DEARBORN, Michigan — Two years after President Donald Trump successfully courted Arab American voters in Michigan, his increasingly personal attacks on Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed are drawing anger in a community that helped him win the state in 2024.
“Two years ago, we were his best friends. Now, we are terrorists,” Panna Sharker, 35, told the Washington Examiner in Dearborn on Wednesday.
Sharker pointed to Trump’s outreach to Arab Americans during the 2024 presidential election, when anger over the Biden administration’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas prompted some traditionally Democratic voters to abandon the party. Trump ultimately carried Dearborn, home to one of the nation’s largest Arab American communities.
Now, with less than a week until Election Day, Trump and other prominent Republicans are increasingly portraying el Sayed, who is Muslim, as a national security threat in their efforts to elect Republican Mike Rogers to the Senate.
At a Port Huron, Michigan, rally this week, Trump claimed that el Sayed “would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate. I want him to have a metal detector.”
The president also called el Sayed “a Jihadist Member of the Muslim Brotherhood,” in a Truth Social post before landing in Michigan.
The attacks on el Sayed extend beyond Trump. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called el Sayed a “jihadist leprechaun” while stumping for Rogers on Wednesday. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), meanwhile, said el Sayed was”an affront to me as an American” this week while campaigning for Rogers.
“This character Abdul el Sayed can be nowhere near Washington, D.C.,” Moreno said. “Do you think he understands that concept that our rights come from God Almighty? That Jesus came here for our salvation. He should be nowhere near Washington D.C. And Mike Rogers is going to kick his ass on Tuesday.”
El Sayed, a Michigan native of Egyptian descent, has denied having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet, the Washington Free Beacon unearthed old social media posts from el Sayed’s half-sister claiming their mother and other family members had ties to the group. El Sayed has denied the claims, saying it is “hearsay evidence from a tweet.”
But in Dearborn, where Trump made significant inroads among Arab American voters in 2024, the rhetoric has generated concern about the treatment of Muslims and Arab Americans.
“If the president thinks he will get any support from Dearborn, he is mistaken,” Amina Ahmed, 21, told the Washington Examiner Wednesday afternoon in Dearborn. “He burned that bridge a long time ago. There is so much hate and fear here. Could we be attacked? Would anybody care?”
Daud Walid, executive director of CAIR Michigan, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, said that anti-Muslim bias appears across both political parties. Walid also noted that the majority of American Muslims aren’t from the Middle East, nor are they Arabs.
“The whole framework that Muslims who either are running for office and/or are political activists have to answer for a minority portion of the Muslim world (is) in of itself is a problem,” he said.
Yet, Trump is not sweating the prospect of turning off Arab or Muslim voters.
“I do very well with the Arab vote,” he told the Washington Examiner on Thursday. “If you, in fact, if you look at, I won Michigan by a lot, and I won the Arab vote.”
VOTERS WHO HELPED TRUMP WIN IN MICHIGAN ARE HAVING SECOND THOUGHTS
The Republican attacks have not necessarily matched voters’ personal impressions of el Sayed, including among those attending Trump’s rallies
An attendee at Trump’s Port Huron rally, who asked not to be identified as she is married to a local law enforcement official, told the Washington Examiner that, while she normally votes Republican, she understands why el Sayed is so popular, especially among younger voters.
She explained that during el Sayed’s Oct. 6 campaign stop in Port Huron, the Democratic nominee visited her employer, where she had the opportunity to speak with him.
“He’s obviously very well spoken, but there was something else,” she said, noting that el Sayed was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and shook hands and spoke with every one of her coworkers. “He just seems like someone we can relate to — someone who gets what working people are going through right now. He’s not just some suit flying out here for the day and then back to D.C. once the trip is up.
“It was refreshing,” she said. “That guy they’re showing in [anti-el Sayed] campaign ads, that’s not who I saw.”
Naomi Lim contributed to this report.
