Survey finds half of Michigan Jewish voters backed El-Sayed

A survey commissioned by a nonpartisan Jewish group finds that Michigan Democratic Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed won 50 percent of the Jewish vote in last week’s midterm election.

His opponent, Republican Mike Rogers, got 43% of the Jewish vote, the survey finds.

El-Sayed’s relationship to Jewish voters was heavily scrutinized throughout the campaign because of his staunch, vocal opposition to Israel. He also drew criticism for saying, following a terror attack on a Michigan synagogue, that “hurt people hurt people.” He later apologized for the remark.

Those factors led to speculation over whether Jews, who have historically backed Democrats by wide margins, would vote for El-Sayed.

The weighted survey of 883 Jewish voters, conducted ny Mercury Public Affairs between October 25 and November 10 with a 3.9 percent margin of error, finds that El Sayed bested Rogers among Jews statewide by seven points.

But he underperformed the state’s Democratic governor-elect, Jocelyn Benson, among Jews. She received 69% of the Jewish vote, the poll found.

And in the heavily Jewish Oakland County, where the synagogue attack took place, the poll found that Rogers beat El-Sayed among Jews 52% to 39%.