El Sayed turns to Jewish Democrats to sway pro-Israel vote in Michigan
Abdul el Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, will get some help with his outreach to the Jewish community, including private events…
send in the friendly faces. Abdul el Sayed is getting help from Rep. Becca Balint and two other Jewish Democrats for private meet-and-greets meant to reassure Jewish voters.
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Abdul el Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, will get some help with his outreach to the Jewish community, including private events attended by Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) and two other Jewish Democrats.
The events, organized by Michigan Jews for Democracy, represent the latest attempt to ease voter concerns over el Sayed, whose views on Israel and association with pro-Palestinian commentator Hasan Piker have drawn intense scrutiny.
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The first will take place Sunday at a home in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and feature Balint, the granddaughter of a Holocaust victim. West Bloomfield is the city where a Lebanese-born man rammed a synagogue with his truck in March.
On Monday, undecided Jewish voters will be invited to a home in Ann Arbor where former Rep. Andy Levin and congressional candidate Brad Lander are slated to speak.
All three fall on the left end of the spectrum — Balint was the first Jewish member of Congress to accuse Israel of a “genocide” in Gaza — but their visit lends el Sayed Jewish support from prominent voices in the party.
Levin, who served two terms in the House, is from a political dynasty in Michigan, while Lander is traveling from New York, where he primaried a pro-Israel House incumbent in June.
The events, reported by the New York Times and confirmed by the Washington Examiner, are a sign of the inroads el Sayed still needs to make with the roughly 100,000 Jewish residents of Michigan.
El Sayed has apologized for comments that were perceived as justifying the West Bloomfield terrorist attack, but he has declined to disavow Piker, the Twitch streamer who recently suggested that American Jews who support Israel were to blame for the acts of violence against them.
On policy, el Sayed opposes continued U.S. military aid to Israel, a position that Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee, has attempted to capitalize on during his own outreach to the Jewish community.
The two are locked in a tight race for the seat of retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) in a top Senate battleground.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
send in the friendly faces. Abdul el Sayed is getting help from Rep. Becca Balint and two other Jewish Democrats for private meet-and-greets meant to reassure Jewish voters. That is one way to do it. Another way would be to stop saying things that require reassurance in the first place.
El Sayed's problem isn't a PR gap. It's a record that includes harsh anti-Israel rhetoric and a clear association with voices far outside the mainstream. Calling in surrogates to vouch for him is an admission that his own words won't hold up in a general election. Jewish voters in Michigan read the news. They know what he has said about Israel's right to exist, and they know a friendly introduction doesn't rewrite history.
The organizing group, Michigan Jews for Democracy, can hold all the private events they want. But voters will notice the guests are all saying nice things while the candidate stays a step away from answering tough questions. No handpicked Congresswoman can whisper away a Senate candidate's own record. That is not how trust works, and it is exactly the kind of transaction politics that makes people cynical.
Republicans should not assume this is a settled deal. The race is tight, and el Sayed may still try to moderate his image before November. But if he thinks a couple of quiet fundraisers will make Michigan Jewish voters forget what he has said about Israel, he is misreading the people he is trying to win over. Actions have consequences, and so do words. We say let the voters hear more from the candidate himself. That is the one thing the Dem strategists seem determined to avoid.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.