THE rise of Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed signals a deeper shift inside American politics: younger voters, frustrated at rising costs at home and America’s support for Israel, are no longer responding to the political scripts that once made Muslim and pro-Palestinian candidates appear unelectable.
Last year, Zohran Mamdani upended expectations when he was elected mayor of New York City. Suddenly, America’s largest city had a leader who was young, Muslim, pro-Palestinian and socialist.
For the Democratic Party establishment, the victory represented a political nightmare: a candidate who rejected several of its long-held assumptions had won one of the country’s most visible offices.
In the months since, the news has only become more unsettling for party insiders. Recent polls show Mamdani is now one of the most popular Democratic politicians in the United States.
This week, the Democratic Party establishment had to contend with another shock after Democratic primary elections were held in Michigan, a swing state that has been the site of many hard-fought electoral battles.
Abdul El-Sayed, a public health official in Michigan, won and will now be the party’s candidate for the US Senate this November. He will face Republican candidate Mike Rogers.
Can El-Sayed win?
In the primary, he drew strong support from younger and college-educated voters. He was vocal in his opposition to the Israeli lobbying group Aipac, openly supported a Palestinian state and sharply criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza.
On domestic issues, he linked the hundreds of millions of dollars the US sends to Israel to the government’s failure to provide affordable health insurance to Americans. The message was simple: money sent abroad was money not being spent on people struggling at home.
El-Sayed’s victory, coming less than a year after Mamdani’s historic win, shows how much the US electorate has changed. Both the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and some far-right figures in the Republican Party have become vocal in their opposition to US aid to Israel.
Both are also focused on the affordability crisis: millions of American families can’t afford even the basics such as food and housing. For many voters, money sent abroad to fund wars for Israel now looks like a betrayal of those who need help at home.
The fact that both Mamdani and El-Sayed are Muslim matters because Islamophobia has shaped American politics for decades. Yet, a month before 9/11’s 25th anniversary, a generational change appears to be underway.
The young voters who helped Mamdani and El-Sayed win were either not yet born or very young when 9/11 happened. To them, the Islamic bogeyman promoted by cable news channels such as Fox News appears fake and increasingly irrelevant.
This shift has befuddled figures in both major parties where candidates accept large sums from Aipac to fund their campaigns. In return, they vote to send hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars to Israel. In one notable debate moment, El-Sayed confronted his opponent Haley Stevens about the US$30mil (RM122.7mil) that Aipac was spending on her behalf. Her answer was clearly not convincing enough for voters.
The effects are apparent. For 17 years, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been affiliated with Aipac, voicing support for Israel even as the genocide in Gaza was underway. This year, Jeffries has tried to distance himself from Aipac and has sought the support of J Street, a Jewish lobbying group that supports a two-state solution.
Other House Democrats who have turned away from Aipac include Representatives Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky and Deborah K. Ross of North Carolina. Attendance at Aipac’s annual summer summit, through which the group takes Democratic lawmakers to Israel, has also been dwindling.
Mamdani’s and El-Sayed’s victories would have been unimaginable a few years ago. Yet Americans across party lines have become wary of the millions being spent on foreign wars and Israel. That sentiment has sharpened because the Trump administration has failed to address the affordability crisis. For voters, money sent abroad for causes that do not improve their lives has become a source of deep political discontent.
The November midterms will likely be a momentous occasion. It will be the first election since the Republicans swept the presidency, the House and the Senate two years ago. Since then, the Republican Party has lost the plot, entering foreign wars that have little public support while failing to address skyrocketing inflation at home. El-Sayed’s victory is a sign of the shape of things to come. The “Muslim terrorist” card no longer trumps everything else, and candidates who want to win will have to do more than attack their opponents’ religious background. — Dawn/ANN
Rafia Zakaria is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
