Michigan's voters face a choice in Tuesday's Senate election between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers, with some lifelong Jewish Democrats considering voting for a candidate whose rhetoric they regard as antisemitic rather than supporting a Republican whose politics they oppose. For others, concerns about El-Sayed have become serious enough to make them reconsider their longstanding Democratic allegiance. Interviews with Jewish residents and community leaders reveal differing views about how to weigh antisemitism, personal safety, Israel and domestic political priorities, amid a growing sense of alienation from political spaces they once considered home.
Those divisions spilled into the open on Sunday when Democratic Representative Haley Stevens, who narrowly lost the Senate primary to El-Sayed, endorsed Rogers just two days before the election. The extraordinary break followed a dispute over an advertisement linking U.S. support for Israel to grocery prices and Stevens' objections to El-Sayed's response. Her endorsement drew sharp criticism from fellow Democrats, underscoring how disagreements over Israel have strained party unity.
"Ever since the Michigan Democratic Convention back in April, I have felt politically homeless," Regina Hayut, a lifelong Democrat from Ann Arbor, told Newsweek. The tensions extend beyond the candidates themselves. Some Jewish Democrats say they increasingly encounter hostility toward their Jewish identity and connection to Israel in progressive circles, even when they are critical of Israeli government policy.
Others argue that protecting democracy, reproductive rights and economic security remains paramount, regardless of their disagreements with El-Sayed. The divisions have become especially visible in Michigan's Senate contest. El-Sayed's criticism of Israel and his response to the March attack on Temple Israel, a synagogue and childcare center in West Bloomfield, have drawn objections from Jewish Democrats.
After initially referring to a broader cycle of violence following the attack, El-Sayed apologized in August, saying he had never intended to justify the violence. For Hayut, the controversy comes amid a broader deterioration in her sense of political belonging. She said she once felt comfortable openly identifying as Jewish in Ann Arbor but has become increasingly troubled by rhetoric she considers antisemitic at progressive demonstrations and Democratic gatherings since Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
Her experience highlights a distinction running through the interviews: disagreement with Israeli government policy does not necessarily explain why some Jewish Democrats feel alienated. Their concerns also involve how Jews, Zionists and Jewish Americans' connections to Israel are discussed within their political communities. Beth Bashert, another Michigan Democrat, described a similar change.
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