El-Sayed Won About 60% of Michigan Jewish Early Vote

The survey, commissioned by the liberal Jewish group J Street and conducted by GBAO, also found that 66% said AIPAC-funded advertisements against candidates who criticize Israel worsen antisemitism. Sixty percent agreed that Jewish organizations sometimes invoke antisemitism concerns to defend unpopular Israeli government policies. On another question, 31% said Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, compared with 30% who said Israel deserves unconditional support.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent nearly $30 million opposing El-Sayed and backing his primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.). Its United Democracy Project super PAC has funded congressional candidates since 2021. In 2024, it helped defeat progressive Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.); Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) survived a UDP spending blitz in 2022. El-Sayed won both the Michigan primary and general election, in a contest described in the source as among the most expensive Senate primaries in U.S. history. His campaign emphasized affordability, Medicare for All, reducing money in politics, and ending U.S. militarism and aid to Israel.

In an interview Thursday on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” host Willie Geist asked El-Sayed how he would address Jewish voters’ concerns about his positions and protect them from antisemitism. El-Sayed said he grew up in a community where about 40% of his high school class was Jewish and attended synagogue, seders, and bar and bat mitzvahs. He said he respected Jewish faith and contributions to American life, and pledged to defend Jewish children’s safety as he would his own children’s.

El-Sayed said criticism of U.S. support for Israel should not be conflated with hostility toward Jewish people. “We have to separate between Judaism and the Jewish people and Israel and its actions,” he said, adding that he applies the same distinction to Egypt’s government and his family’s country of origin. He said he wanted Palestinian and Jewish Israeli children to be able to live without their lives being curtailed by violence.