New York City's socialist political machine is moving money and manpower into Michigan's Senate race, hosting a high-dollar Manhattan fundraiser for a candidate who calls Israel a genocidal state and keeps company with people who said America deserved 9/11.
The October 5 event on the Bowery spotlights how the network around Mayor Zohran Mamdani is building a national pipeline — harvesting deep-pocketed New York donors to install like-minded candidates in battleground states where control of the U.S. Senate hangs in the balance.
The flyer for the event lists co-hosts including jeweler Alexis Bittar, former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, presumptive House Democratic Rep. Brad Lander, former Congressman Jamaal Bowman, and Brooklyn Councilman Chi Osse, according to the New York Post. Two Mamdani campaign confidantes — political strategists Andrew Bard Epstein and Zara Rahim — are also co-hosting.
Epstein kept it simple when asked about his role: "I'm just helping a candidate I believe in."
Donors can write checks up to $57,500 to the Abdul Michigan Victory Fund — a serious war chest for a candidate already drawing substantial national spending in his race against Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers. The seat is being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary in August. His positions on the Middle East mirror Mamdani's. He has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and opposes U.S. military aid to the Jewish state. Mamdani himself recently called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "the architect of a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people" during a CNN interview, as reported by the Washington Examiner.
The Examiner noted that Mamdani's genocide accusation runs headlong into the actual United Nations legal definition, which requires intent to destroy a group "in whole or in part" — a standard that requires evidence of purposeful extermination, not the casualties of a war started by Hamas's October 7 attack.
El-Sayed has also drawn fire for associating with extremist socialist streamer Hassan Piker, who said in 2019 that America "deserved 9/11." The New York Post framed the Piker association squarely; the Washington Examiner focused its fire on Mamdani's genocide rhetoric. Neither outlet connected the full dollar figure to the broader pattern of socialist operatives exporting their playbook state by state.
It remains unclear whether Mamdani himself will attend the fundraiser or meet with El-Sayed during his New York visit.
The open question: whether Michigan voters know they're being targeted by a Manhattan-based network that wants to send to Washington a senator who would cut off aid to America's most critical Middle Eastern ally — and who sees no problem with allies who say the United States had it coming on 9/11.
