Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) has endorsed Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, setting aside her earlier public criticism of the nominee over his response to a synagogue attack.
Nessel appeared alongside El-Sayed on Tuesday’s episode of “For the Sake of the Argument with Lori Goldman,” announcing her support in a recorded podcast format.
“We have one candidate that I know is going to fight against the Trump administration, is going to fight to protect our physical security, our safety, our health and our futures,” Nessel said during the episode.
Nessel, who is Jewish and the first Jewish person elected to Michigan’s top law enforcement post, blasted El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, as someone who “only cares about self-enrichment.”
The attorney general had previously backed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) over El-Sayed during the Democratic primary, making her endorsement of the nominee a notable shift in position.
Last month, Nessel told The Atlantic that El-Sayed made “excuses” for the man who launched an attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan.
Earlier this year, El-Sayed had described the attacker, who had four family members killed in an Israeli airstrike in early March, by saying “hurt people do hurt people.”
Despite that friction, Nessel declared there is “no choice” between El-Sayed and Rogers, and El-Sayed responded by saying he was “grateful” for her support.
When asked directly whether she would vote for El-Sayed, Nessel was unequivocal, saying: “I can’t be true to my values if I even consider voting for Mike Rogers. Yes, I’ll be voting for Abdul.”
Nessel predicted she would “get attacked” by “right-wing media” for not adhering to “whatever is, I guess, the party line of the day when it comes to the Jewish community.”
She defended her decision by arguing that “it is a tremendous disservice not to look at all of the issues” that El-Sayed and Rogers are respectively campaigning on.
Nessel had previously scrutinized El-Sayed for campaigning with Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer accused of antisemitism, and for rhetoric she said needed to be “toned down” regarding the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
El-Sayed has since apologized for those remarks and has taken steps toward repairing his relationship with the Jewish community, though he has not disavowed Piker.
Piker recently suggested that American Jews were “making antisemitism worse” through their support of Israel, a comment that has continued to generate controversy within the Democratic coalition.
Nessel, whose eight years in office conclude at the end of December, had also declined to attend the state party’s summer convention, citing fears of being harassed over her support for Israel.
Following a tense Michigan Democratic Party spring endorsement convention, some Jewish Democrats reported being harassed by pro-Palestine party delegates, deepening divisions within the state party.
That unease led some Michigan Jewish voters to express uncertainty about supporting El-Sayed, with others announcing they would back Rogers in the general election instead.
