Michigan’s Democrat Senate nominee just got some very bad news out of the past.

His campaign is scrambling to distance itself from a family member who allegedly spit on a cop.

And now the story of Abdul El-Sayed’s half-sister is pulling back the curtain on exactly what kind of radical network is backing his Senate run.

What Eman Abdelhadi Actually Did

Eman Abdelhadi, an associate professor at the University of Chicago’s Department of Comparative Human Development, was arrested last October and charged with two counts of aggravated battery to a government employee — a Class 3 felony — and two counts of resisting or obstructing a peace officer, a Class A misdemeanor, according to Fox News Digital, which first reported the story.

The alleged offense: spitting on an Illinois state trooper during protests outside an ICE detention facility in Broadview, Illinois.

The day before her arrest, Abdelhadi appeared on a podcast called “Movement Memos,” affiliated with the far-left publication Truthout, and described federal immigration officers in terms that left no ambiguity about where she stood. “These people are terrorizing our communities and they’re setting up shop,” she said. “I mean, in Broadview, ICE has been setting up shop in our backyard. Just brazenly taking up community resources to terrorize this very same community.”

She added that joining the demonstrations felt necessary. “And so it felt really important to join protesters out there to say, not in our city, not in our name, not in our backyard,” she said.

The charges are still pending. But the political damage is already in motion.

Abdelhadi also made clear at those protests that she had no patience for anyone trying to find a middle ground on the left. “There’s no center left,” she declared. “You’re either resisting or you’re complicit.”

The Campaign’s Damage Control Falls Flat

El-Sayed’s campaign spokesperson Sophie Pollok tried to create some daylight between the candidate and his half-sister when Fox News came calling. “Abdul loves his sister and also disagrees with her on a number of political positions and the rhetoric she’s chosen to use, including on foreign policy,” Pollok told the outlet. “But Abdul is the one on the ballot and his record of public service and his platform is what matters to voters here in Michigan. His campaign has always been about his love for America and Michigan.”

That’s a carefully worded non-answer. El-Sayed himself has repeatedly called for abolishing ICE — the same federal agency his half-sister allegedly assaulted a trooper trying to protect.

And Abdelhadi herself, when El-Sayed announced his Senate run in April 2025, celebrated him publicly on social media. “The feeling when you think you’ve accomplished a lot but then your older brother runs for senate!!!” she posted. “In all seriousness — Abdul is fighting for healthcare, housing, and an economy that serves people over oligarchs. I am a proud little sister.”

The campaign wants voters to treat the two as ideologically separate. But Abdelhadi’s own words about her brother make that a difficult case to sell.

Her record away from the ICE protests is no less radical. Before her arrest, in July 2025, she made headlines for cursing out her employer at the Socialism 2025 conference, which describes itself as a gathering of thousands of “radical activists from around the country to take part in discussions about social movements, abolition, Marxism, decolonization, working-class history.” She called the University of Chicago “evil” and “a colonial landlord” — while also acknowledging she stays employed there because it gives her access to people she can organize politically.

She has also posted about “white people” being “fearful” and not facing the same airport scrutiny as Muslims, according to old posts surfaced by Fox News.

But the campaign wants Michigan voters to believe none of this reflects on the man at the top of the ticket.

What This Tells You About the Michigan Race — and the Double Standard in Washington

Chuck Schumer worked hard to stop Abdul El-Sayed from winning the Michigan Democrat primary. He recruited Representative Haley Stevens (D-MI) to run as the establishment alternative and quietly worked behind the scenes to consolidate support around her. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Stevens in the final weeks of the race. Stevens and her allied groups outspent El-Sayed and his supporters by nearly nine to one on advertising, according to AdImpact.

El-Sayed won anyway.

And within hours of the race being called, Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Senator Kirsten Gillibrand released a joint statement praising El-Sayed for “an energetic campaign that inspired thousands of Michiganders across the state.” They pledged to work alongside him to win the seat in November.

That’s the Democrat Party in a nutshell. Schumer spent months trying to block the most radical candidate on the ballot, lost, and then immediately wrapped his arms around him and got to work trying to elect him to the United States Senate.

Now compare that to what happened in Texas, where Ken Paxton defeated incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary after President Trump endorsed Paxton. Cornyn, who had backed amnesty measures and championed Joe Biden’s gun control legislation, made clear he would not be raising money for Paxton. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the NRSC — which had spent months and tens of millions fighting Paxton’s primary bid — withheld Texas from their initial list of battleground ad reservations. Texas did not make the cut for the Thune-linked super PAC’s first round of ad buys, according to Axios.

Schumer swallowed his objections and fell in line behind a candidate whose half-sister is facing felony charges for allegedly assaulting a cop at an anti-ICE protest. The Republican establishment, by contrast, dragged its feet on a MAGA nominee in a state Trump won by nearly 14 points.

The contrast is hard to miss. Democrats circle the wagons. Establishment Republicans look for exits.

El-Sayed now faces former Representative Mike Rogers in the November general election. Rogers called El-Sayed’s agenda one “grounded in ideological fanaticism” that “would make our communities less safe and our state less affordable.” The Senate Leadership Fund announced a $45 million investment to support Rogers and defeat El-Sayed, calling El-Sayed “a dangerous threat to the safety and freedoms of every American.”

But the question hanging over El-Sayed’s campaign is not just whether Michigan voters will accept his call to abolish ICE. It’s whether they’ll accept the broader picture of who surrounds him — a half-sister who allegedly spit on a state trooper while calling immigration enforcement “terrorism,” who attended Marxist conferences and cursed out her own employer, and who publicly celebrated her brother’s Senate run as a fight for “people over oligarchs.”

El-Sayed’s campaign says he’s the one on the ballot. That’s technically true. But voters in Michigan have every right to look at the full picture of who is cheering him on — and what that says about the kind of senator he would actually be.

The Trump administration has carried out the largest immigration enforcement effort in American history, with broad public support. Opposing that enforcement — loudly, at an ICE facility, to the point of allegedly spitting on the troopers guarding it — is not a fringe position in El-Sayed’s orbit. It’s a family affair.

And Chuck Schumer, after all his maneuvering to stop this candidate, is now working to put him in the Senate.

Sources: Mediaite, “Abdul El-Sayed’s Sister Draws Renewed Scrutiny for Allegedly Assaulting Cop at Anti-ICE Rally”; Fox News Digital, “El-Sayed’s half sister revealed as radical professor arrested for allegedly assaulting a cop at anti-ICE riot”; CBS News, “Abdul El-Sayed projected to win Michigan Democratic Senate primary, defeating Haley Stevens”; Axios, “John Thune to attend Texas fundraiser for Ken Paxton”; Axios, “Republicans break the ice with Paxton after brutal Texas Senate primary”; Texas Tribune, “Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn in Texas U.S. Senate GOP runoff”