Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Senator Elissa Slotkin share the stage at a town hall campaign event in Warren, Michigan. © Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images
Many of us have been watching twin phenomena in Democratic Party politics with great fascination in this electoral season: the rise of democratic socialist and Muslim candidates. This is a part of a shift to the left in Democratic Party politics in response to Trumpism and the move rightward in the Republican Party.
I have written in recent posts parsing the similarities and differences between (establishment) social liberalism and (populists) democratic socialism.[1] I have pointed out that all democratic socialists are populists, but not all populist on the left are democratic socialists.
The Michigan Senate race in which a Muslim populist Abdul El-Sayed won a hotly contested primary has become a major flashpoint in the Democrat’s quest to gain control of the Senate. It has also become Ground Zero over whether identity politics or economic issues matter more in the party’s future.
El-Sayed is an Egyptian American born and raised in metropolitan Detroit. A Columbia-trained medical doctor, he served most recently as director of the Wayne County Detroit) Department of Health, Human & Veterans Services from 2023 to 2025. He supports Medicare for All, the abolition of ICE and ending US military support for Israel. He is a populist Democrat who identifies as a progressive, not a democratic socialist.
But it is El-Sayed’s position on Israel that has gotten him into the most trouble in party politics. A group of several hundred prominent rabbis and Jewish lay people and politicians have published a list of non-negotiable Jewish positions they want El-Sayd to commit to. They include:
- Jewish safety, including for Zionist Jews who support Israel as a Jewish state
- the right of Jews to define their own identity
- Jewish sovereignty in Israel
- full Jewish participation in civic life
- an affirmative vision for a better future in the Middle East[2]
As an African American who knows feelings of insecurity stemming from indifference from the larger society, I can empathize with our fellow Jewish citizens watching the El-Sayeds and Zoran Mamdanis of the world ascend. But of the five non-negotiable positions, I think El-Sayed would only quibble with the third one. And that is because he, like many Muslims, might argue that non-Jews are second-class citizens in Israel.[3] I think he probably supports the other four principles, though his vision of what “a better future in the Middle East” looks like probably differs from that of Zionist Jews.
Jewish Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, herself a former CIA analyst, plopped right in the middle the fray by coming out in support of El-Sayed. She said ...
“People want to see a Jewish woman and a Muslim man being able to get along, debate, push and
pull on each other, and move the state forward. Frankly, I think it’s good for Michigan, I think it’s
good for the country to see that.” [4]
Slotkin, with her national security credentials, is certainly viewed as part of the Democratic establishment. Yet in the hothouse environment of the Michigan campaign, she has thrown her support to the populist (not socialist) El-Sayed.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama has announced that he’ll be appearing with El-Sayed on the campaign trail on October 24th. An elder statesman of the Democratic Party, he is certainly an establishment liberal. But rather like Franklin Roosevelt in his day, Obama sees that the moment is ripe to push public policies to the left with the issues of affordability and opposition to the ICE crackdowns as the centerpiece. Obama casts a broad net and has a strategic vision his fellow party insiders lack.
To any Jewish folks who are reading this post I’ll say do not let differences over Israel-Palestine prevent you from supporting a clearly anti-fascist candidate. If you are liberal or populist, you probably hold onto the hope for a two-state solution over there.
I used to hope for that too. But the US and the West failed to impose conditions for such a settlement on the two traumatized parties decades ago. It might have been immediately following the Camp David Accords (1978). Or it could have been after the Oslo Accords (1993). There is copious blame to go toward all sides following the failure of those efforts. But for the US to sit idly by as Jewish settlers encroached into the West Bank in ways that make a Palestinian state seem unattainable is unforgiveable. The Arab and Muslim world feels this. Others of us (progressives, left populists, democratic socialists, etc.) feel it too.
It has always been true that without a US-led demilitarized zone on the Israel-West Bank border and the military enforcement of East Jerusalem as the capitol of Palestine, there can be no two-state solution.[5]
We know that socially liberal Jews in the US deplore the Netanyahu government in Israel, but Israeli public opinion today is against Palestinian statehood. Those Jews who oppose the trajectory of Israeli politics today aren’t able to influence it. You and the rest of us can only watch as genocide takes place.
Social liberal establishment Jews can call what’s happening in Gaza whatever you want! Left populists Jews and non-Jews can call it genocide. None of it matters until a US administration takes office that is willing to play a forceful humanitarian hand there. Does anyone see such an administration on the horizon???
Until then let’s get busy on the host of issues around affordability (and I would include racial justice) that we can agree upon to move this country back toward a semblance of human decency. I salute Elissa Slotkin and Barack Obama for embracing that strategic vision!
[1] https://drvernondamanijohnson.substack.com/p/progressivism-left-populism-democratic
[2] “Non-negotiables” unveiled by progressive Jewish leaders as they push El-Sayed to stop throwing flames - Israel & Jewish News - JNS
[3] For two slightly different views on this issue see What to Know About the Arab Citizens of Israel | Council on Foreign Relations; versus a view that sees more extralegal challenges facing Israeli Arabs in https://schwartzcohenlaw.com/rights-and-protections-of-israeli-arabs/
[5] I propose something like the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea where something like 20,000 US troops remain to this day.
