Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, has earned the condemnation of Michigan’s Jewish community and of everyone who takes antisemitism seriously.
After the March 12 attack on Temple Israel, a synagogue and preschool in West Bloomfield, El-Sayed condemned the violence and then explained it. “Hurt people hurt people,” he said, calling it part of a cycle of violence tied to Israeli strikes in Lebanon that killed the attacker’s relatives. Months later, he apologized, saying his comments “may have been misconstrued” and that it “wasn’t the time for context.” For many Jewish Michiganders, the damage was already done.
He has called Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide,” called the Israeli government as “evil” as Hamas, and demanded an end to U.S. assistance to Israel. He has said Israel is “not actually our friend,” and declines to affirm its right to exist as a Jewish state because he does not believe in “ethno-states,” a principle applied, in practice, to the world’s one Jewish state.
In the primary, he built his campaign against Rep. Haley Stevens around AIPAC and pro-Israel spending, describing it as an influence that buys American elections. His critics see in that framing an old trope about Jewish money and power. He also long associated with streamer Hasan Piker, distancing himself only after the backlash.
Money is now being raised about his own campaign, though only as an allegation. In a hidden-camera video from James O’Keefe’s O’Keefe Media Group, a man identified as Abdoul Beckwith, described as a regional field organizer, claims El-Sayed receives overseas donations and could not openly reject Hamas without losing support. These are one man’s statements on a covert recording, not established facts. Michigan Democrats say he had no knowledge of the campaign’s internal operations, that his claims are “categorically false,” and that he is no longer employed with the coordinated campaign. El-Sayed’s campaign disputes them as well.
The video proves nothing on its own. But it lands on a record that already speaks for itself: explaining away violence against Jews, denying the Jewish state’s legitimacy, and treating pro-Israel political participation as corruption. Michigan voters are entitled to call that pattern by its name.
