Several conservative accounts on X have criticized Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as "pandering" to Black voters after he was seen ordering fried chicken while discussing his efforts to build trust with the voting bloc.
In an interview with The Root, a Black-oriented online magazine, the issue of building trust with Black voters was discussed with El-Sayed as he runs a crucial Senate campaign against Republican Mike Rogers. El-Sayed's campaign has attempted to shore up support among Black voters who make up roughly 11 to 12 percent of Michigan’s electorate, following struggles evident during the Democratic primary.
Some critics online said that his order of fried chicken invoked racial stereotypes.
Conservatives Call His Interview A 'Joke'
Eric Daugherty, a prominent pro-Trump media personality was among those who highlighted the interview.
“To appeal to black voters in Michigan, Abdul El Sayed orders fried chicken,” Daugherty wrote on X, adding: “What a freaking JOKE.”
Conservative radio host and political commentator Jesse Kelly characterized the order as “pandering to Black people.”
"End Wokeness," another prominent conservative X account, also highlighted the choice of order.
“All he needed was some grape drank and some watermelon and he would have completed the trifecta of ‘black food,’ " wrote Zeke Arkham, who describes himself as a conservatarian on X, where he has over half a million followers.
If elected, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim U.S. senator. While some called the food order and attempt to target Black voters, El-Sayed’s order was also among several menu items containing halal meat, which means permissible under Islamic law, according to the restaurant’s online menu.
Newsweek contacted El-Sayed’s campaign for comment via email on Wednesday.
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Michigan's Importance in the Midterms
The Michigan race is central to Democrats' hopes to take control of the upper chamber in the midterms.
Democrats need to defend all of their currently held seats, including in Michigan, and flip four GOP-held seats to take the majority. The state has not elected a Republican to Senate since 1994.
Cook Political Report rates the contest as a toss-up and Sabato's Crystal Ball rates it "Likely Democratic."
Primary Data Pointed to Challenges In Key Bloc
Both July polling and the August primary results pointed to weaknesses in El-Sayed’s support among Black voters. Polling leading up to Michigan’s Democratic primary suggested Representative Haley Stevens, who was competing against El-Sayed in that contest, held an advantage among Black voters overall, especially those older than 55, while El-Sayed performed better among younger and college-educated voters across racial groups.
Stevens led El-Sayed by eight percentage points in districts where more than 15 percent of the population was Black, according to primary results reported by The Hill, which also noted that July polling showed just 21 percent of Black voters supported El-Sayed while 67 percent favored Stevens.
One Michigan political organizer attributed the divide in support to generational and ideological differences among Black voters.
Kermit Williams, political director of the Oakland Forward Action Fund, told Capital B News that older Black voters in Michigan tended to favor Stevens’ emphasis on experience, while younger, more progressive Black voters were more receptive to former public health official El-Sayed’s push for sweeping change.
“I think that older and more established Black voters believe in incremental change,” Williams told the outlet. “And when you start talking about younger Black voters, they want to see a whole new system. I think that El-Sayed has kind of tapped into that energy.”
Campaign’s Outsider Strategy Drew Concerns
Democratic strategists have also suggested that El-Sayed’s anti-establishment message—a key part of his outsider campaign to challenge the Democratic establishment—sometimes put him at odds with Black political institutions.
“Attacks on the Democratic establishment in places like Detroit are attacks on Black leaders,” Jamal Simmons, former communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, told The Hill.
Basil Smikle, a political strategist and policy advisor for over two decades, told the outlet, “He ran against the Democratic Party and while flawed, it was a vehicle through which African American voters and their representatives found political and economic paths to power.”
Some reporting has also suggested that some viewed El-Sayed’s primary outreach efforts as either too limited or too late. The American Prospect reported that, during a post-primary roundtable with Black mayors and other Michigan elected officials, several participants told El-Sayed they had not seen enough of him on the campaign trail, with some saying he had not campaigned in their communities—a characterization he disputed.
“I’ll just tell you, through the course of the primary, I’ve actually been to every one of your cities,” El-Sayed said, according to the outlet, which reported that he acknowledged he may not have campaigned directly with each of them but had sought the support of their constituents.
El-Sayed has also faced questions over his involvement in the 2024 “uncommitted” movement, which urged Democrats to register their opposition to the Biden administration’s response to the war in Gaza by voting uncommitted in the presidential primary. More than 100,000 Michigan Democrats voted this way, and interviews conducted by CNN with Black voters and party leaders indicated that some remained wary of El-Sayed because of his role in that movement.
More Recent Polling Offers Mixed Signs
Polling ahead of the November election paints a more encouraging picture for El-Sayed than the primary data, although it still points to some potential weakness among Black voters.
A September Washington Post-Schar School poll found that 83 percent of Black voters wanted Democrats to control the Senate, but only 67 percent intended to vote for El-Sayed, hinting at a candidate-specific gap inside an otherwise strongly reliable Democratic constituency. That poll surveyed 803 likely Michigan voters from September 10 to September 14 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
Crosstabs from a Fox News poll conducted September 24 to September 28 indicated that around 77 percent of likely Black voters supported El-Sayed. In 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris received 87 percent of the Black vote in the state, according to CNN exit numbers.
Harris campaigned alongside El-Sayed last month in Detroit, after endorsing him following his August primary win.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Geoffrey Rowland.