US midterms: The candidate who happens to be Muslim

Michigan is a laboratory. How much the Democratic Party has changed in recent years can be seen this autumn in the state in the Midwest. After two terms, Democratic Senator Gary Peters will no longer run. In the party primaries, Abdul El-Sayed prevailed. If elected in the November congressional elections, he will be the first Muslim in the second chamber of Congress in the history of the United States. Above all, it strengthens the left wing of the party. Although he is not one of Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists, he is on the left of the progressives: he calls for a statutory health insurance for all, the abolition of the immigration police ICE and an end to military support for the State of Israel. Not everyone in the party was happy about the candidate. Some feared El-Sayed would deter moderate voters. The Democrats could lose the seat in Michigan and deprive themselves of the chance to win back the majority in the chamber. Sami Khaldi sits in the Diwan Café, a Yemeni restaurant in Dearborn, on a sunny October day. He is the chairman of the Democrats in the industrial city northwest of Detroit. Khaldi, the first Arab party leader in Dearborn, and El-Sayed know each other well. Not just through politics. Khaldi, who is originally from Jordan and studied engineering in Detroit, heads the construction department in Wayne County, Michigan’s most populous county, which includes Detroit and Dearborn. And El-Sayed, who studied medicine, headed the health department in the district administration for years. Despite the meantime headwind for El-Sayed, Khaldi, 59 years old and father of three children, is not at all defensive. While sipping on his coffee, he radiates a calm confidence. Once even a triumphant smile flits over his lips: What did he think when Barack Obama promised to come to Michigan and campaign for El-Sayed? This shows that the claim that El-Sayed is radical left or even anti-Semitic is a distortion by the political opponent and parts of the media, says Khaldi. The former president promised his arrival to mobilize the African-American electorate, an important part of the party base. Especially among young male African Americans, the Democrats have a hard time compared to earlier years. Obama’s promise was a message to the party’s establishment: Don’t treat El-Sayed as an outlaw. He belongs in the “big tent” of the Democratic Party. Kamala Harris has also been to Michigan and campaigned for the candidate. At the heart of the American-Arab community, the café is located near Warren Avenue, the center of the Michigan Arab community. Henry Ford, who was born in Dearborn, brought Arab workers into his car factories a hundred years ago. It began with Lebanese Christians, but soon Muslims from Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and the Palestinian territories joined. In Dearborn alone, which has 110,000 inhabitants, forty percent of the population is of Arab origin. The city thus has the highest per capita share of citizens of Arab origin in the whole country. El-Sayed’s parents are from Egypt. However, they did not come to Michigan as factory workers. When the state became the center of the American Arab community, other immigrants came from the region, including academics. El-Sayed's father studied in Detroit. His parents divorced when he was three years old. The now 41-year-old married father of two daughters grew up with his father and stepmother, who has no Arab background. He later attended elite colleges, Columbia in New York and Oxford. After October 7, 2023, the Hamas attack on Israel, Dearborn became the center of the American election campaign. An important part of the American Arab community called on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to stop supporting the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, whom they accused of genocide. They openly threatened to withdraw their vote in the presidential election if they did not correct their policies. In fact, the Michigan electors went to the Trump camp. Like 2024 – only under the opposite sign? Khaldi tries to minimize the result. The defeat of the Democrats at that time had many reasons. It was not only the Arab electorate. After all, Trump also won all other swing states. Khaldi firmly believes in El-Sayed's victory. His Republican opponent Mike Rogers, he calls a “Trump-Jasager”. The former FBI agent sat in the House of Representatives for several years. In 2024 he ran for the Senate, but lost to the Democrat Elissa Slotkin. Now he is looking for the second Senate seat of Michigan; Surveys, however, see El-Sayed ahead. Nevertheless, some Democrats fear that in November the scenario of two years ago could be repeated under reverse signs. Are the Jewish voters in Michigan, who are also mostly close to the Democrats, depriving the Muslim candidate of their vote? In Oak Park, a 30,000-soul town around Detroit, Asher Lopatin sits in the Etz-Chayim Synagogue. He is the rabbi of the small modern Orthodox community called the “Tree of Life”. The area northwest of Detroit, especially neighboring West Bloomfield, is the center of Michigan’s Jewish community. The fact that the Democrats, whom the 62-year-old rabbi usually elects, have nominated a candidate who wants to withdraw support from Israel is a matter of great concern to him. He says there are four camps in Michigan’s Jewish community: the..