Latest / Best of: Features / A bitter Michigan Senate race rattles Jewish and Muslim voters already on edge over the war in Gaza

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A bitter Michigan Senate race rattles Jewish and Muslim voters already on edge over the war in Gaza · Best of: Features

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  A bitter Michigan Senate race rattles Jewish and Muslim voters already on
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  edge over the
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  war in Gaza. This article is being read by
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  an automated voice generated by Everlett. West Bloomfield, Michigan, they AP.
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  For many voters in Michigan, the U.S. Senate race has become about
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  far more than which party controls Washington. In the Detroit suburbs, some
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  Jewish Democrats are confronting deeply personal questions about faith and identity, as
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  they weigh whether they can support their party's nominee. Just miles away
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  in Dearborn, Arab American leaders, who backed President Donald Trump Tuo years
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  ago, are growing increasingly alarmed by Republican rhetoric. The concerns are rippling
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  through communities already shaken by Israel's war in Gaza that followed the
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  attack on Israel by Hamas on october seventh, twenty twenty three. Now
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  they are central players in the bitter open seat race between Republican
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  Mike Rogers, an on time congressman, and Democrat Abdul El Sayyed, a
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  former public health official, who would be the country's first Muslim senator
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  if elected on november third. Rogers has increasingly portrayed El Sayyid as
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  an extremist and a threat to Jewish voters as the Republican tries
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  to win over a traditionally Democratic constituency. Rogers laughed when a visiting
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  Republican Senator said El Sayyid slept in an Osama bin Laden jersey,
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  and he agreed with a social media post calling El Sayyid a
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  terrorist. Emotions were already raw before the latest escalation. In West Bloomfield,
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  a synagogue recovering from an attack this year is only a half
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  hour drive from the Wall of Tears in downtown Dearborn memorializing children
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  killed in Gaza. The race has even divided close friends like Lori
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  Goldman and Mimi Price Meletic. It's
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  spreading and it's not spreading slowly, she said. It's spreading insidiously and
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  widely and effectively. Price Miletic, a member of the Michigan Democratic Jewish
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  Caucus, sees things differently. She is not supporting El Sayyed and has
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  not ruled out voting for Rogers. Lori Goldman is my best friend,
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  said Price Miletic. This summer I said we cannot discuss Abdul. I
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  don't want to hear his name. We've agreed to disagree and we
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  don't talk about it. She adores him, she added, and I feel
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  the exact opposite of her. Republicans look to win over Jewish voters,
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  but Central to Rogers strategy has been winning over Jewish voters after
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  the fierce Democratic primary between El Sayyed and US Representative Haley Stevens,
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  in which Israel became a focal point. Stevens, one of Israel's staunchest
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  supporters in Congress, benefited from roughly thirty million dollars in spending by
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  groups affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or APAC. Stevens
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  represents much of Oakland
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  County just north of Detroit, and some to a significant portion of
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  Michigan's Jewish population. Rogers
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  has focused heavily on the area and is holding an event later
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  in October with U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R Texas, that's billed as
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  Who Will Keep Us Safe? Rogers vs. El Sayyid in The
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  wake of October 7th and the Temple Israel attack. Vance Patrick, Chair
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  of the Oakland County Republican Party, said Rogers was definitely making some
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  headway among Jewish voters, and that the community is listening to the
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  Republican Party this time. Patrick added that Rogers has visited synagogues across
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  the county, including Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, where a man rammed
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  a truck loaded with fireworks and gasoline into the building, and exchanged
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  gunfire with a security guard in March. The attacker, a naturalized citizen
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  originally from Lebanon who lived in Dearborn Heights, had recently lost family
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  members in an Israeli airstrike in his native country. El Sayyid condemned
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  the Temple Israel attack, but drew criticism for saying Hurt people hurt
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  people. He later apologized by saying to anyone who feels like my
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  comments might have been hurtful, I'm really sorry. Rogers and his allies
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  have repeatedly invoked those comments, with Rogers claiming El Sayyed can't condemn
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  terrorism in our own country because he's so close to the people
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  who are supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. Trump went further Wednesday, claiming El
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  Sayyid was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood there is no evidence
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  that El Sayyed has any affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. His half
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  sister, Iman Abdelhadi, wrote on social media in twenty twelve that My
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  Family has long been MB, and described a conversation with her mother
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  about involvement in the Muslim Brotherhood in the early nineteen seventies. El
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  Sayyed, who was born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrant parents, and was
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  raised by his father, told NBC this week the social media posts
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  are hearsay. The Trump administration designated the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Lebanese
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  branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations earlier this year. Democrats
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  faced divishons over El Sayyid's candidacy. Democrats are still struggling to unite
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  behind El Sayyid after the primary exposed deep disagreements over Israel. Oakland
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  County is one of Michigan's largest and most politically consequential counties, with
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  roughly one point three million residents. Once a Republican stronghold, it has
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  shifted steadily toward Democrats over the past two decades. But many of
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  the country's top Democrats have kept an arm's length from El Sayyid.
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  State Senator Jeremy Moss, who is Jewish and is running for a
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  US House seat encompassing much of Oakland County, has not endorsed El
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  Sayyid. Stevens has endorsed El Sayyid, but has not campaigned with him.
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  Price Miletic, who supported Stevens in the primary, said part of them.
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  Reason she will not vote for El Sayyed is his past appearances
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  with controversial streamer Hassan Piker, who has made comments described as anti
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  Semitic. Goldman, the founder of grassroots organization Fhems for Dems, said she
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  believes much of the rhetoric spread about El Sayyed is not true,
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  and that Republicans are preying upon the fears that are engendered in
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  every Jewish person because past is prologue. Surrogates for El Sayyed, including
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  local leaders and high profile Democratic officials, have been holding House Party
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  events throughout the
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  state to talk with undecided Jewish voters. Former US Representative Andy Levin
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  of Michigan, who is Jewish and is supporting El Sayyed, has taken
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  part in many of them. We don't take a hard sell approach
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  at all, Levin said It's more like a bunch of Jews coming
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  together and saying OK, let's all talk about our fears, our hopes,
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  our anxieties. There's a backlash in the nation's largest Arab American community.
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  Dearborn, just south of Oakland County, has been a focal point for
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  political divisions over Gaza. Many Arab American voters turned against Democrats in
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  2024 over President Joe Biden's support for Israel. Trump won the city
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  of nearly 100,000 residents by six percentage points. But the community has
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  grown increasingly critical of Trump since he took office in january twenty
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  twenty five. The rhetoric from Rogers and other Republicans about El Sayyid
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  has added to those frustrations. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hamood, a Democrat who
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  did not endorse in the twenty twenty four election, said Republicans words
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  about El Sayyed and New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani, another prominent
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  Muslim politician, have been very problematic. You've seen Senator Cruz and other
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  US Senators bringing poster boards onto the Senate floor, basically trying to
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  tie them to terrorist organizations or call them terrorists themselves, just because
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  of their faith, Hamud said. The criticism has also come from some
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  of the Arab American leaders, who were instrumental when Trump won the
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  state two years ago. Any attack based on a person's religion is
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  not acceptable, said Bishar Ababa, who helped lead Trump's outreach in Michigan
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  in twenty twenty four. Abdul El Sayyid was born and raised in
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  the United States. He's as American as they come. Baba, who renamed
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  his group Arab Americans for Trump to Arab Americans for Peace early
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  in Trump's term, said the President's rhetoric toward El Sayyid crossed a
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  red line. President Trump several times thanked the Arab American population for
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  their support of his candidacy. I think the people around him should
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  remember that, Baba said, because elections are coming up.