged Saturday’s crowd to support the entire ticket.

El-Sayed and Stevens are expected to campaign together on Sunday – two days before Election Day – it was reported last night, in what would be their first joint public appearance in months.

Rogers, meanwhile, is courting Jewish voters, traditionally more likely to support Democrats, by telling the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that El-Sayed is “anti-Jewish,” an accusation El-Sayed rejects.

The question of whether a careful, nuanced embrace of the Democratic establishment is enough for El-Sayed will be settled on Tuesday, in a state won by less than two points in 2024 by Trump.

If El-Sayed wins, he will become the first Muslim senator in the United States. To achieve this, he has already attracted a skeptical party machine to his side.