Imagine being so detached from reality that you “struggle with the question of whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state.” As ludicrous as that sounds, it is apparently a serious concern for Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the current frontrunner in Michigan’s Democratic Senate Primary.
The former Wayne County health director is running for the open seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, who is retiring.
There was a time, not so long ago, when a statement this vile would have been enough to end a political candidacy. Today, however, as antisemitic rhetoric has become increasingly normalized among wide swaths of the Democratic Party — particularly in states like Minnesota and Michigan, home to the nation’s largest Muslim populations — such remarks no longer provoke the universal condemnation they once would have.
What was once considered politically disqualifying is now often dismissed, met with silence, or worst of all, applauded.
In fact, it appears that the more incendiary El-Sayed’s rhetoric becomes, the more he rises in the polls. The candidate who until recently trailed his primary opponents, Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-11) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, has gained momentum in the race over the last few months. It’s hard to say whether that is despite his antisemitic remarks or because of them.
El-Sayed made national headlines in March when leaked audio of his reaction to the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei surfaced. In the clip below, he tells supporters, “I also want to remind you guys that there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today. So like, I just don’t want to comment on Khamenei at all.”
Sadly, whether it was the national attention generated by the controversy or genuine enthusiasm for his message, he began gaining ground in the polls almost immediately after the story broke. At the time, the most recent survey showed Stevens leading the field with 23% support, holding a slim one-point advantage over both El-Sayed and McMorrow.
Since then, the race has shifted dramatically. The RealClearPolitics polling average now places El-Sayed in the lead with 24.3% support, giving him a 4.5-point lead over Stevens and McMorrow, who are tied at 19.8%.
The latest individual poll of the race, conducted by Mitchell Research and released on May 11, found El-Sayed leading the field with 28% support — 10 points ahead of Stevens at 18%, and 11 points ahead of McMorrow at 17%. With the August 4 primary just two months away, he appears to have significant momentum on his side.
El-Sayed has held campus rallies with the far-Left, ultra-controversial streamer and influencer Hasan Piker, who is best known for saying that America deserved 9/11.
Michigan Republicans will also hold a Senate primary, but former Rep. Mike Rogers (D-MI) is widely expected to be the GOP nominee.
RealClearPolitics maintains polling averages for potential general-election matchups between Rogers and each of the three leading Democratic candidates. The Mitchell Research poll cited above found that Rogers holds a narrow lead over each of the Democratic contenders in hypothetical matchups, though El-Sayed appears to be his strongest potential opponent.
Rogers led El-Sayed by just one point, 42% to 41%, compared with leads of 42% to 39% over Stevens and 43% to 41% over McMorrow.
Democrats need a net gain of four seats to reclaim the Senate majority, making Michigan one of the party’s most important battlegrounds in 2026. A victory there is widely viewed as essential to any realistic path back to control of the chamber.
Noting that some pretty radical candidates have been winning Democratic primaries, RealClearPolitics co-founder Tom Bevan warned in a recent op-ed that the party risked losing otherwise winnable races in the general election.
He compared the Democrats’ current position to that of the Republicans in 2010:
The 2010 midterm did indeed turn out to be a banner year for the GOP: a pickup of 63 seats in the House of Representatives and a gain of six seats in the U.S. Senate. However, Republicans fell short of taking back the Senate Majority, in part because they lost two winnable races by nominating problematic candidates: Sharron Angle, who ran a subpar campaign and fell to Harry Reid by 41,424 votes, and Christine O’Donnell, who lost the special election to replace Joe Biden in Delaware and aired an ad infamously claiming, “I am not a witch.”
Democrats will soon find out whether rewarding candidates who traffic in ideological extremism during the primary season translates into success — or failure — when the general electorate has its say.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn.
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