As the final stretch of the Michigan Senate contest unfolds, Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed is navigating a wave of bigotry and Islamophobic attacks over his race and religion, even as intraparty fractures reshape the race’s closing arguments. President Donald Trump has labeled him a “jihadist,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. engaged in a racist rant against Arabs, and a mailer surfaced displaying El-Sayed’s face next to the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, according to Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow. “They are running the most bigoted, hateful, Islamophobic campaign I’ve ever seen,” McMorrow told a local TV outlet.
McMorrow, who ran for the Democratic Senate nomination before dropping out prior to the August primary, has taken a sharply different path than Rep. Haley Stevens, the Democratic primary runner-up. Stevens spent the closing days of the race painting El-Sayed as an antisemite and crossed party lines to endorse Republican contender Mike Rogers. Rogers has sought to portray El-Sayed as anti-American and repeatedly attempted to tie him to the Muslim Brotherhood, while insisting the attacks have nothing to do with faith. Many observers, including Muslim Republicans disgusted by the rhetoric, view the attacks differently.
As the election draws to a close, the Islamophobic attacks have been partly overshadowed by Stevens’s claims of antisemitism—specifically concerning a political action committee ad connecting high grocery prices to U.S. spending on Israeli military aid—and a personal feud between the former primary opponents. Some of El-Sayed’s allies worry that the Muslim- and Arab-baiting will succeed, noting a recent poll showing that 38 percent of Michigan voters said they would be less likely to vote for a Muslim candidate.
Yet Michigan’s Muslim and Arab organizers are actively countering the rhetoric. Layla Elabed, organizing director at Arab Americans for Progress and sister of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, described widespread enthusiasm in Dearborn for a candidate poised to become the first Muslim in the U.S. Senate. Elabed was a key organizer in the Uncommitted movement, which urged Michigan voters to withhold support from Joe Biden during the 2024 primary to protest U.S. policy in Gaza. She believes the same coalition is now rallying behind El-Sayed, noting that he has taken firm stands on issues important to anti-war voters.
Elabed dismissed Stevens’s endorsement shift, stating that Arab American Democrats in Michigan have warned the wider party for years about a pattern of putting political interests ahead of constituents. Other groups are also mobilizing voters in dense Arab communities such as Dearborn. Osama Siblani, president of the Arab American Political Action Committee, which endorsed El-Sayed, compared the candidate’s potential victory to John F. Kennedy’s pathbreaking election as the first Catholic president.
“First of all, he’s qualified. Second of all, he’s saying the right things, he has a good agenda,” Siblani said, adding that El-Sayed is breaking ceilings for his community and others.
Nazita Lajevardi, an associate professor of political science at the University of Michigan, noted that political elites often use Islamophobia as a strategy to garner support and sway votes. However, she suggested that discrimination can also serve to mobilize voters into action, though whether it will be enough to push El-Sayed over the top remains an open question.
Stevens’s decision to back Rogers appears to have galvanized El-Sayed’s base, with his campaign announcing a one-day fundraising record following the announcement.
