With Abdul El-Sayed clinching the Democratic Party nomination in the Michigan U.S. Senate race last week, the Jewish community’s historical loyalty to the Democratic Party will be put to the test like never before.
The Jewish community has been one of the Democratic Party’s most faithful demographics. Since 1924, a majority of American Jews voted for the Democratic nominee for president every four years and in greater proportion to the national vote. At the height of World War II, 90% of American Jews voted for FDR over Wendell Willkie compared to 55% of the general electorate. It’s a pattern that continues decade after decade. Although Orthodox Jews have voted in greater proportions for the GOP since 2004, the majority of American Jews have stuck with the Democrats, including Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, and most recently, Kamala Harris.
In Michigan specifically, the 100,000-plus Jewish community has toed the same line. The New York Times’ precinct-level voting map for 2024 shows reliable Jewish neighborhoods of Southfield, West Bloomfield, Bloomfield Hills, Oak Park, Farmington Hills and Huntington Woods all voting for Kamala Harris over the winner of Michigan’s 15 electoral votes, Donald Trump.
Now, that loyalty will be put to the test in the form of Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, arguably one of the most anti-Israel candidates on a major party ticket. There should be no debate about El-Sayed’s unadulterated animosity toward the lone Jewish State. He regularly compares Israel to Hamas — a terrorist group that deliberately targets civilians. He refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist — though he never questions the existence of any number of Arab and Muslim countries.
When a Muslim terrorist rammed his car filled with explosives into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, threatening the lives of 140 children inside the synagogue’s nursery, El-Sayed did not condemn the attack unequivocally. Instead, he attempted to rationalize the suspect’s motives, saying, “hurt people do hurt people” — a reference to the suspect’s family in Lebanon and Israel’s war against Hezbollah.
For Michigan’s Jews who worry every time they attend synagogue and every day they send their children off to a Jewish school, this kind of rhetoric isn’t just morally suspect — it is downright dangerous. After The Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh and the Temple Israel attack in Michigan, these threats are not theoretical. They are tragically all too real.
How will Michigan’s Jewish community vote, and does it matter? The 2022 U.S. Senate race makes it clear that it does. While Donald Trump won Michigan, Republican Mike Rogers lost to Elissa Slotkin by a mere 19,000 votes out of 5.4 million votes. Now, Rogers is back for a mulligan against a much more extreme and polarizing Democratic nominee. Polling shows the Michigan Senate race between Rogers and El-Sayed extremely close, and that’s before the millions of dollars in attack ads that are sure to come.
The first question is a lot harder to answer.
El-Sayed is a talented politician who quickly pivoted after he clinched the nomination. He pledged his “commitment to Jewish safety is the same as the commitment I’ve got to my own kids” and labeled the Temple Israel attack a “vile, antisemitic attack.” On the other side, the Rogers campaign will surely court Jewish voters like they’ve never been courted before. And there is already evidence of leading Jewish Democratic fundraisers jumping to Rogers’ side.
Jewish voters in Michigan could decide the election in the U.S. Senate race, but it’s not about one race, one state or even control of the U.S. Senate. This year, American Jews have watched some leaders in both the Democratic and Republican parties accept antisemitism as part of a “big tent” coalition. There are leaders in both — like Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas — who are sounding the alarm. But ultimately, it is voters who will decide what, and who, is acceptable in American politics. In one of the most closely watched Senate races this cycle, Michigan’s Jewish community has the rare opportunity to send a national message: Our votes cannot be taken for granted.
Nathan Diament is executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, the nonpartisan arm of the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization.