Democratic Party voters, by a narrow margin of about 15,000 votes, have rejected the “Party Establishment” which backed Congresswoman Haley Stevens, and have nominated progressive leftist Abdul El-Sayed for the Senate nomination, against Republican nominee, former Congressman Mike Rogers, for the election in November, which will decide who will replace retiring Senator Gary Peters.
On first thought, it might be believed that the result is disturbing, but when one goes beyond the political propaganda, it is clear that while El-Sayed is critical of Israel’s war in Gaza against the Palestinians, he is NOT antisemitic OR anti the right of Israel to exist, but believes that the Palestinians also have the right to exist, and that the war in Gaza and the West Bank, which has led to 75,000 deaths, mostly women and children, needs to end.
One can be pro Israel, but not pro anything that nation and its leadership does, just as is the same with the United States and its leadership.
The battle to retain the Michigan Senate seat for the Democrats, and for them to gain the four seats from Republicans that are needed to gain control of the US Senate, is an urgent one.
Already, Donald Trump is calling El-Sayed a “Communist”, utilizing the old idea of the Red Scare promoted by Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin in the 1950s, and this despicable tactic must be vigorously opposed by every decent person in Michigan, and nationally.
Ironically, Trump consorts all the time with “Communists”, such as Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, and Kim Jong Un of North Korea, wishing to be a tyrant and dictator as they are for sure.
El-Sayed is a very impressive and acomplished person, attending and graduating with high honors from the University of Michigan, and giving the commencement address. He had two years of medical school at the University of Michigan, followed by a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University in England, and then an MD degree from Columbia University, and went into public health epidemiology work, rather than pursue a medical license. He became a public health professor at Columbia University, and then, Health Director of Detroit, and then, of Wayne County, Michigan.
El-Sayed was endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Chris Van Hollen, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, outgoing Senator Gary Peters, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and other establishment Democrats backed Haley Stevens in a losing, although, close margin campaign.
El-Sayed is an accomplished dynamic speaker and podcaster, and would be the first Muslim US Senator, although there are and have been a few Muslim members of the House of Representatives. To date, there have been five Muslim members of the lower house, with one, Keith Ellison from 2007-2019, who has been Attorney General of Minnesota since 2019.