DW Debunks Fake News About U.S. Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayyid
Deutsche Welle has refuted several false claims circulating online following the victory of progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic Party’s primary for the U.S. Senate in Michigan. On August 4, 41-year-old El-Sayyed secured the party nomination and will face Republican Mike Rogers in the November 3 midterm election for the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Gary Peters.
One of the hoaxes claimed that El-Sayed received 1.4 million votes in Detroit, even though the city has approximately 480,000 registered voters. According to DW, this story was originally a satire published by the page “America’s Last Line of Defense,” which explicitly states that its content is not real. After the posts were reposted without this disclaimer, the claims began to be presented as true.
The Michigan Voter Information Center reports that there are approximately 7.3 million active registered voters in the state. El-Sayed received 743,455 votes statewide in the Democratic Senate primary, not 1.4 million votes in Detroit alone. DW also noted that U.S. President Donald Trump had previously claimed, without evidence, that more people voted in Wayne County, Michigan, than there were registered voters.
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Another false claim concerned the candidate’s political views. Trump repeatedly called El-Sayed a communist, but his campaign focused on government-sponsored health insurance, taxing billionaires, and reducing the influence of corporate money on politics. El-Sayyed himself has previously stated that he considers himself a capitalist, not a socialist or a communist.
DW also debunked a claim by Rogers, who said after the primaries that his opponent allegedly believed the U.S. deserved the attacks of September 11, 2001. The publication noted that the accusation confuses El-Sayed’s position with a statement made by his supporter, streamer Hassan Piker. In 2019, during a livestream, Piker said that America deserved those attacks, but later retracted that statement.
Lawrence Pinta, a journalism professor at Washington State University, called El-Sayyid an easy target for disinformation, particularly because he is a Muslim, a progressive politician, and an outspoken critic of Israel. If he wins in November, El-Sayyed could become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate.
