Dems Hit Panic Button As El-Sayed’s Black Voter Problems Remain Problematic

Dems Hit Panic Button As El-Sayed’s Black Voter Problems Remain Problematic

In addition to the big issues he’s had in trying to win over Jewish Democrats in Michigan, Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed also has a well-documented problem with Democratic voters in the black community, something on which Legal Insurrection has extensively reported.

It was also notable during the primary, where we saw patterns similar to those in places like New York City, where Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) or DSA-backed House candidates did not do as well in their respective primaries as you traditionally have seen Democrats do with black voters.

• Abdul El-Sayed’s Black Voter Problem in Michigan Looks Real
• Black Michigan Voters Push Back Against El-Sayed: ‘I’m Like, NO!’
• MI Democratic Senate Primary Poll: Stevens Up Big With Black Voters, El-Sayed Backed by White Leftists
• Michigan Democratic Senate Candidate El-Sayed’s Achilles’ Heel

Saturday was the first day of statewide in-person early voting in Michigan and, at this late date and with Election Day fast approaching, El-Sayed’s black voter problem does not seem to have gotten any better, according to The New York Times of all places, which detailed longstanding trust issues between the Arab community in Dearborn and black voters in Detroit:

“These are relationships in the community for years in this city,” said Mary Waters, a prominent Black city councilwoman in Detroit who has pointedly not endorsed Dr. El-Sayed. “It is because of — maybe not anything to do with him personally — but the Middle Eastern community in general.”

In the primary, Dr. El-Sayed decisively lost Black areas of Detroit to Representative Haley Stevens, whose supporters ran a heavy rotation of ads featuring Mr. Obama’s praise of her work on the 2009 auto industry bailout. Ms. Stevens won majority-Black precincts in Detroit by a 34-percentage-point landslide.

[…]

But Ms. Waters, the Detroit councilwoman, said that for some Black voters, no surrogate would prove powerful enough to overcome grievances rooted in personal experiences at gas stations and grocery stores.

“Even if she walked down the street with Abdul El-Sayed holding his hand, they would still not vote for him,” Ms. Waters said of Ms. Harris, adding that some Black voters were even drawing on the language of the Uncommitted movement: “People are saying they’re going to ‘leave it blank.’”

One black supporter of GOP nominee Mike Rogers who was quoted by the Times stated that “[El-Sayed’s] community, the Arabic community — for so long they have disrespected the black community.”

MS NOW, too, wrote about similar issues, as well as how the “lack of signs” in key Detroit neighborhoods, including “one of the most educated, highest-turnout precincts in the city,” were “setting off alarm bells” in the Democratic Party concerning the Senate race:

“If you look down here, do you see any yard signs? Look left and right,” [Tashawna Gill, chair of the state party’s grassroots caucus] says. I do, and it’s … empty. “It doesn’t even look like it’s an election going on anywhere,” she said.

Typically, Gill said, the streets are pretty lined with them. That they aren’t now, so close to the election, “is scary to me.”

Yard signs are not votes, but they are a sign of enthusiasm and of a campaign that is working hard to get those signs stuck in lawns.

Detroit is 75% Black, according to census data, the largest majority-Black big city in the country. And the Democratic playbook for winning statewide has not changed in a lifetime: run up the score in Wayne and Genesee counties, then hang on everywhere else.

When Detroit doesn’t turn out, Democrats lose. Two years ago, when Elissa Slotkin narrowly held Michigan’s other Senate seat, she won 86% of the Black vote compared with Republican Mike Rogers’ 12%. Recent polling shows El-Sayed hovering below 80% of the Black vote.

Rogers, too, has been emphasizing his black voter outreach efforts as well as the disconnect between El-Sayed and the key Democratic voting bloc:

Marcus is an incredible leader for the people of Pontiac, and I am honored to have his support. Marcus voted early today, and you can too! Make a plan to cast your ballot on or before Nov. 3rd! pic.twitter.com/lIJnhEFjYc

— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) October 25, 2026

“Smug”
“Arrogant”
“Dismissive”
“Lack of respect”
“More concerned about Gaza than Detroit”

That’s Abdul El-Sayed. pic.twitter.com/pgL6kSEDi7

— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) October 21, 2026

Meanwhile, El-Sayed’s “outreach” to black voters looks a little something like this:

Abdul El-Sayed to black voters: I am not like your "gas station Abdul" who hates blacks, catcalls women

This reeks of desperation pic.twitter.com/HfzrKViid9

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 20, 2026

Abdul El-Sayed does a black voter outreach video and decides to order fried chicken: pic.twitter.com/HS0T39lK0s

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) October 20, 2026

And let’s not forget this:

Abdul El-Sayed: "I am Arab. I'm also African. I'm proud of my African heritage." pic.twitter.com/1CVbzkqBzu

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 19, 2026

Dan Turrentine, a former DNC official who was also the national finance director for then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), recently observed that it was going to take a lot more from Democrats in the closing days to persuade black voters to rally behind El-Sayed:

I want to see if a five-alarm gets pulled in the party next week. I know Obama’s going there, but are more assets brought to bear because something is — it is so weird that you have this polling showing he’s still in the lead by a point or two, but everybody you talk to on the ground there says there is a very worrying problem with the Black vote in Detroit. And I have not seen many Democrats win a state like Michigan where the Black vote does not turn out, let alone doesn’t vote for you. So I want to see, you know, what are the things that might tell us, the Democrats’ data, they have a problem.

Watch:

🚨NEW: Ex-Dem Strategist Dan Turrentine *SOUNDS ALARM* over Abdul El-Sayed's "VERY WORRYING PROBLEM" with black voters🚨

Turrentine asserted every single person on the ground is warning about El-Sayed struggling with black support in Detroit.

He noted he has rarely seen a… pic.twitter.com/R7Aht9r6kg

— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) October 24, 2026

Democrats in Michigan “have a very worrying problem” indeed. Whether it manifests itself to any significant degree on November 3 remains to be seen. Stay tuned.

– Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via X. –

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