Kamala Harris's Detroit Tour and the El-Sayed Connection: How One Candidate is Helping to Rebrand the Vice President

For those tracking the administration's foreign policy, the partnership appears predictable but painful. El-Sayed has consistently made clear his embrace of capitalism and his condemnation of Palestinian resistance to settler colonialism. Critics view these stances as hallmarks of an establishment candidate. Nevertheless, embracing Harris so soon after his primary victory felt like salt in the wound to many. According to reports, Harris addressed the Democratic National Convention at the height of the Gaza conflict, stating, "I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself." She refused to condition the flow of US weapons and rejected calls for an arms embargo outright, actions reflecting what she has described as her "unwavering" support for Israel. She has repeatedly appeared at Aipac events and posed for photo ops with Israeli leaders.

During this period, Palestinian-American journalist Laila al-Arian questioned on X how one can "run against a genocide and then embrace one of the people who helped carry it out." Abubaker Abed, a journalist from Gaza, wrote that El-Sayed's statements since his primary win "have become more abysmal and disgraceful." He described El-Sayed as "someone who chases power and self-interest." Abed added that El-Sayed has moved from garnering support from those accused of genocide to writing off bills aimed at ending the occupation and losing political influence in the US.

Public disruptions of pro-Israel figures have become a social media phenomenon in the United States. Harris was interrupted by pro-Palestine protesters at a Detroit campaign rally in August 2024. She infamously retorted, "I'm speaking," shutting down the disruption. This moment was part of a larger pattern including Journalist Sam Husseini, who was dragged out "like a potted plant" by security at a presser with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Senator Bernie Sanders, who was disrupted at an April 2025 event in Bakersfield, California, for his then-refusal to call Israel's actions a genocide.

It was within this climate that El-Sayed took to the campaign trail. He called Israel "pretty damn evil" and labeled Netanyahu a war criminal. He demanded an end to the US's unconditional military aid to Israel. Such views had entered the mainstream among the Democrats he was courting. In June 2025, Zohran Mamdani won New York's mayoral primary in a race widely interpreted as a referendum on Gaza. Mamdani defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo, the favored candidate of pro-Israel donors who had joined Netanyahu's legal defense against the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for war crimes.

Polling data indicates a shift in voter sentiment. Sixty-two percent of Mamdani's voters cited his advocacy for Palestinian rights as a reason for backing him. By August 2025, 77 percent of Democratic voters said Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and 75 percent opposed further US military aid. For the first time in 24 years of Quinnipiac polling, more US voters sympathised with Palestinians than with Israelis. Despite this shift, Aipac-linked groups spent tens of millions of dollars. El-Sayed's own count places this amount at more than $60 million, an effort to defeat him in the primary.

During the primary, Congresswoman Hillary Scholten announced she would not campaign alongside El-Sayed as long as he associated with Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, a vocal critic of Israel's genocide whose large audience El-Sayed had courted. His Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, openly appealed to Jewish voters over El-Sayed's sharp criticism of Israel since the primary. Since the primary, El-Sayed has made several concessions. At the state party's convention in Lansing in late August, he vaguely referenced the money spent against him. Notably absent from his remarks were direct attacks on Aipac, whom he had frequently targeted during the primary.

When asked about his relationship with Piker, El-Sayed responded, "I don't want to have a conversation about a Twitch streamer in California. It's just not a serious conversation." To Jewish Democrats, he has promised that Michigan can "disagree agreeably on some of those issues having to do with what we do 6,000 miles away." Ahead of the Harris visit, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who had spoken publicly about Jewish Democrats' unease with his candidacy, endorsed him, stating "There is no choice."

On Tuesday, El-Sayed told reporters that his disagreements with Harris over Gaza are "clear," but he believes that working together where they agree is "what a mature politics looks like." At the roundtable event, Harris remarked, "I think we are at the point of our new relationship where I can call you Abdul." El-Sayed replied, "Perfect. For me, it's going to be Madame Vice President." The response from British-Iraqi rapper and journalist Lowkey was succinct. He called the alliance "Spineless." When a reporter asked at a Detroit press conference whether campaigning with Harris, after his own support for the uncommitted movement, might backfire with Arab American voters, El-Sayed turned aggressively on the questioner. He asked if Vice President Harris was the same as President Biden and if she was running for president at the time of the uncommitted vote. He concluded, "Answer the question... You're asking a question based on false premises, so I'm just getting you to clarify your premise... Thank you. Next question."

First reported by Middleeasteye Net.