{"id":595962,"date":"2026-08-25T23:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T23:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/595962\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T23:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T23:08:08","slug":"el-sayed-pushes-to-keep-affordability-message-focus-amid-scrutiny-from-both-sides-us-midterm-elections-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/595962\/","title":{"rendered":"El-Sayed pushes to keep affordability message focus amid scrutiny from both sides | US midterm elections 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Democratic candidate for Senate in the swing state of Michigan<\/a> has spent the week trying to keep his affordability message front and center as scrutiny mounts from both ends of the political spectrum.<\/p>\n

In the span of two days, Abdul El-Sayed distanced himself from leftwing streamer Hasan Piker, spoke out against rightwing hate directed at the Muslim community, and debated Fox News host Jesse Watters on taxing billionaires. The clip circulating most from the Fox interview, though, focused on circumcision – specifically, El-Sayed asking Watters if he was, in a retort to Watters\u2019 question about gender-affirming care.<\/p>\n

In each instance, El-Sayed tried relentlessly to stay on message. On Fox, he called opponent Mike Rogers a \u201cbeta\u201d and took a jab at Pete Hegseth in a response to a question about the federal deficit, saying Watters didn\u2019t seem concerned that the defense secretary, \u201cthe guy who used to work on your channel\u201d, wanted to increase the military budget to $1.5tn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, so we could fight a war we don\u2019t know how to get out of, to raise our gas prices $5 a gallon?\u201d El-Sayed said.<\/p>\n

At a press conference condemning<\/a> Islamaphobic agitator and January 6 rioter Jake Lang on Tuesday morning, El-Sayed emphasized a religious unity message in Michigan, then brought it back to Rogers and the cost of groceries.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most heated dialogue this week, however, has been between centrist Democrats<\/a> and the left wing of the party about controversial political streamer Piker.<\/p>\n

In the most recent dustup, Piker called out Jeremy Moss, who is Jewish and running for Congress in Michigan\u2019s 11th district, for not endorsing El-Sayed. Moss has said<\/a> he\u2019s not ready to endorse El-Sayed because of their differing views on Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews,\u201d Piker said in a stream. \u201cI don\u2019t know how people don\u2019t recognize how dangerous this predicament is, how dangerous this is for Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments were met with an online anger from some prominent Democrats, including the House speaker, Hakeem Jeffries, who didn\u2019t mention Piker by name but called the comments \u201cdangerous and antisemitic\u201d. Politico reported that Representative Hillary Scholten, a Democrat, does not want put her name on campaign literature with El-Sayed due to his association with Piker.<\/p>\n

Others defended Piker, saying he did not call for violence, but that Israel\u2019s actions had dangerous effects on the safety of Jews.<\/p>\n

El-Sayed campaigned with Piker during the Democratic primary, which his Democratic opponents at the time took issue with because of the Twitch streamer\u2019s comments on Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Abdul El-Sayed had any courage at all, he would call this out and disavow Hasan Piker once and for all. We\u2019re waiting, Abdul \u2026\u201d Rogers said, calling Piker the candidate\u2019s \u201crunning mate\u201d.<\/p>\n

El-Sayed did put out a statement, saying his \u201ccommitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own daughters\u201d and calling antisemitism a \u201cscourge\u201d, though he did not say Piker was antisemitic. It was a rare step for El-Sayed to distance himself from the Twitch streamer and drew condemnation from some<\/a> who said it was playing into efforts to conflate Israel and Jewish people.<\/p>\n

The move came at a time when El-Sayed works to win over Jewish voters, some of whom have expressed concerns over his comments or positions on Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stand against any rhetoric that puts the community at risk,\u201d El-Sayed said. \u201cBut I want to be crystal clear, nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople.\u201d<\/p>\n

But like all of his responses to attacks in recent days, he brought it back to the same note: the cost of living.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile politicians and pundits try to make this race about a Twitch streamer, we\u2019re going to be talking about gas, groceries, good schools, and healthcare,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause that\u2019s what Michiganders keep asking about. It\u2019s why I\u2019m fighting to get money out of politics, money in your pocket, and Medicare for All.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piker said<\/a> on a stream in response to El-Sayed\u2019s statement: \u201cThere are going to be a lot of people who are already questioning Abdul El-Sayed\u2019s sincerity on these issues that will then turn around and say, \u2018he\u2019s moderating his position on Israel!\u2019 I don\u2019t think he is. I will say this: I am literally the person that is being dangled and I\u2019m going to tell you once again; he\u2019s not moderating on his perspective on Israel or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the anti-hate press conference on Tuesday, El-Sayed told reporters he has had ongoing conversations with Moss \u201cabout what it looks like to come together agreeably across our disagreements\u201d. He said he was grateful to Judaism and the Jewish community, who he called \u201ca light unto the world, and said the Jewish faith was a \u201cbeautiful faith that rhymes with so much of my own\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all of us agree that the things that divide us are so much smaller than the things that unite us against somebody like Mike Rogers,\u201d El-Sayed said.<\/p>\n

According to Semafor<\/a>, Moss was in talks to endorse El-Sayed before the Piker comments. Moss said in a statement late Monday that he has been in \u201ccontinual dialogue\u201d with El-Sayed over their disagreements, which he said he was grateful for.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut provocateurs are exploiting this moment to create further divisions,\u201d he said. \u201cI will not be lectured by a California podcaster about what Oakland County, Michigan\u2019s Jewish community should and shouldn\u2019t believe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Democratic candidate for Senate in the swing state of Michigan has spent the week trying to keep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-595962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}