{"id":93417,"date":"2026-07-31T06:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=93417"},"modified":"2026-07-31T06:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:02:12","slug":"the-el-sayed-effect-how-jews-and-israel-are-factoring-into-michigans-other-primary-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/the-el-sayed-effect-how-jews-and-israel-are-factoring-into-michigans-other-primary-races\/","title":{"rendered":"The El-Sayed effect: How Jews and Israel are factoring into Michigan\u2019s other primary races"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ANDREW LAPIN<\/p>\n

(JTA) \u2014 DETROIT \u2014 The intra-party debate over Israel that has dominated Michigan\u2019s Democratic U.S. Senate primary is reverberating further down the ballot throughout the state.<\/p>\n

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(L-R) Michigan State Rep. Donavan McKinney, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Michigan Democratic candidate for Senate Abdul El-Sayed, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), U.A.W. President Shawn Fain and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib greet the crowd after El-Sayed spoke on July 18, 2026 in Detroit. (Sarah Rice\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Progressive former county health official Abdul El-Sayed\u2019s bid to lead a swing state as an avowedly pro-Palestinian senator is being mirrored on a micro scale in Michigan\u2019s 7th District \u2014 one of the nation\u2019s most hotly contested congressional seats. In addition to endorsing a candidate there, El-Sayed and his movement have also taken aim at a Detroit-area incumbent who has belatedly embraced a pro-Israel platform, while a key architect of the 2024 \u201cUncommitted\u201d movement is also running for local office. <\/p>\n

In contrast, a young Jewish candidate hopes to pick up the mantle of El-Sayed\u2019s rival in the Senate race, centrist U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens \u2014 and buck a growing national trend of Democrats turning away from supporting Israel. Jewish Democrats in the state, many of whom are drifting away from the party as a result of the discourse around the primary, are watching closely.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you need to know about how Israel and Jewish issues are affecting other races in Michigan\u2019s primary on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

A swing district Dems hope to flip is dragged into the Israel debate<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Michigan\u2019s 7th District, William Lawrence, a former climate activist who has called for an end to all military aid to Israel, is challenging two centrist Democrats for the party\u2019s nomination. <\/p>\n

The district, which stretches from the state capitol in Lansing into the Detroit exurbs and encompasses Michigan State University, is currently represented by a Republican. But Democrats are eyeing it as a promising pickup; the seat was previously held by Jewish Democrat Elissa Slotkin, who won her Senate election in 2024 even as Donald Trump won the state.<\/p>\n

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William Lawrence, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in Michigan, speaks at a rally headlined by U.S. Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, July 19, 2026, Lansing, Michigan. (Screenshot via YouTube)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Lawrence\u2019s campaign, though, is far from Slotkin\u2019s staunchly moderate playbook. Lawrence recently rallied with El-Sayed, independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Lansing, where he called to \u201cstop arming Israel and bring our money home to invest in housing and social security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both of his major primary opponents, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and former Navy SEAL and Obama military aide Matt Maasdam, declined to refer to Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza as a genocide at a candidate forum, while Lawrence did. Recent polling from two Brink-sponsored firms shows Brink in the lead, while an April poll from the Lawrence-aligned Data For Progress puts him ahead by 6 points. Lawrence\u2019s hopes for the nomination likely rest on Brink and Maasdam splitting the establishment vote.<\/p>\n

As with many progressives running this cycle, opposition to Israel makes up a key part of Lawrence\u2019s pitch \u2014 which his campaign feels confident about, despite the purple political makeup of the district. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is broad support for ending military support to human rights abusers and bringing that money home to fund good jobs, housing, and healthcare here at home,\u201d his campaign told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an emailed statement responding to a list of questions about his positions on Israel.<\/p>\n

Lawrence was a co-founder of the influential climate activist group Sunrise Movement, which has experienced infighting over pro-Palestinian advocacy. His rhetoric on Israel also played a role in the biggest scandal of his campaign to date. Comments he made on a 2024 podcast disparaging Black Democratic leaders as \u201ca pillar, frankly, for establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power\u201d that \u201cdefangs the white left\u201d resurfaced shortly before his big-ticket rally earlier this month. <\/p>\n

The Congressional Black Caucus condemned his remarks and called on his supporters to \u201cwithdraw their support.\u201d In a subsequent statement, Lawrence said he had been referencing \u201cmy horror at the genocide in Gaza\u201d and talking about working \u201cto organize Black Americans against the genocide.\u201d (Though she appeared at the Lansing rally with him, Ocasio-Cortez has declined to endorse Lawrence.)<\/p>\n

