Michigan Student Confronts Senate Candidate El-Sayed on Iran Stance
A tense exchange occurred at a town hall when a student questioned El-Sayed's past remarks on Iran and his alignment with Iranian democracy movements.
A student confronted Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed at a town hall Wednesday, questioning his stance on Iran and referencing his family's experiences with the Iranian regime. Iman Dashti, identifying as Persian, recounted alleged persecution faced by his relatives under the Iranian government, including a cousin who was "hunted in the streets" and an uncle sentenced to death.
Dashti pressed El-Sayed on leaked audio from earlier this year where the candidate expressed reluctance to comment on the death of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, citing concerns about "sad voters in Dearborn." Dashti described this silence as having a "gaping hole in our community."
During the town hall at the University of Michigan, Dashti asked El-Sayed if he regretted his past silence, if he would disavow supporters of Khamenei, and if he stood "unequivocally against the IRGC and the Islamic Republic of Iran."
El-Sayed responded by stating his support for movements advocating for democracy and freedom abroad, while also cautioning against the U.S. acting as "the world's policeman" and advocating against U.S.-led regime change in Iran. "I will always stand for and with democratic movements always," El-Sayed said. "But I also don't believe that we were in the right to go to war to topple the government of Iran. It was not our responsibility to do. It is the responsibility of the people of Iran to decide what their leadership should look like."
When pressed further by Dashti with the question, "You stand with us?", El-Sayed reiterated, "I will always stand with movements for freedom and democracy," adding, "We should not be in the business of regime change."
El-Sayed, who won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary in August, is running against Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. The race has garnered national attention and significant campaign spending.
The exchange occurred during a "Students vs. Billionaires" town hall. In another part of the event, El-Sayed alluded to the likely winner of the 2028 presidential election, stating he looked forward to working with "the next Democratic president when she takes office in 2029." This remark came as Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president in 2024, campaigned in Michigan for El-Sayed.
El-Sayed also commented on Republican criticism, noting, "Donald Trump and JD Vance can’t seem to keep my name out their mouth." A spokesperson for El-Sayed's campaign stated that El-Sayed "will always stand with movements for freedom and democracy, and he condemns government anti-free speech violence." The spokesperson added that El-Sayed believes U.S. taxpayer dollars are better spent domestically on infrastructure, education, and healthcare, rather than on "regime change wars abroad."