Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is surging in some primary polls in Michigan, but he’s also gotten a spate of bad headlines in recent weeks — and a new ad campaign obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter is going to follow him all around Michigan in the coming days.
The National Republican Senatorial Campaign (NRSC) is prebutting El-Sayed’s upcoming statewide swing by releasing an ad urging voters to “reject Abdul El-Sayed.”
“Too radical for Michigan,” the NRSC ad adds. “Too radical for the U.S. Senate.”
The ad also hits El-Sayed for his ties to “anti-Israel radical Hasan Piker,” for wanting to “abolish ICE,” and for “call[ing] to abolish private health insurance and [for] championing socialist tax hikes with Senator Bernie Sanders.”
“Abdul El-Sayed is a radical terrorist sympathizer who wants to abolish ICE, implement Medicare for All, and defund the police. His Bernie Sanders-backed campaign is too radical for Michigan and will be defeated by Mike Rogers in November,” Samantha Cantrell, the NRSC’s Regional Press Secretary, said.
The NRSC’s ad isn’t the only hurdle El-Sayed is facing ahead of the state’s August primary. The Washington Free Beacon previously detailed how El-Sayed “said he held dual U.S.-Egyptian citizenship… [now] his campaign says that was a mistake — he’s not an Egyptian citizen and never has been.” Politico’s Daniel Lippman separately detailed how, despite El-Sayed portraying himself as a physician — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) referred to him as “doctor” — “there’s overwhelming evidence that he’s had no experience as a licensed medical doctor.”
Even more recently, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.) — the GOP’s likely nominee — scored a legal win over El-Sayed, sending him a cease and desist letter after the Democrat repeatedly called him a “pharma lobbyist,” which Rogers’s lawyers called “demonstrably false.” Rogers spokeswoman Alyssa Brouillet confirmed that El-Sayed’s campaign received the letter. Shortly afterwards, El-Sayed “admitt[ed] he lied about Mike Rogers,” The Midwesterner noted.
“His web of lies might work in a Democrat primary, but I learned as an FBI agent you can’t let people get away with it,” Rogers noted. “That’s why today I’m putting Abdul El Sayed and his campaign on notice with a cease and desist.”
