Cruz Calls El-Sayed a Jihadist Leprechaun in Michigan

The Michigan Senate contest has entered its final phase with intensified personal attacks between the candidates. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas visited a campaign event in Grosse Pointe Woods, a suburb of Detroit, on Tuesday to launch a renewed assault on his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed.

Cruz introduced a specific epithet for his rival during the visit. "My nickname for the guy is the jihadist leprechaun," Cruz said to the crowd. He argued that the label reflects his concerns about El-Sayed's ideological alignment and potential access to classified information if elected.

The Republican nominee in the race, Mike Rogers, has adopted the Muslim Brotherhood angle as a central theme of his closing argument. Cruz emphasized the stakes of this issue, stating that a Senator El-Sayed would likely receive top-level security clearance and might join the Senate Intelligence Committee. "If I am correct that he is a passionate supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, there is a very real risk that Americans will die as a result," Cruz said.

El-Sayed has consistently rejected the connection. In a recent interview with Fox News, the former Detroit mayor stated, "I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, I never will be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood." His campaign spokesperson, Cole Wozniak, characterized the accusations as an anti-Muslim smear intended to shift focus away from economic dissatisfaction with the Trump administration's handling of gas and grocery prices.

The Republican case relies heavily on El-Sayed's family history and past political expressions. They cite 2012 and 2013 social media posts by El-Sayed's half-sister, Fatten Elkomy, which noted their birthmother's involvement with the Brotherhood in Egypt during the early 1970s. El-Sayed, who was born in the United States, explained that his parents divorced when he was three and that his stepmother raised him. He noted that he has not discussed his birthmother's past with her.

Cruz also referenced El-Sayed's leadership role in the University of Michigan chapter of the Muslim Students' Association and a 2011 op-ed supporting protests against Hosni Mubarak. The Republicans further pointed to a 2012 open letter El-Sayed signed as a medical student backing Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president from the Brotherhood's political wing. The Obama administration maintained relations with Morsi's government until the Egyptian military ousted him in July 2013.

Rogers faced questions about his own 2012 stance as a congressman, when he supported maintaining dialogue with moderate Brotherhood members and voted to keep funding Egypt under Morsi. Rogers told NBC that he aimed to preserve ties with Egyptian intelligence services. Pressed on Qatari funding for the group, he expressed concern about Qatari money at U.S. colleges instead. His campaign asserts that the Brotherhood's ideologies are directly opposed to American values.

Cruz also predicted that an El-Sayed victory would position Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent supporter, as the 2028 Democratic presidential nominee. Rogers called the Michigan race the most important in the country, arguing that El-Sayed's inconsistencies on his ties to the group disqualify him for the Senate. The CBS News Battleground Tracker rates the race a toss up, following Michigan's selection of President Trump in both 2016 and 2024 and the election of Democrat Elissa Slotkin to the Senate in 2024.