The political strategist running Sen.-elect Abdul el Sayed’s (D-MI) new political action committee was formerly tied to a controversy involving misleading voter texts in the 2024 election, Federal Election Commission records show.
El Sayed launched Habibi PAC on Thursday, according to the FEC, after beating GOP opponent Mike Rogers on Tuesday as part of a nationwide blue wave in the midterm elections. The PAC’s treasurer, Howie Stanger, was also treasurer of AllVote and VoteWin in 2024. Those two organizations drew scrutiny for falsely telling people they had not yet voted or registered to vote, according to multiple reports.
The new PAC lists an email address for Pocketbook Strategies, Stanger’s left-leaning political consulting group founded in 2022, as contact information underneath the PAC’s California address. Pocketbook Strategies did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
FEC: Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed launches a super PAC called “Habibi PAC” pic.twitter.com/cagJh53uX7
— Politics & Poll Tracker
(@PollTracker2024) November 6, 2026
AllVote gained attention during the 2024 cycle for the false messages in states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia, multiple outlets reported.
“This is something that obviously has federal implications because of the way they are using the phone lines and stuff,” a spokesperson for New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver told the Santa Fe New Mexican at the time about AllVote.
Officials in McLean County, Illinois, also warned the public in October 2024 about residents reporting text messages “stating they had not voted,” linking to AllVote’s website.
“Our office did not send these text messages,” county officials said. “The text message nor link contains any cybersecurity threats we are told, but these types of communications can cause concern amongst voters.”
“I’m working early voting,” an election judge said in the county’s statement. “Two people came in who were concerned that they had received texts that said they had not voted. One voter was concerned that we (elections office) had released a list of who hadn’t voted. The other had voted and was concerned that her vote hadn’t counted.”
AllVote claimed it was “engaging in commonplace voter contact work” when asked about the texts by the Washington Free Beacon.
VoteWin also falsely told voters in text messages that they had not registered to vote earlier in 2024.
“We understand that many people are jarred by the messages — we tested hundreds of variations of messages and found that these had the largest impact on someone’s likelihood to register,” Yoni Landau, founder of an affiliated group that helped send the texts, told a cybersecurity blog. “I’m deeply sorry for anyone that may have gotten the message in error, who is registered to vote, and we’re looking into our content now to see if there are any variations that might be less certain but still as effective in generating new legal registrations.”
EL SAYED TOUTS ENDORSEMENT FROM LOBBYISTS TIED TO TERRORIST FINANCING: ‘DEEPLY GRATEFUL’
El Sayed offered little comment on why he started his PAC in response to a reporter’s question Sunday, merely pointing to a hat in his hand that reads “JD Habibi,” Fox News reported. The senator-elect jokingly called Vice President JD Vance “habibi,” an Arabic term of endearment, in front of a Detroit audience on Wednesday.
“JD, habibi, there is this delicious irony in the fact that you’re constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January,” el Sayed said.