Abdul El-Sayed ran well behind other Michigan Democrats in areas with more Jewish voters, according to a detailed POLITICO analysis of precinct-level results.
Statewide, the progressive senator-elect ran just two points behind the Democratic governor-elect. Jocelyne Benson obtaining 52.5% of the votes against 54.5% for her. But the gap was much wider in communities with high Jewish concentrations: In Huntington Woods, a Detroit suburb that is about two-thirds Jewish, El-Sayed was nearly 15 points behind. Benson obtaining 65.3% of the votes against Benson 80%.
In West Bloomfield, the site of Attack on a synagogue in March who shook up the Senate primaries and a city where about a quarter of the residents are Jewish, El-Sayed is 8.8 points behind Benson .
El-Sayed faced backlash from some Jewish Democrats during his campaign, particularly over his calls to end U.S. military support for Israel and his remarks after the synagogue attack that “hurt people, hurt people”, for which he he later apologized .
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