Lansing Mayor Andy Schor is withholding his support for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, citing deep discomfort with the candidate’s harsh rhetoric regarding Israel.
With less than a month until the election, a significant rift is opening within the Michigan Democratic Party. Lansing Mayor Andy Schor has made it clear he cannot support the Senate bid of fellow Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. pointing to the candidate’s repeated and aggressive criticisms of Israel as the primary barrier.
For Schor, who leads the state’s sixth-largest city of approximately 114,000 residents, the issue is personal. He told reporters on Wednesday that his own Jewish heritage makes it difficult to align with a candidate who has publicly equated Israel with Hamas. leveled accusations of genocide in Gaza. and labeled AIPAC’s support for other Democrats like Rep. Haley Stevens as “legalized bribery.”.
“If he doesn’t need me, he doesn’t need me,” Schor said. “And that’s their strategic decision.”
Despite the proximity of the election, there has been no bridge-building. Schor noted he is currently planning to withhold his vote for El-Sayed at least until a conversation between the two takes place. As of mid-week. no such meeting has been scheduled; in fact. the mayor said he hasn’t even received a response from the campaign.
Schor’s withdrawal leaves him in an uncomfortable middle ground. He indicated he does not intend to cross party lines to support the Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, but his refusal to back the party nominee highlights a deepening internal divide.
This tension is not unique to the Lansing mayor’s office. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel recently navigated a similar conflict, expressing hesitation before eventually endorsing El-Sayed. Nessel had publicly confronted the candidate over his framing of Israel as the “central villain” in political discourse and demanded to know if he believed Jewish Zionists “belong” in the Democratic Party.
El-Sayed’s response to Nessel was a call for a “big tent” approach. “I believe in a big tent. and there are Democrats who are going to believe different things about different issues. Israel being one of them. ” he said at the time. “I am committed to having a tent where we march in lockstep on the 95% of things we agree on. and where we continue to have the conversation in that tent about the spaces where we disagree.”.
While Nessel ultimately offered her endorsement. the Republican Jewish Coalition is banking on the idea that other voters share Schor’s frustration. The group is currently deploying $2 million into a new ad campaign specifically designed to pull disenchanted Jewish Democrats away from the El-Sayed ticket before voters head to the polls.
Abdul El-Sayed Andy Schor Michigan Senate Democratic Party Israel Dana Nessel Lansing US Politics