Fewer than 10,000 Jews live in the greater Lansing area, out of a total population of 479,000, according to a 2021 population report from Brandeis University. Local Jewish institutions have expressed alarm about El-Sayed\u2019s movement: When the candidate brought left-wing streamer Hasan Piker to MSU\u2019s campus for a rally earlier this year, the university\u2019s Hillel issued a statement saying it was \u201cdeeply troubled\u201d by the appearance of what it called a \u201cknown antisemite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by JTA about the safety of his Jewish would-be constituents, Lawrence\u2019s campaign responded, \u201cWill takes Jewish safety extremely seriously and stands firmly against anti-semetisim [sic] which is unfortunately on the rise across the political spectrum.\u201d The Brink and Maasdam campaigns did not respond to JTA requests for comment.<\/p>\n

After moving from DSA to pro-Israel, this Detroit congressman is fighting to keep his seat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is a Detroit-area race between two non-Jews, in a district with few Jews, also pivoting on Israel? The answer reveals the state of intra-left politics today.<\/p>\n

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Congressman Shri Thanedar (D-MI), center, speaks at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on January 14, 2026. (Nathan Posner\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In Michigan\u2019s 13th District, encompassing much of Detroit and its western suburbs, state Rep. Donavan McKinney is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar for the Democratic nomination. A member of the Democratic Socialists of America who has been endorsed by, and campaigned with, El-Sayed and national pro-Palestinian figures, McKinney\u2019s campaign literature champions a focus on \u201ckitchen-table issues,\u201d including public health in Detroit. <\/p>\n

Yet his website\u2019s major policies also include a large section labeled \u201cPalestine,\u201d in which he pledges to end military aid to Israel and calls on Israel to \u201crelease all Palestinians who have been detained.\u201d <\/p>\n

A Black politician running against an Indian-American incumbent in a majority-Black district, McKinney has also made racial representation a central factor to his campaign, twinning Black identity with the pro-Palestinian cause as a growing number of other local activists have also done.<\/p>\n

McKinney\u2019s embrace of the issue could play particularly well in his race against Thanedar, who has \u2014 unusually \u2014 ventured from the left to the center on Israel. A businessman and failed gubernatorial candidate (he and El-Sayed both lost the Democratic primary to Gretchen Whitmer in 2018), Thanedar was initially a DSA member himself. As a state legislator in 2021, he co-sponsored legislation calling for an end to U.S. military support of Israel.<\/p>\n

He abruptly changed course during his 2022 congressional run, in a redrawn district formerly held by Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Thanedar then expressed more pro-Israel views on the campaign trail even as pro-Israel lobbyists AIPAC endorsed an opponent. (He largely self-financed his successful congressional run.) <\/p>\n

Once in Congress, Thanedar took an AIPAC-sponsored trip to Israel and shifted his views to become a staunch pro-Israel advocate. After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, he renounced his DSA membership, citing a New York rally hosted by the group praising the attacks that he called \u201chate-filled and antisemitic.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI see this as the biggest murdering of Jews since the Holocaust,\u201d Thanedar told the Michigan Advance, of the attacks, also publicly criticizing Tlaib for her own response. AIPAC, once his enemy, spent more than $2 million on his 2024 reelection campaign, according to federal disclosures. The lobbyists are fundraising for Thanedar again this cycle, though the latest reported federal elections data indicate that AIPAC-aligned spending for him has been a tiny fraction of the millions it has spent in other races.<\/p>\n

The battle looks to be bruising. Polling is scant, but a progressive-aligned poll earlier this month had Thanedar a narrow 4 points up. On Monday a handful of Congressional Black Caucus members, breaking with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, endorsed McKinney \u2014 a rare measure to take against an incumbent. The caucus\u2019s McKinney backers include Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, both hardline Israel critics.<\/p>\n

Neither McKinney\u2019s nor Thanedar\u2019s campaigns responded to JTA requests for comment for this article.<\/p>\n

A young Jewish LGBTQ legislator may pick up Stevens\u2019 pro-Israel torch<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Jewish Democrats in Oakland County, the affluent, heavily Jewish Detroit suburbs, have bemoaned the state-level Democratic tilt toward anti-Israel rhetoric, many are clinging to a silver lining: state Sen. Jeremy Moss, who is bidding for Stevens\u2019 congressional seat in the 11th District.<\/p>\n

Moss, a Jewish and pro-Israel candidate, has a campaign platform of standard liberal issues including gun safety, cost of living and LGBTQ rights (Moss is gay). He has been endorsed by many of the state\u2019s leading Democrats. And while his campaign website platform doesn\u2019t mention Israel or antisemitism, he has angrily denounced antisemitism in both parties.<\/p>\n

