What El-Sayed Supporters Believed — And What They Brushed Aside

Abdul El-Sayed’s supporters in Michigan offered three recurring explanations for backing him: they dismissed concerns about his reported family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, held differing beliefs about his stance on transgender issues, and embraced his affordability message.

First, voters told The Daily Wire they weren’t worried about his possible ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The United States designated the organization’s Egyptian and Jordanian branches as Specially Designated Global Terrorists in January 2026, while designating its Lebanese branch as both a Foreign Terrorist Organization and an SDGT.

“I would need more proof that he is,” one El-Sayed voter said. “And even if he is, why is it a bad thing?” 

Others said they did not believe he had ties to the organization, despite his signing a 2012 letter addressing the Brotherhood and social media posts in which his maternal half-sister described historical family connections.

In a June 24, 2012, social media post, Eman Abdelhadi, El-Sayed’s half-sister, said, “My family has long been MB.” She added just days later that she had “had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college.”

El-Sayed has denied that he or his family have ties to the organization. His half-sister’s posts describe relatives’ involvement but do not establish his personal membership.

But there wasn’t enough evidence for many El-Sayed supporters, with some telling The Daily Wire that the claim “just was propaganda from the right.” 

Second, El-Sayed drew support from both LGBTQ+ voters and Muslim voters despite differences in their views on social issues. LGBTQ+ supporters told The Daily Wire they trusted El-Sayed to support them.

Some Muslim supporters expressed a different understanding of his views on transgender issues. One El-Sayed voter said, “He knows, he knows” that transgender ideology is wrong. His wife added, “He’s a Muslim.” 

Third, his affordability message resonated, although supporters struggled to explain how he would deliver on it. One El-Sayed supporter told The Daily Wire she didn’t know what his proposals would look like in practice and that it was difficult for her to find information on the topic. 

For that voter and many others, the promise of relief was more compelling than the unanswered question of how to pay for it.

El-Sayed also overcame a late break with Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who endorsed Republican Mike Rogers after initially backing him. El-Sayed defeated Stevens in the Democratic primary.

Rogers told The Daily Wire before the result that he could “Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt” feel the impact of Stevens’ endorsement.

“What it did is, it gave a lot of folks permission. We talked to a lot of people who were undecided or on the fence, weren’t sure what to do. This just helps them, I think, clarify. And once you investigate it, there’s a whole host of Democrats who have done something very, very similar,” Rogers said. 

Stevens said she asked El-Sayed to clearly reject rhetoric from Hasan Piker, who said America “deserved” the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“I asked Abdul to reject that rhetoric clearly. I wasn’t asking him to change his platform,” Stevens said. “I was offering him an opportunity to reassure people, reject division, and demonstrate the leadership required of a United States Senator.”

One voter told The Daily Wire that Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers made him waver, but he ultimately decided to support El-Sayed. 

The Stevens defection did not prevent El-Sayed from winning. The race was called in his favor early Wednesday morning. 

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