Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is seeking to appear more moderate to voters while, at the same time, maintaining ties to individuals who take positions far to the left of anything he publicly endorses.
asserted
he → seek → anything
Since launching his Senate bid in April 2025, El-Sayed has distanced himself from a number of positions he had previously held and scrubbed much of his left-wing pre-campaign content from the internet.
asserted
he → launch → internet
He has also repeatedly insisted that he is "not a socialist."
asserted
he → insist → ?
While attempting to convince voters that characterizations of him as a left-wing ideologue are inaccurate, El-Sayed has appeared at campaign events with and accepted endorsements from a range of political allies and supporters with controversial records or views.
asserted
Sayed → attempt → records
Beyond campaigning with Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who claimed that America "deserved" 9/11, El-Sayed has also linked himself with terror-sympathetic Islamic clerics, individuals accused of antisemitism and several prominent socialists and socialist-aligned activists.
asserted
Sayed → campaign → antisemitism
"Abdul has made clear that no one speaks for his campaign besides himself and his campaign spokespeople," El-Sayed campaign spokesman Cole Wozniak told Fox News Digital.
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Wozniak → make → Digital
El-Sayed's campaign has attempted to flip the narrative on Republicans, pointing out that Mike Rogers, the GOP nominee facing off against him, has his own set of controversial associations.
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Rogers → attempt → associations
Some individuals affiliated with the Rogers campaign, which did not respond to a request for comment, have also cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 election and advocated for banning gay marriage.
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which → affiliate → marriage
Nonetheless, Republicans have made El-Sayed's affiliations with controversial figures a focal point of their campaign in Michigan.
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affiliations → make → Michigan
Surrounded by socialists
"I am not somebody who is a socialist," El-Sayed told CNN in July.
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Sayed → surround → July
"I believe in capitalism, I just believe that capitalism has to be regulated."
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capitalism → believe → capitalism
Despite this assertion, and multiple others like it, El-Sayed has surrounded himself with socialists during his tenure as a public figure.
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Sayed → surround → figure
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont described by some as the avatar of socialism in America, threw his support behind El-Sayed’s ill-fated 2018 gubernatorial run.
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Sanders → describe → run
The Vermont socialist was also among the first to back El-Sayed’s 2026 Senate bid, endorsing him on the same day he launched his campaign.
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he → back → campaign
Sanders isn’t the only socialist backing El-Sayed’s run for Senate.
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Sanders → back → Senate
El-Sayed has long aligned himself with the Democratic Socialists of America, only recently distancing himself from the ascendant left-wing organization as he seeks to win a competitive Senate race.
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he → align → race
Between 2017 and 2020, the Michigan Democrat spoke at six events held by Democratic Socialists of America chapters, including a 2019 fundraiser where he served as the keynote speaker.
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he → speak → speaker
Additionally, DSA officials told Politico in July that they were mobilizing resources to help El-Sayed win his Democratic primary election.
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Sayed → tell → election
"I'm not technically or practically DSA," El-Sayed told the Wall Street Journal in July.
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Sayed → tell → July
Socialist organizers, however, have called him "a longtime friend of Detroit DSA."
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organizers → call → DSA
Most recently, news broke that William Lawrence, a Democratic Socialists of America member running for Congress in Michigan who has campaigned alongside El-Sayed, called for "destroying the American way of life" on a podcast hosted by Marxist activists.
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who → break → activists
"I'm wondering how we can inspire a sense of abundance for people in the United States, while frankly, destroying the American way of life and the negative connotations and material realities that has come to mean," he said on the episode.
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he → wonder → episode
'Martyrs' and 'mujahideen'
A strong showing with Michigan’s Arab American community helped carry El-Sayed to victory in August’s Democratic primary.
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showing → carry → primary
El-Sayed has been deeply involved with the state’s Muslim community, including relationships with figures who have made controversial statements about Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah.
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who → include → Israel
In April, Amir Makled, a man running for the University of Michigan's board of regents who celebrated dead members of Hezbollah — a U.S.-designated terrorist organization — as "martyr[s]," introduced El-Sayed at a campaign rally.
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who → run → rally
Then, in June, El-Sayed headlined the opening of Imam Hassan Qazwini’s Islamic Institute of America, offering him his "hearty congratulations" and calling his mosque "incredible."
Qazwini has a history of making controversial comments.
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Qazwini → headline → comments
Among these have been his claim that Israel was behind ISIS, calling a slain leader of Hezbollah a hero of the "resistance," and describing Sanders as honorable "even though he is a Jew."
uncertain
he → call → Sanders
Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign denounced Qazwini as antisemitic.
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campaign → denounce → Qazwini
Qazwini has since compelled his congregation to vote for El-Sayed, arguing that doing so is a "moral responsibility" and "religious duty" in a July sermon.
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doing → compel → sermon
At the opening of Qazwini’s institute, El-Sayed shared the stage with Sheikh Fadhel al-Sahlani, a cleric who praised Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack and downplayed the number of people killed in the Holocaust.
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who → share → Holocaust
On Sept. 5, El-Sayed is scheduled to share a different stage at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual convention with Qazwini.
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Sayed → schedule → Qazwini
Also slated to be in attendance are Imam Baqir Berry, who prayed that God would grant Islamic holy soldiers in Gaza "a mighty victory;" and Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center terrorism case but was never charged in connection with the attacks.
El-Sayed’s religious views have puzzled some observers.
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views → slat → observers
While the Democrat supports easy access to abortion and child sex changes, he has also expressed a desire to live in accordance with Sharia law and describes his faith as important to his outlook on life.
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he → support → life
Ties to Nation of Islam figures
A number of people El-Sayed has appeared with or promoted have ties to the Nation of Islam, a religious organization founded by Black nationalists in the 1930s that is not considered an orthodox Muslim sect by most Islamic leaders.
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that → appear → leaders
The Nation of Islam teaches that Black people are the original human beings and that White people were created by an evil Black scientist named Yakub.
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people → teach → scientist
Their doctrine portrays the White race as inherently corrupt and historically responsible for oppressing Black people, though it also asserts Black racial superiority.
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it → portray → superiority
Farrakhan has accused Jews of being "wicked deceivers of the American people" who have "sucked their blood," later suggesting that "people will never be free in this country" until they are liberated from the "tremendous amount of influence" he said Jews exert over the American government.
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Jews → accuse → government
He has also called Jews "termites" and suggested that White people generally are "the skunk of the planet earth" and not fully evolved.
uncertain
people → call → earth
Despite the Nation of Islam’s controversial positions, El-Sayed has maintained ties to individuals affiliated with it.
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Sayed → maintain → it
Marcus Muhammad, a small-town mayor and minister with the Nation of Islam, posted a photograph of himself arm-in-arm with El-Sayed backstage at his election night watch party.
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Muhammad → post → party
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