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A campaign ad for Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss, who is running for U.S. Congress, June 24, 2026. (Screenshot via X)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe overwhelming majority of Jews believe in a place of refuge in a Jewish homeland. But if you even mention how woven the Jewish religion is with Jewish sovereignty in Israel, today you get called a \u2018colonizer,\u2019 a \u2018racist,\u2019\u201d Moss said in a 2024 speech from the state Senate floor. \u201c\u2018Zionist\u2019 is now being weaponized as a slur, and it is infuriating that the same people who will say that also post \u2018Happy Passover\u2019 to all who are observing without acknowledging what we\u2019re actually observing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moss called out antisemitism on the left again after the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield earlier this year. Following the state Democratic convention in Detroit, at which a lawyer for pro-Palestinian encampments who had a social media history of praising Hezbollah received the party\u2019s nomination for the University of Michigan board of regents, Moss called the nomination \u201cunacceptable\u201d and said he would refuse to vote for the nominee. Moss\u2019s campaign did not return a JTA request for comment for this story.<\/p>\n

Many Jews in the district who back Stevens also have high praise for Moss \u2014 though AIPAC, which has broken campaign records in spending for Stevens\u2019 Senate race, has spent minimally for Moss, according to the latest federal elections data. Democratic Majority for Israel made a small donation to his campaign, as have former AIPAC leaders.<\/p>\n

Moss probably doesn\u2019t need their support: He has a strong likelihood of prevailing in the primary. Though polling in the district is scant, he dwarfs his competitors in fundraising and name recognition. Some pro-Palestinian progressives, including California U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, have backed Aisha Farooqi, an attorney who has called to halt military aid to Israel. Her campaign, though, hasn\u2019t caught on with El-Sayed\u2019s supporters on the level of Lawrence\u2019s or McKinney\u2019s. Another fringe candidate, Don Ufford, launched a website called \u201cAIPAC Jeremy Moss\u201d in a bid to target the presumptive frontrunner.<\/p>\n

Should Moss prevail in the primary and in the general election, he would return the heavily Jewish district to Jewish representation for the first time since former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin lost his 2022 reelection bid to Stevens \u2014 in a redistricted primary that saw AIPAC backing Stevens. Levin, a progressive, is backing El-Sayed in the Senate race.<\/p>\n

An \u2018Uncommitted\u2019 founder returns \u2026 with big-ticket Democratic support<\/strong><\/p>\n

Further down the ballot, a key architect of Michigan\u2019s 2024 \u201cUncommitted\u201d movement designed to pressure Democrats on Israel is running for state Senate \u2014 as a Democrat.<\/p>\n

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Abbas Alawieh, cofounder of the Uncommitted movement, sits with fellow Michigan delegates at the DNC in Chicago, Illinois on August 19, 2024. (Nick Oxford for The Washington Post via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Abbas Alawieh, a Lebanese-American former legislative staffer for both Levin and Tlaib, is making a bid for local office after becoming a national name for his role in pushing Democrats to vote \u201cUncommitted\u201d over former President Joe Biden in the 2024 state primary ballot. The movement, which began as Listen to Michigan, was based largely on dissatisfaction with Biden\u2019s support of Israel\u2019s war in Gaza. <\/p>\n

It attracted a groundswell of support \u2014 including from some Jews \u2014 and spread to other states, crystallizing a lack of enthusiasm for Biden that built to him stepping off the presidential ticket. Alawieh emerged again as a thorn in the party\u2019s side during that year\u2019s Democratic National Convention, when he and other \u201cUncommitted\u201d delegates unsuccessfully lobbied to place a Palestinian speaker on the agenda. <\/p>\n

As he now emerges as a party hopeful, Alawieh is mending some surprising fences in the establishment. This month he secured the endorsement of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and recently sat down for a meeting with former Vice President Kamala Harris \u2014 who lost Michigan in her 2024 presidential run, which many analysts chalked up at least in part to \u201cUncommitted.\u201d (Alawieh himself has said he voted for Harris, though not all of his movement\u2019s co-founders did.) <\/p>\n

The former VP \u201cinitiated\u201d the meeting after months of phone calls, Alawieh said in a statement, adding that he had urged her to oppose \u201cthe Israeli military\u2019s genocide in Gaza\u201d and \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Alawieh says he doesn\u2019t expect Israel to be a major part of his focus in the state Senate. Still, he recently told the Michigan Advance, \u201cThe party was undoubtedly wrong about Gaza in 2024.\u201d His campaign did not respond to a JTA request for comment. <\/p>\n

He is running in a district that includes Dearborn, which has a large Arab and Muslim population. Alawieh isn\u2019t the only \u201cUncommitted\u201d-adjacent figure running for office this primary cycle: In Wisconsin, Francesca Hong, who helped lead the parallel \u201cUninstructed\u201d movement, has a plausible path to victory in her gubernatorial primary.<\/p>\n

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