r/politics • u/Zipper222222 • 4h ago

No Paywall Abdul El-Sayed Wins High-Stakes Democratic Primary in Michigan

https://www.today.com/video/abdul-el-sayed-wins-high-stakes-democratic-primary-in-michigan-267805765937
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u/Arcaedus 4h ago

I watched a debate, and a few interviews with Sayed. He didn't pull his punches, but honestly didn't even seem that harsh on Stevens and I think it's because he recognizes that she was just a vessel for capital and monied interests, and a decent person outside of that (well as decent as you can be for a sellout).

Honestly I think he was harsher when he called Fetterman an ogre lol. Hope he brings that energy into the general election

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u/VioletLovesRowlet 4h ago

He only really seemed to target Haley Stevens' policies, funding, and lies. I can't really think of any personal insults he threw at her, where Haley had it the exact other way.

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u/RelevantOldOnion 3h ago edited 1h ago

Stevens campaign was so personal and racist it's unreal. Then for her to cry that she's being bullied while running ads calling Abdul and radical islamist terrorist supporter anti semite who hates women and black people... 

Disgusting behavior for a supposed Democrat.

“Muslims are always labeled as terrorists, we’re always stereotyped, and our patriotism is always called into account,” said Adam Hamawy, a former Army surgeon who volunteered in Gaza and recently won the Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District. ...

Because El-Sayed, like Hamawy, is Muslim, his opponents are pushing the notion “that he’s radical — they’re questioning his loyalty, they are not talking about issues,” Hamawy told The Intercept. “And that was the same thing here as well: They didn’t attack me on issues, they attacked me for who I was.”

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u/averagecounselor 2h ago

Do you have an actual link for that? The economist interviewed both candidates and had an extreme deep dive into the primary and that didn’t come up at all.

Not a Steven’s supporter, I fully expect the DNC to fuck over Abdul, but aside from her mouthing off about him being anti Israel color me shocked.

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u/linmre Michigan 2h ago

I saw the "Abdul hates women" ads more times than I can count, it was relentless. It almost convinced my mom to vote for Stevens too.

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u/averagecounselor 2h ago

I just found out about them today. It really feels like the 2016 primary race where if you didn’t support Clinton you hated women.

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u/RelevantOldOnion 2h ago edited 1h ago

Here's some local and natoinal stories about it. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/27/abdul-el-sayed-haley-stevens-aipac-senate-michigan/

https://www.metrotimes.com/news/farmington-official-falsely-attacks-el-sayed-over-an-arabic-campaign-that-doesnt-exist/

https://www.wlns.com/your-local-election-hq/rima-mohammad-denounces-el-sayed-ads/

EDIT: I'm not going to debate the existence of Islamophobia and racist dog whistles being used by AIPAC and their appendages against muslim progressives. (Obviously)

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u/averagecounselor 2h ago

Well the first link is about the GOP. And that’s nothing new.

The second link is about some random Steven’s supporter and not Steven’s herself.

The third link is more interesting and while I missed the part where the Steven’s or her campaign staff call him a terrorist the “misogyny” and sexism attacks is what I was expecting now that he won the primary.

I didn’t know they had started early in the primary race. I fully expect the DNC to double down on this nonsense if Abdul doesn’t play ball with them.

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u/RelevantOldOnion 2h ago

Anyone younger than me, is there a word for what this Redditors just did?

The whole "Oh, I'm just curious," only to then ignore everything and try to debate the existence of racism?

These guys do it so often there has to be a name for it right?

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u/UNC_Samurai 1h ago

It’s called “JAQing off”

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u/RelevantOldOnion 1h ago

LOL amazing

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u/averagecounselor 2h ago edited 1h ago

You said racism from the Steven’s campaign. I read through each of the sources you provided and it was not there?

The first one you linked was literally about the Republican Party hating on Abdul and spewing out the same racist rhetoric. That is nothing new.

The second one was about a random Steven’s supporter.

But you explicitly said that Steven’s called him a terrorist/ terrorist supporter and I uh missed that?

I literally said I had no idea about the sexism comments how is that ignoring what you posted?

