Abdul El-Sayed Won Michigan, But Lost Ground With Jewish Voters

Abdul El-Sayed won his Michigan Senate race. He did not win every part of Michigan’s Democratic coalition with the same ease.

The newly elected Democratic senator received less support from Jewish voters than other Democrats running statewide in Michigan. Politico’s precinct-level analysis found the gap was especially visible in heavily Jewish communities. In Huntington Woods, a Detroit suburb that is roughly two-thirds Jewish, El-Sayed ran nearly 15 points behind Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson. He received 65.3 percent there, compared with Benson’s 80 percent.

El-Sayed himself named the issue.

“One big issue with the Jewish community is my position on Israel,” he told Politico.

That is a plain statement, and it matters. He did not say Jewish voters misunderstood him. He did not blame Republicans, misinformation, or a single bad interview. He identified his position on Israel as a recurring point of disagreement.

What the numbers show

The picture is not simple. An exit poll of 482 Jewish early voters, conducted from October 25 to 31, found that 57 percent backed El-Sayed. A separate survey reported by The Detroit Jewish News put his share of the early Jewish vote at 60 percent, compared with 79 percent for Benson.

So most Jewish early voters who were surveyed still supported him. But they supported him less than they supported other Democrats on the same ballot. That distinction should not be smoothed over.

Politico reported that roughly one in four Jewish early voters who had supported Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024 switched to Republican Mike Rogers this year. Those voters did not necessarily become Republicans in a broader sense. Many may still favor Democratic positions on health care, unions, abortion, or civil rights. But in this Senate race, they made a different choice.

That is the part worth sitting with. A voter does not have to abandon a party to withhold a vote from one of its candidates.

Israel was not the only issue

El-Sayed’s criticism of U.S. military support for Israel was central to his campaign. He called for ending American military aid to Israel, and he argued that tax dollars should be used for needs at home rather than for war abroad.

His position placed him at odds with many Jewish voters for whom Israel’s security is not an abstract foreign-policy debate. For some, it is tied to family, history, religious identity, and a belief that a Jewish state must be able to defend itself. Politico reported that El-Sayed also faced criticism over remarks he made after a synagogue attack, for which he later apologized.

Those concerns do not settle the policy argument. They do explain why the argument felt personal to people who heard it.

El-Sayed has said he does not intend to change his position. He said he wants to get support from Jewish voters who didn’t support him by showing leadership on issues they care about, like unions, health care, clean air, clean water, respecting all religions, and protecting rights.

That answer is coherent. It is also incomplete if the goal is political repair. Shared positions on domestic policy can matter greatly, but they do not erase a disagreement about a matter many voters treat as existential.

What remains unclear

It would be easy to turn this into a clean lesson: El-Sayed lost Jewish support because of Israel. The reporting does not support that certainty.

The Politico analysis shows a measurable gap in Jewish-heavy areas. El-Sayed’s own account identifies Israel as a major source of disagreement. It’s hard to know exactly how much of his weaker support came from his stance on Israel, worries about antisemitism or Jewish safety, or differences among voters in the tough race.

Michigan’s Jewish community is not a single voting bloc. Some Jewish voters supported El-Sayed enthusiastically. Others voted for him with reservations. Others crossed party lines. The early-voting polls suggest a majority backed him, even as the precinct analysis showed he ran behind other Democrats in places with larger Jewish populations.

Both facts can be true. That is usually how political coalitions work.

Michigan started the “uncommitted” movement in the 2024 Democratic primary when voters didn’t support President Biden over his handling of the war in Gaza. El-Sayed’s victory shows that a Democrat can run aggressively against U.S. military aid to Israel and still win statewide.

But his narrower support among Jewish voters is a warning for his party, not a verdict on it. Democrats cannot assume that opposition to a war, or support for Palestinian rights, will be read by every Jewish voter as a rejection of Jewish safety or Israel’s right to exist. Nor can they assume that Jewish voters will set aside those concerns because a candidate shares their views on health care or labor.

The practical question is whether Democratic politicians can hold both commitments at once: oppose policies they believe are harmful, and make Jewish voters confident that their safety, dignity, and political home are secure.

El-Sayed says he wants to earn that trust over time. The voters who stayed with him have given him a chance to try. The voters who did not have given him a clear reason to listen.

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