Abdul El-Sayed’s Viral Moment With a Heckler Was Revealing—but Not in the Way the Heckler Intended

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Viral moments from the campaign trail often crystalize both the key issues in a race and how the candidates are responding to them. That’s what happened on Saturday when a heckler confronted Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, about whether he condemns the Muslim Brotherhood, which many consider a terrorist group. El-Sayed, who is Muslim, quickly answered—“Sure, yeah, absolutely”—before questioning the heckler, who identified himself as “Tommy,” about the thinking behind it. “You’re asking the question because implicitly you assume that I’ll have dual loyalties, right?” El-Sayed asked before paraphrasing John F. Kennedy’s famous line about whether his Catholic faith would make him allegiant to the pope. “I’m not running to be a Muslim senator. I’m running for the U.S. Senate and happen to be Muslim,” El-Sayed said, to applause.

Identity isn’t incidental to El-Sayed’s candidacy. He has talked about being the child of Egyptian immigrants, harshly criticized Israel’s war in Gaza, and taken heat for campaigning with Hasan Piker, a controversial left-wing streamer. Yet Republicans have openly attacked El-Sayed’s faith as he competes to become America’s first Muslim senator. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, El-Sayed’s opponent in next month’s election, has claimed without evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood funds El-Sayed’s campaign and suggested that El-Sayed’s family members have terrorist links. Donald Trump mocks his middle name, Mohamed. And Tommy, it turns out, is reportedly a former Republican staffer. So I asked my colleague Aymann Ismail, who has covered El-Sayed for Slate—and is also a Muslim Egyptian American—about what that viral exchange says about El-Sayed’s history-making candidacy.

Ian: What sticks out to you about the clip? 

Aymann: I think it’s part and parcel of the Muslim American experience. Everybody who shares that identity can immediately think of a time where they were asked the same thing. When I was in line to get my credentials at the Republican National Convention one year, somebody heard I was Muslim and asked me if I condemned the Prophet Mohammed. So I think it’s important to acknowledge that El-Sayed isn’t just speaking for himself, he’s speaking for all of us.

You’ve written about how El-Sayed has sometimes de-emphasized his faith even as his opponents try to center it. Why do you think that is? 

There’s an entire political ecosystem out there trying to convince people that there’s something about Muslims that makes them dangerous. El-Sayed’s opponents are also feeding voters clips of him, say, campaigning with Piker, which might be their first experience of El-Sayed. He needs to take that into consideration when trying to reach the highest elected office any Muslim has ever held.

It was striking to me that El-Sayed’s campaign shared the clip of his exchange with Tommy. My sense is that some Michigan voters appreciate El-Sayed’s confrontational rhetorical style, while others find it overly aggressive. What have you seen in terms of how voters respond to him?

I’ve seen both. Before El-Sayed was the nominee, I followed him at a local Democratic convention, where he talked to different groups of community leaders. Talking to the Arab American caucus, he was confident. When he talked with the Jewish American caucus, he had a more reserved, “I’m here to listen” kind of energy. I check in every couple days with a woman I met in that room, a community leader involved with organizing Jewish voters. She’s repeatedly told me that El-Sayed seems like an overly masculine guy who’s doing a right-wing machismo act. So it’s not just conceivable that voters could think of him as too aggressive—I specifically hear that it’s off-putting for some. But at the same time, one of the stereotypes against Muslim men is that they’re domineering. I’ve watched this clip a thousand times. El-Sayed isn’t threatening; he doesn’t call Tommy a racist. He’s asking him to think a little bit deeper about why he would ask that question in the first place.

You’ve also covered El-Sayed’s struggles to win over Black voters. Given all that, how do you feel about his chances next month?

Some polls show him way ahead, and betting markets give him around a 70 percent chance of winning. I’m a bit of a skeptic. I think it’s going to be much closer specifically because of what I’ve heard from voters on the ground. And El-Sayed has made comments that upset people, like when he was talking about an attack on a Jewish temple in March and said, “Hurt people hurt people.” Some are urging Jewish voters to leave their Senate ballots blank in a campaign that mirrors the “uncommitted” movement during the 2024 election. Right now, that community leader I’m in touch with is thinking that she’s not going to vote at all.

That’s a lot of politics for a Monday, so let’s pivot to something more relaxing—like my colleagues’ suggestions about what to eat, read, and watch tonight:

Nibble on an appetizer: The main course used to be the whole point of eating out at a restaurant. But now, with rising prices, the spread of appetite-curbing GLP-1s, and the ubiquity of small plates, entrées are getting left behind more and more. Maggie Hennessy explores what diners’ changing preferences mean for dinner time.

Add this book to your reading list: Lessons in Chemistry, the debut novel from Bonnie Garmus, was one of the most popular books of 2022. Now, Garmus is back with her second book, Peck & Peck, which is “a workplace comedy, a New York City coming-of-age story, and a giddy satire.” Slate book critic Laura Miller found it charming.

Learn about whale biology: If you’ve seen or heard of the movie Whalefall, in which a scuba diver is swallowed by a whale, you have probably wondered whether the premise is at all plausible. Lucky for skeptics, Nadira Goffe interviewed a whale biologist about how realistic the film is. It turns out the movie actually gets some important details right!

Take stock of your streaming subscriptions: Hollywood is in a state of flux. A small number of corporate giants now control a massive slice of the industry—exemplified by Paramount Skydance’s recent acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. As the entertainment industry consolidates, Netflix and Disney are taking some unprecedented steps to survive. Slate business and tech writer Nitish Pahwa breaks it all down.

OK, that’s all for me today. Enjoy your night, and watch out for hungry whales!