Michigan's new Democratic Senate nominee built his campaign on getting money out of politics, but federal records show more than $115,000 of his war chest came from individuals tied to a group multiple governments have designated a terrorist organization.
Abdul El-Sayed, who defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic Senate primary Tuesday night, collected contributions from at least 41 people who work for, formerly worked for, or have held leadership roles with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Fox News Digital reported after reviewing Federal Election Commission filings. The donors span at least ten states, Michigan, California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, and others, and include some of the highest-ranking officials in CAIR's national structure.
Among them: CAIR National Board Chair Manal Fakhoury, National Board Treasurer Eyas Abdeen, National Vice Chair Emad Sabbah, and former National Board Chair Roula Allouch. CAIR-Michigan board member Muzammil Ahmed alone contributed $11,600. The roster also includes CAIR-California Governance Board Chair Asaad Traina, Treasurer Rubina Alvi, and board members Atef Ibrahim and Dina Ezzeddine.
One name on the donor list drew particular scrutiny. CAIR's national executive director, Nihad Awad, appeared in FEC records under the name Nehad Hammad. Awad drew national condemnation after he said he was "happy" to see Hamas break out of Gaza on October 7, 2023, and argued that Israel "does not have the right to self-defense" as an occupying power. CAIR later pointed to a December 2023 editorial Awad wrote for Religion News Service in which he said he agreed with the organization's condemnation of attacks on civilians.
CAIR itself carries a long trail of government designations and legal entanglements. Federal prosecutors named the organization an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation case, the largest terrorism financing prosecution in U.S. history. The United Arab Emirates designated CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014. In recent years, both Florida and Texas have formally designated or labeled the group in similar terms. CAIR was never charged with a crime.
In response to Fox News Digital, CAIR denied allegations of ties to terrorism and pointed to its "Dispelling Rumors About CAIR" webpage. The organization cited a 2009 statement:
"We unequivocally condemn all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa'ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the U.S. Department of State as a 'Foreign Terrorist Organization.'"
CAIR also said it has "repeatedly condemned antisemitism throughout our 30 years of existence" and "for decades" condemned terrorist attacks by Hamas and other designated terrorist groups. Fox News Digital reached El-Sayed's campaign for comment. No response was included in the report.
The financial ties extend beyond direct campaign contributions. El-Sayed's father-in-law, Jukaku Tayeb, is a CAIR-Michigan board member and one of the largest financial backers of the super PAC supporting El-Sayed's Senate bid. The Washington Free Beacon reported that Tayeb donated $200,000 to the Fighting for Michigan PAC, nearly half of its total fundraising, and serves on the 20-member founding committee of the Islamic Society of North America, which federal prosecutors also identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case.
Tayeb served as president of CAIR-Michigan from 2005 to 2010. Lorenzo Vidino, director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, told the Free Beacon what that founding committee role means:
"To be on the founding committee, this is the elders of the organization."
Rep. Haley Stevens, El-Sayed's primary opponent, drew attention to the arrangement before her defeat. She told the Free Beacon:
"He's great at covering up that his father-in-law is running his super PAC that's spending millions of dollars for him."
That criticism carries extra weight given El-Sayed's own rhetoric. He has made "getting money out of politics" a central campaign rallying cry, a message that sits uneasily beside six-figure contributions from officials of an organization that multiple governments classify as a terrorist entity.
The super PAC's operations have attracted scrutiny of their own. The Washington Examiner reported that Peter Sarasohn, a former Bernie Sanders 2020 budget director, simultaneously served as treasurer for both the Fighting for Michigan super PAC supporting El-Sayed and Maine Democrat Troy Jackson's Senate campaign. Jackson's campaign replaced Sarasohn as treasurer on the same day the Examiner inquired about his dual roles, with the replacement filing timestamped more than four hours after the initial press contact.
An FEC spokesperson told the Examiner that electronic documents typically appear on the filings page "almost immediately", suggesting the Jackson campaign filed the change after reporters started asking questions. The Fighting for Michigan PAC's top donors include El-Sayed's father-in-law and an anti-Israel organization, each giving $300,000, with both having ties to groups named as unindicted co-conspirators in the Hamas financing case.
The pattern of controversial associations extends beyond donor rolls. Michigan's Democratic Senate primary was already roiled by fractures within the party before El-Sayed emerged as the nominee.
The CAIR financial connections are not El-Sayed's only point of contact with the organization. In 2022, he appeared at a CAIR event and was paid for a speaking engagement. At that event, he criticized Oklahoma's ban on Sharia law, the state measure that bars courts from considering Islamic religious law in rulings, and compared it to the Trail of Tears.
The day before the primary, El-Sayed campaigned with Hasan Piker, a far-left internet streamer. Just the News reported that Piker has said "America deserved 9/11" and called Hamas "a thousand times better" than Israel. The same report detailed El-Sayed's nearly decade-long relationship with activist Linda Sarsour, who helped elevate him from obscurity during his 2018 gubernatorial run and is actively backing his current Senate campaign. Sarsour stepped down from the Women's March in 2019 over allegations of antisemitism and connections to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
El-Sayed has also said he "often struggle[s] with the question" of whether Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. He declined to comment on the death of Iran's supreme leader, citing his constituency in Dearborn, Michigan.
The broader pattern of controversial fundraising ties among far-left Democrats is not unique to El-Sayed. National Review reported that Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan "Squad" member who has refused to specifically condemn Hamas for its October 7 slaughter of Israelis, has fundraising ties to at least three Hamas-linked activists who hosted fundraisers for her 2018 congressional campaign. At least one of those activists served prison time for his connection to the terror group.
El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, in the November general election. The New York Post noted that the revelations about CAIR-linked donations could damage El-Sayed's general election prospects in a state where both parties see the Senate seat as competitive.
El-Sayed celebrated his primary victory at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit. He now carries into the general election a donor list that reads like a CAIR organizational chart, a super PAC bankrolled in large part by his own father-in-law's ties to organizations named in a terrorism financing case, and a campaign trail dotted with figures who have praised Hamas or struggled to condemn it.
The ideological fractures splitting the Democratic Party are no longer abstract. In Michigan, they now have a nominee, and a paper trail.
A candidate who says he wants to get money out of politics ought to start by explaining why so much of his came from the same organization that multiple governments, and the largest terrorism financing prosecution in American history, have flagged as a problem.
