Several conservative accounts on X have criticized Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as "pandering" to Black voters after he was seen ordering fried chicken while discussing his efforts to build trust with the voting bloc. In an interview with The Root, a Black-oriented online magazine, the issue of building trust with Black voters was discussed with El-Sayed as he runs a crucial Senate campaign against Republican Mike Rogers. El-Sayed's campaign has attempted to shore up support among Black voters who make up roughly 11 to 12 percent of Michigan’s electorate, following struggles evident during the Democratic primary.
Some critics online said that his order of fried chicken invoked racial stereotypes. Eric Daugherty, a prominent pro-Trump media personality was among those who highlighted the interview. If elected, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim U.S. senator.
While some called the food order and attempt to target Black voters, El-Sayed’s order was also among several menu items containing halal meat, which means permissible under Islamic law, according to the restaurant’s online menu. Newsweek contacted El-Sayed’s campaign for comment via email on Wednesday. The Michigan race is central to Democrats' hopes to take control of the upper chamber in the midterms.
Democrats need to defend all of their currently held seats, including in Michigan, and flip four GOP-held seats to take the majority. The state has not elected a Republican to Senate since 1994. Cook Political Report rates the contest as a toss-up and Sabato's Crystal Ball rates it "Likely Democratic." Both July polling and the August primary results pointed to weaknesses in El-Sayed’s support among Black voters.
Polling leading up to Michigan’s Democratic primary suggested Representative Haley Stevens, who was competing against El-Sayed in that contest, held an advantage among Black voters overall, especially those older than 55, while El-Sayed performed better among younger and college-educated voters across racial groups. Stevens led El-Sayed by eight percentage points in districts where more than 15 percent of the population was Black, according to primary results reported by The Hill, which also noted that July polling showed just 21 percent of Black voters supported El-Sayed while 67 percent favored Stevens. One Michigan political organizer attributed the divide in support to generational and ideological differences among Black voters.
Kermit Williams, political director of the Oakland Forward Action Fund, told Capital B News that older Black voters in Michigan tended to favor Stevens’ emphasis on experience, while younger, more progressive Black voters were more receptive to former public health official El-Sayed’s push for sweeping change. I think that El-Sayed has kind of tapped into that energy.” Democratic strategists have also suggested that El-Sayed’s anti-establishment message—a key part of his outsider campaign to challenge the Democratic establishment—sometimes put him at odds with Black political institutions. Basil Smikle, a political strategist and policy advisor for over two decades, told the outlet, “He ran against the Democratic Party and while flawed, it was a vehicle through which African American voters and their representatives found political and economic paths to power.” Some reporting has also suggested that some viewed El-Sayed’s primary outreach efforts as either too limited or too late.
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