Dana Nessel says she’ll vote for Abdul El-Sayed, ending potential Michigan Democratic Party rift

As Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed continues to court some of his biggest intraparty detractors, Attorney General Dana Nessel on Tuesday said that she is no longer one of them.

Nessel and El-Sayed appeared together on the latest episode of the “For the Sake of the Argument with Lori Goldman” podcast, a production of the activist organization and social media outfit Distill Social.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by For the Sake of the Argument with Lori Goldman (@forthesakeoftheargument)

On the podcast, Nessel said she can’t be true to her values if she “even considers” voting for Republican nominee Mike Rogers, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.

“Yes, I’ll be voting for Abdul,” Nessel said. “We have one candidate that I know is going to fight against the Trump administration; who is going to fight to protect both our physical security, our safety, our health and our futures.”

Rogers, on the other hand, would “not do any of that,” Nessel said. She argued that Rogers “only cared about self-enrichment, and how many pats on the back he can get from Donald Trump. So, for me, I don’t want to say the choice is easy. But I am going to say that there is no choice, and that’s why I’m supporting Abdul for the U.S. Senate.”

El-Sayed, seated next to Nessel, said he was glad to have the attorney general’s support.

“I’m particularly grateful for it because I know we haven’t always agreed on everything,” El-Sayed said. “I know we won’t always agree on everything, but I also know that you care about my kids and have fought for them. I know you know that I care about your kids, and have fought for them and will fight for them. That’s the thing that we can do together.”

In video clips circulated of the exchange, El-Sayed and Nessel firmly shake hands just after they gave each other praise.

The attorney general, who is Jewish, had originally backed the senatorial primary campaign of U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham). Following a tense Michigan Democratic Party spring endorsement convention, in which some Jewish Democrats said they were harassed by pro-Palestine party delegates, Nessel said she no longer felt safe attending the party’s summer convention, and that Michigan Jews were having a tough feeling at home in the party.

That unease has led some Michigan Jews to say they were also unsure if they would be voting for El-Sayed, as others announced that they would be voting for Rogers instead.

Nessel started to turn the tide on El-Sayed, however, when she told Jewish Democrats this summer that they may need to put “the needs of the world” ahead of their own personal feelings on the race, a not-so-veiled jab at Republicans and their figurehead in Trump.