I don't know if you would agree, but when I look at the Democrat Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, I find him annoying not just because of the lies and the bad policy, but because of the absolute hubris and how self-absorbed he seems.
Not only does he think he's going to win, but I think he thinks he has potential for even higher office. That's delusional. It's Michigan. As a Democrat, he should be walking away with it at this point. There hasn't been a Republican who's held the Senate seat there in 25 years.
Yet, he isn't. And the reason he isn't is that he's a terrible candidate, with extreme positions. I think people see that hubris/obnoxious nature, and it is not appealing. Voters want to vote for adults, not people who want to physically throw down with their opponents, which seems to be something El-Sayed is always talking about.
But there's a new report from CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere that sounds like El-Sayed knows he's in trouble. Supposedly, he contacted Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and asked him to stop the inflammatory rhetoric. Gee, you think he finally got how much it was hurting him and/or that his "I'm not focused on a Twitch streamer from California" defense wasn't working?
Dovere reports that "El-Sayed says he's been pressured to modulate his positions" since defeating moderate Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in a razor-thin primary, which El-Sayed also predicted he'd win by a large margin. Dovere reported that El-Sayed largely is refusing to back down from his progressive leanings, but added:
El-Sayed has quietly made one concession: He distanced himself from Hasan Piker after campaigning through the end of the primary with the streamer, who's said that Jews who keep supporting Israel should worry about their safety and that America is "pound for pound" worse than Al-Qaeda. El-Sayed recently called Piker and warned his rhetoric was costing El-Sayed votes, asking him to stop, according to two people El-Sayed told about the conversation. Piker did not respond to requests for comment.
If he’s being “pressured to modulate his positions,” imagine how far left he’d go once in office.
But the reason he may be so desperate to recast himself is because people aren't buying what he's selling.
This was a particularly hilarious part of the report.
“I’m not the Democrat the Democrats want, but I am the Democrat that Democrats have. And I am decidedly not a Republican. But this is what I’ll tell you: I am a Democrat that Michiganders want,” El-Sayed is quoted in the piece, alluding to his issues with the Democratic Party establishment.
Even he knows Democrats don't want him.
The report noted that Lansing Mayor Andy Schor (D), who supported Stevens in the primary, is not backing El-Sayed.
“Schor says his Jewish heritage also leaves him uncomfortable with some of what he’s heard from El-Sayed, a longtime critic of Israel who has referred to its war in Gaza as a genocide and declined to say the country should exist as a Jewish state,” Dovere reported.
Then there was this amazing anecdote from the report.
@billscher Not great. https://t.co/b3xroolnLZ
— Magdi Jacobs (@magi_jay) October 7, 2026
One black leader in Detroit who asked not to be named told CNN about a conversation with Abdul El-Sayed that left a feeling, in his words, that “they believe they don’t necessarily need to work as hard to get the Black vote.”
He said he never received an invitation he was promised by El-Sayed to join a roundtable with him.
So the leader took a meeting with aides of El-Sayed's Republican opponent, Mike Rogers — but felt guilty about it.
“I felt so bad, I texted him,” the leader said of El-Sayed. “But I didn’t hear back. So, f**k him.”
Oh, my. As we reported, he's already in trouble with other black Democrats, but here's a perfect reason why. First rule of such things: Answer and return phone calls. El-Sayed didn't even pretend to care there.
Sounds like a lot of problems for El-Sayed.