Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said Wednesday that a photo from Abdul El-Sayed’s Detroit rally told him “all he needs to know” about the progressive candidate’s standing with black voters in Michigan’s Democrat Senate primary.
Clyburn, who is backing Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), was reacting to a photo from the rally. His comments landed 13 days out from the August 4 primary, with establishment Democrats pressing their advantage over El-Sayed.
“I saw a picture that concerned me coming out of Michigan. I saw the rally,” Clyburn said. “I didn’t see a single person that looks like me. That tells me all I need to know.”
Stevens leads El-Sayed by 46 points among black voters, who make up roughly one in five of the state’s Democrat electorate, while the former Wayne County health director holds a 12-point edge among white voters.
The four-term congresswoman touts the backing of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC and has dinged El-Sayed for agreeing to campaign with progressive candidate William Lawrence, who drew backlash for comments about older black leaders.
“He should totally not be campaigning with someone who’s saying goofy and hurtful and painful things like that,” Stevens said Friday.
El-Sayed argues the gap is manufactured. He has blamed the tens of millions in outside spending against him, much of it through a super PAC tied to the pro-Israel group AIPAC and aimed at black voters.
“The conversations that we’re having are rooted in the work that I’ve done with and alongside Black leadership here in Detroit, in Wayne County, and in Flint,” El-Sayed claimed. “And it’s not $50 million worth of attack ads.”
The primary has become the marquee test of the party’s progressive-versus-establishment fight, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) rallying for El-Sayed.
One AIPAC-funded ad features former President Barack Obama praising Stevens. Obama has not endorsed her.