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Michigan’s Senate Race Is a Testing Ground

We must counter fear and division with solidarity.

At the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last month, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was a “frequent punching bag,” targeted by speaker after speaker. It’s not hard to understand why.

November’s elections seem poised to deal a blow to the Trump administration and its congressional allies. Democrats are favored to capture the House of Representatives and are within striking distance of a Senate majority. To turn the tide, administration allies are reaching for and amplifying tactics rooted in fear, hate, and polarization. In Michigan, their aim is to drive a wedge between communities that would otherwise stand together against them, including Muslim and Jewish voters.

As Palestinian American Muslim and Jewish American pro-democracy leaders, we want to sound the alarm: The Senate race unfolding in Michigan will be a major testing ground for the whole country. We cannot allow some to prey on fear and division to tear Jews and Muslims apart and pit our two communities against one another. We need to answer their xenophobia with our own politics of solidarity and partnership.

If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim American in the US Senate. He won his primary election against an onslaught of outside spending by building a diverse and energized movement excited about his message of “money in your pocket, money out of politics, and Medicare for All.” Yet, instead of debating his policy prescriptions, too often his opponents weaponize and attack El-Sayed’s identity—stoking a sickening new wave of Islamophobia.

Immediately after El-Sayed’s primary victory, his opponent, Mike Rogers, falsely claimed that El-Sayed had “pledged his support to the Muslim Brotherhood,” and that El-Sayed had said “America deserved 9/11.” Both........

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