Abdul el Sayed has lambasted dark money super PAC spending during his Michigan Senate bid and indicated he won’t support Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for Democratic leader, but he’s been boosted by millions of dollars from Schumer-aligned groups in the weeks since winning the primary.
Candidates cannot coordinate with super PACs. But the battleground nominee has declined to condemn the millions of dollars leadership-aligned groups are now spending to buoy his bid against Republican Mike Rogers after rallying primary crowds to get money out of politics while dinging rival Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) for her establishment and pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee support.
The latest super PAC help on the way comes from WinSenate, an offshoot of the Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC. The group has reserved $6.6 million in Michigan TV ad reservations for the Senate race starting Sept. 8 through the Nov. 3 midterm elections, according to ad-tracking firm AdImpact. It follows a separate multimillion-dollar WinSenate ad campaign earlier this month in the state, including $3 million in TV ads.
Michigan is a must-win seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), if Democrats are to have a shot at flipping the chamber that Republicans control 53-47. And both parties know the Great Lakes State is going to cost them tens of millions of dollars to keep it competitive.
During the primary, el Sayed was the beneficiary of super PACs such as American Priorities PAC, an anti-AIPAC group, and Fighting for Michigan PAC, to which his father-in-law gave $300,000 to as of the end of July.
The el Sayed campaign did not respond to a request for comment about whether he condoned the latest spending from WinSenate.
El Sayed has used Rogers’s support from outside groups as a political cudgel. In the days following his Aug. 4 primary win, the el Sayed campaign boasted raising another $2.3 million to bring them to $4.5 million in the bank, money they said was “fundraised directly from real Michiganders and supporters across the country, not corporations and special interests (looking at you, Mike Rogers).
“While Abdul appeals to Michiganders’ interests, Mike Rogers is gleefully colluding with corporate interests and dark money to back his campaign instead of paying attention to peoples’ needs,” the el Sayed campaign said at the time.
ABDUL EL SAYED’S REFUSAL TO BROADEN APPEAL DRAWS FEARS HE COULD SPOIL MICHIGAN FOR DEMOCRATS
But the super PAC money is likely to continue to flow for el Sayed, despite his claims he disavows outside spending.
The Senate Majority PAC announced an initial $20 million in TV ad reservations against Rogers during the primary and vowed it would be followed by “significant” fall ad campaigns.