African Americans

Is Abdul El-Sayed racist?

From our US edition

In his failed 2020 presidential campaign, "Mayor Pete" Buttigieg famously scored 0 percent with black voters in multiple polls.⁠ Abdul El-Sayed, in his bid to be senator for Michigan, is not doing quite so badly. But the evidence suggests he does have an issue with African-American voters, who make up around 12-13 percent of his state’s electorate. In the Democratic primary, his opponent Haley Stevens carried the black vote by large margins, and a Fox News poll suggested he enjoys only about 75 percent support among black voters, which is weak compared to, say, the 87 percent of black Michiganders who voted for Kamala Harris. In a very tight race against Mike Rogers across the state, these numbers could make all the difference.

abdul el-sayed