El Sayed targets Natalie Harp in mocking Trump’s ‘creepy’ pronunciation of ‘Abdul’

Abdul el Sayed decided the best way to talk about his Senate race was to bring up his opponent's ties to Trump by way of Natalie Harp's love life. That's the pitch now, apparently. Not health care costs in Michigan, not the auto industry, not inflation. A joke about who's cozy with whom in the West Wing.

There's something telling in a candidate reaching for gossip when he's got a real opening on policy. El Sayed is running in a state where people care about jobs and prices, and he chose to spend a town hall riffing on pronunciation and palace intrigue instead. If that's the sharpest material his campaign can produce against Mike Rogers, that says more about the state of the race than it does about Trump.

Democrats have spent years insisting Trump's team runs on personal loyalty over substance. Maybe. But turning that critique into a punchline about a staffer's private life doesn't land as principled, it lands as petty. Voters in Farmington Hills didn't show up to hear about who Trump supposedly likes having around. They showed up because their grocery bills are still too high and their factories are still hurting.

El Sayed can mock however he wants. But if this is the tone of his campaign, Rogers should be thanking him for the contrast.