‘Please Stop’: Progressive Michigan Candidate Asks Supporters to Stop Attacking Opponent Personally

Screenshot via Zeteo

Michigan Democratic congressional candidate Abdul El-Sayed urged his supporters to avoid taking personal digs at his opponent.

El-Sayed, a progressive, is entrenched in a widely-discussed battle for one of Michigan’s Senate seats against Rep. Haley Stevens. The Democratic primary is set for August 4.

Throughout his campaign, El-Sayed has repeatedly criticized Stevens for having corporate donors and accepting money from the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC. In a Friday morning tweet, he urged his supports to focus on the issues at hand and not resort to personal insults, writing:

It’s become impossible to ignore the way that people online make fun of my opponent for things that have nothing to do with her policies or politics. It’s unkind and unhelpful. If you support me, please stop.

Focus on the issues: Congresswoman Stevens has welcomed corporations and special interests to support her. She votes to send our money abroad while Michiganders struggle. She’s bought by DTE, Blue Cross, Big Tech, and Big Pharma who pick our pockets. AIPAC, Trump-aligned billionaires, and corporate PACs are spending $50,000,000+ to support her.

THOSE are the issues. We don’t need to be unkind to be honest.

El-Sayed’s statement came in the wake of a viral video showing Stevens speaking at an event. Several notable figures in political media mocked her for it.

Notably, El-Sayed himself criticized Stevens’s speaking abilities just a few weeks earlier. In an interview with Semafor, he said of Stevens:

Haley Stevens is a suit with a large AIPAC bank account, that’s it. I hope maybe they find some way to teach her how to string together two coherent sentences. I guess, at some point, when you sell out for that many corporations and special interests, I guess you forget how to think for yourself.

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