El-Sayed registers 'Habibi PAC' leadership committee after Michigan Senate win

Mixed · 2Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed has launched a political action committee called Habibi PAC, days after winning the state's US Senate race on Tuesday. 1 2 Mixed · 2A Federal Election Commission filing dated Thursday registers it as a leadership PAC sponsored by El-Sayed, a type of committee that is separate from a politician's own campaign and lets an elected official raise money for other candidates and allies. 2 1 Mixed · 2"Habibi" is an Arabic term of endearment meaning "my beloved", which El-Sayed used often during the campaign, including in his victory speech, when he said to Vice President JD Vance: "JD, habibi, there is this delicious irony in the fact that you're constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January." 2 1

Centre · 1El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers and is described by the Associated Press, as cited by Hindustan Times, as the first Muslim American elected to the Senate. 1 Mixed · 2During the campaign, Donald Trump called him a "jihadist", and according to Al Jazeera Trump, Vance and Senator Ted Cruz questioned his loyalty and tried to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood without providing evidence; Hindustan Times says Rogers also tried to tie him to extremist groups, with which the senator-elect has no established connection. 2 1 Centre · 1Hindustan Times says the PAC signals his plan to back allies and build influence in the Democratic Party, as Democrats look toward the 2028 presidential election; it also notes his criticism of US military aid to Israel and his open embrace of his Muslim identity. 1

Left · 1Al Jazeera reports that other newly elected Democrats also registered leadership PACs since the vote, including Amish Shah's "PACStreet Boy", Josh Turek's "WheelPAC" and Roy Cooper's "One NC PAC", and cites OpenSecrets saying such PACs help lawmakers gain clout by giving to colleagues and party committees; they gave $79.3m to federal candidates in the 2024 cycle. 2 Left · 1Al Jazeera adds that getting money out of politics was a central El-Sayed pledge, and that the win came in the most expensive midterms on record, with OpenSecrets projecting total spending of $11.9bn, up from $8.9bn in 2022. 2 Centre · 1Times of India, citing Al Jazeera, adds that El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, used his victory speech to argue that ordinary voters could beat wealthy interests ("The many can win"), and that outside spending by super PACs was projected at $3.9bn (up 85 per cent from 2022) with dark money at $1.47bn, above the previous record of $1.35bn. 3

Centre · 1Anadolu Agency, citing The Hill, says El-Sayed won by a wide margin in Michigan, a swing state that could matter in the 2028 presidential election, and that the PAC signals plans to stay influential in Democratic politics beyond the campaign. 4 Right · 1The Washington Examiner, citing FEC records, reports that the PAC's treasurer is Howie Stanger, who was also treasurer of AllVote and VoteWin in 2024, two groups that drew scrutiny for falsely telling people in text messages that they had not voted or registered to vote. 5 Right · 1The PAC lists an email address for Pocketbook Strategies, Stanger's left-leaning consulting group founded in 2022, which did not respond to the Examiner's request for comment; AllVote told the Washington Free Beacon it was "engaging in commonplace voter contact work", and Yoni Landau, founder of an affiliated group that helped send the VoteWin texts, apologised to anyone registered who received them in error. 5

Right · 1Asked on Sunday why he started the PAC, El-Sayed offered little comment and pointed to a hat reading "JD Habibi", Fox News reported, as relayed by the Examiner. 5