DETROIT, Michigan — “It’s a turning point for our nation.”
That is how Amir Makled, a Dearborn lawyer who has made a career out of anti-Israel advocacy, described the ascent of his longtime pal Abdul El-Sayed, now the Democratic nominee for a Michigan U.S. Senate seat. At El-Sayed’s primary night party in downtown Detroit on Tuesday, Makled, 39, predicted the campaign’s progressive populism would reverberate far beyond the state.
It’s something with which the lawyer is intimately familiar: Makled is the Democratic nominee for a seat on the University of Michigan Board of Regents and is running for office on an identical platform: antiestablishment, anti the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and anti billionaires.
“This platform is resonating with folks from Colorado, New Jersey, New York,” he told me over the din of Motown oldies. “It’s exciting.”
Polls had predicted a blowout for El-Sayed over opponent Representative Haley Stevens, but it wasn’t until Wednesday morning that the networks called it for El-Sayed, a 41-year-old who—to the chagrin of the Democratic establishment—has never held elected office. He’s now one election away from a seat that could determine control of the U.S. Senate.
