A majority of Michigan voters hold an unfavorable view of Democratic Senate nominee Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed (aka Abdul El-Sayed), according to a poll commissioned by a Republican group and released this week.
The survey, obtained by the Washington Reporter, found 50.4 percent of voters view El-Sayed unfavorably, compared with 39.8 percent who view him favorably. The poll was commissioned by Common Sense for America PAC, whose honorary chair is Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA).
The former Wayne County health director’s ties to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) drag on those numbers. When told El-Sayed has a history with the group, 52.7 percent of respondents said it would make them less likely to vote for him.
“They believe that they can move the state and the country, by the way, to be more accepting of this socialism,” Republican Mike Rogers said. He described his opponent as the “Democratic Socialists of America darling right now” and called the race “crazy versus common sense.”
The DSA itself has a net negative rating in the survey: 51.9 percent of voters view the organization unfavorably, while 25.5 percent view it favorably.
El-Sayed has also drawn scrutiny over his association with streamer Hasan Piker, whom the Washington Reporter characterized as a “pro-9/11” figure. The candidate, backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), herself a member of DSA, says he does not identify as a democratic socialist.
The poll gives Rogers a narrow lead in the Senate contest, 44.4 percent to El-Sayed’s 43.1 percent, an edge inside the survey’s 4.7-point margin of error. Third-party candidates drew 3.9 percent, and 8.5 percent remained undecided.
In the governor’s race, the poll found Rep. John James (R-MI) trailing Democrat Jocelyn Benson by roughly a point, 42.2 percent to 41.1 percent, tighter than other public surveys have measured. Economic concerns topped voter priorities, with 52.6 percent naming the economy and prices as the most important issue facing the country.
The result cuts against a run of recent public polling that put El-Sayed ahead. A Washington Post–Schar School poll released last week gave the Democrat a narrow edge, and surveys from Emerson College and Rasmussen Reports put him up two and three points, respectively.
Torchlight Strategies interviewed 643 likely voters through live and text-to-web interviews from September 15–19.
Read the full article here