Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, faced a slew of bigoted attacks following his primary win on Tuesday.
While President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance had their own vitriol for the progressive Democrat, other right-wing figures and lawmakers opted to attack El-Sayed’s ethnicity and Muslim faith.
Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the Republican nominee for Senate in Michigan, claimed El-Sayed said the U.S. deserved the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
“I spent years hunting terrorists and bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. Never in a million years did I think that I would be running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11,” Rogers said in his statement.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) followed Rogers’ lead.
“Can we stop electing terrorists into office in America?” Mace said in a social media post on Wednesday.
Laura Loomer, a self-proclaimed “proud Islamophobe” and close ally of Trump, posted a series of attacks against El-Sayed along with unfounded conspiracy theories about Muslim-Americans.
“The official Democrat Party account just openly endorsed an Islamic jihadist who signed a pledge in support of the Muslim Brotherhood, a designated foreign Islamic terrorist organization. Abdul El Sayed mourned the death of the Ayatollah. Democrats support Islamic terrorism,” Loomer wrote in one post.
“Mosques all across America are being used to stockpile military-grade rifles, grenades, knives and explosives to arm millions of military-aged Muslim men and illegal alien invaders,” she wrote in another.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) quickly posted an attack ad against El-Sayed that was full of Islamophobic dog whistles, repeating the 9/11 claims and allegeding he supports the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“El-Sayed is the most radical Democrat Senate nominee ever. His support of terrorist organizations, socialist policies, and the defunding of law enforcement makes him dangerous and ultimately disqualified from serving,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the chair of the NRSC, said in a statement posted with the attack ad.
El-Sayed said during a press conference that the Islamophobic attacks were “the only play they got.”
“They’re gonna point at me, they’re gonna point at my name, like, ‘Wow, he’s different.’ That’s the best you got? You can’t actually talk about what you want to do? My name is not raising your gas prices. My name is not taking us to war. My name is not the reason you can’t afford your groceries,” El-Sayed said.