Trump Says El-Sayed Won More Jewish Votes Than Rogers in Michigan
President Donald Trump said Michigan senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed received more Jewish votes than Republican Mike Rogers, calling the pattern not even understandable. A new poll found a seven-point edge and a split Jewish electorate.
Choose Clash Report as a preferred source and see our reporting first in Top Stories.
U.S. President Donald Trump has questioned why Michigan’s Jewish voters favored Democratic senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed over Republican Mike Rogers during a Salem News Channel interview on Thursday, November 12.
“If you look at El-Sayed in Michigan, he got more votes than the Republican candidate got by quite a bit from Jewish people,” Trump said.
“It’s not even understandable. It’s a tough group to get.”
Remarks Follow El-Sayed’s Senate Win
The comments followed El-Sayed’s November 3 Senate victory over Rogers, a former U.S. representative, by approximately seven percentage points.
Reported statewide figures showed El-Sayed receiving 52.5% against Rogers’s 45.5%. El-Sayed, a former public health official and critic of Israel, is set to become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. He has also said he will likely swear into the Senate on a Quran.
Trump had challenged Jewish support for El-Sayed before the election. At an October 25 rally in Port Huron, he said: “Any Jewish person that supports this guy should be ashamed of themselves.”
A Poll Puts El-Sayed Ahead
A combined postelection survey released by The Jewish Majority on November 13 found that 50% of Michigan Jewish voters backed El-Sayed, compared with 43% for Rogers.
The seven-point difference supports Trump’s central observation, although his description of the margin as substantial exceeds the gap measured by the poll.
The survey included 883 Jewish respondents, combining early-voting and postelection polling. Another 4% reported leaving the Senate contest blank, while 3% supported third-party candidates.
Official election results do not identify voters by religion. Assessments of Jewish voting behavior therefore depend on surveys and analysis of precincts with substantial Jewish populations.
Jewish Communities Show Divided Preferences
Rogers nevertheless carried Oakland County’s Jewish electorate by 52% to 39%. Among synagogue-affiliated respondents, his advantage was 54% to 42%.
El-Sayed recorded stronger Jewish support in Ann Arbor and East Lansing.
The survey also found that 59% of Jewish Rogers supporters described their choice as “mainly a vote against El-Sayed.”
Meanwhile, 81% of Jewish respondents said antisemitism, Jewish community concerns and Israel policy influenced their vote to some extent. Clash Report has previously reported on the candidates AIPAC bet against, including El-Sayed.
El-Sayed Underperforms Democratic Governor-Elect
Democratic Gov.-elect Jocelyn Benson secured 69% of Jewish voters, outperforming El-Sayed by 19 points despite finishing only about two points ahead of him statewide.
Precinct analysis reported by Politico showed similar differences. In Huntington Woods, where roughly two-thirds of residents are Jewish, El-Sayed received 65.3% against Benson’s 80%.
The findings underline a distinction in Michigan’s election: El-Sayed led Rogers among Jewish voters statewide but attracted considerably less support than other leading Democrats.
Kamer Kurunç
Kamer Kurunç is the Team Leader of Clash Report and has led the outlet for four years. He oversees its breaking world news coverage, from the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war to defense and global politics. His focus is fast, verified, source-based reporting. Follow him on X at @kamerknc.
Choose Clash Report as a preferred source and see our reporting first in Top Stories.