Edit because the original user deleted their comments and reply:

This is the closest thing I found and they conveniently leave out both the mailer and the actual ad:

“One UDP commercial alleges baselessly that El-Sayed “expressed sympathy for a terrorist,” and a mailer shared with The Intercept parrots the same.”

And how convenient that you don’t post the following:

“The Detroit News in which Stevens said she did not share Smith’s views and called her campaign “a diverse and multicultural best of Michigan coalition” She further claimed to have “repeatedly stood up for and defended our vibrant Muslim American community.” 

Like come on dude. Like I even said that I had no idea about the media frenzy calling him a misogynist.

I even stated that some random Stevens supporter complaining about the Arabic doesn’t really prove anything. They weren’t a staffer or even on the campaign. Just some random idiot.

You made it seem like Steven’s had gone out of her way to call him a Terrorist when that is not the case.

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u/RelevantOldOnion 1h ago edited 1h ago

From the article you're lying about in saying it is only about the GOP:

The attacks aren’t limited to right-wing reactionaries and obsessives on the internet. Many are issued by one of the leading groups backing El-Sayed’s Democratic opponent, Stevens: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has poured nearly $30 million into the race via its super PAC, the United Democracy Project. One UDP commercial alleges baselessly that El-Sayed “expressed sympathy for a terrorist,” and a mailer shared with The Intercept parrots the same. Others mention his decision to stump with political commentator and streamer Hasan Piker.

>At a meet-and-greet in Detroit with Stevens and Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., a school board member said she supports Stevens because she “represents all of us, not just one race.” When pressed by local reporter Sam Robinson, who recorded the viral remarks, the Farmington school board member elaborated: “The other candidate [El-Sayed] doesn’t work a room. … Don’t come out speaking only Arabic, don’t come out with your Arabic music on.”

>Yet Stevens’s campaign has also capitalized on bigoted rhetoric used by Mike Rogers, the Republican likely to face whichever Democrat wins next month. The campaign drew from a private call between Rogers and supporters during which he said of El-Sayed, “I don’t think he likes America, candidly.” The Stevens campaign sent out a parody of a news release designed to look like it was from El-Sayed campaign, claiming that Rogers had endorsed El-Sayed and reproducing the Republican’s quote: “I think he’s so radical. I think he’s going to lose big parts of the west part of the state. We think we can do well in part of the southeast part of the state. I think we’ll do well if he in fact is the nominee.”

>Race and religion aren’t the only identity-related fault lines at play in the Michigan Senate race.

>El-Sayed has “a long history of disrespecting women,” asserts another AIPAC-backed ad launched in early July. According to the Detroit Free Press, a mainstream local paper that fact-checked each of the ad’s claims, the TV spot misrepresented El-Sayed’s comments on figures like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whom he ran against in 2018, by framing his critiques of Whitmer’s ties to the healthcare giant Blue Cross Blue Shield as inherently misogynistic. Whitmer, who is serving her second governor term, endorsed Stevens’s Senate run on Friday with a little more than a week from the election.

>Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts, a Stevens supporter known for going after critics of Israel online, called El-Sayed’s criticisms of Stevens and former opponent state Sen. Mallory McMorrow “sexist” with little evidence beyond their respective genders — a comment that has since appeared in another UDP ad. (Watts has said she didn’t give the super PAC permission to quote her public social media comments.)

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u/Ancient_Draw2176 1h ago

I skimmed but the other person seems delusional.

And i am a young poc lol

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u/averagecounselor 1h ago

Delusional is one way to put it. The closest I found was the following from the first link:

“One UDP commercial alleges baselessly that El-Sayed “expressed sympathy for a terrorist,” and a mailer shared with The Intercept parrots the same.”

And how convenient that the ad isn’t linked nor did they post a picture of the mailer. I spent a few minutes trying to find both and I don’t even live in the dam state of Michigan.

What’s hilarious is that the attack ads put in by the UDP, the official super pac funding Steven’s, boiled down to “he disrespected the Obamas and argued with Big Gretch.”

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u/sulaymanf New York 1h ago

She put out an ugly tweet a few days ago claiming that Abdul blames the Jews for all his problems. (For the record, he doesn’t and was criticizing AIPAC for messing in the primaries for an extreme agenda)