El-Sayed Donor Wants to Dismantle the US Military

U.S. flag flying above a formation of soldiers in uniform — Photo: Bumble Dee / Shutterstock

A Michigan Senate candidate who built his campaign on rejecting dark money has taken thousands of dollars from a woman who leads a group pushing to shut down American military bases across the globe.

Quick Take

Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show Democrat Abdul El-Sayed took $7,000 from Amani Barakat, chair of the Al-Awda-Palestinian Right of Return Coalition.
El-Sayed’s campaign has collected $33,550 total from the Barakat family, according to Jewish Insider.
A separate report found more than $115,000 came from people tied to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
El-Sayed pledged to fight dark money, yet his father-in-law has poured $300,000 into a super PAC backing his run.

The Donations Reporters Uncovered

Jewish Insider reviewed the latest FEC filings and found El-Sayed’s Senate campaign took $7,000 directly from Amani Barakat. Barakat chairs Al-Awda, a group that has pushed for the removal of American military bases worldwide. The outlet also reported Barakat has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories tying Jewish people to the Illuminati. That single check is part of a much larger sum, $33,550, that El-Sayed’s campaign has collected from members of the Barakat family combined.

The Barakat money is not an isolated line item. The New York Post later reported El-Sayed’s campaign brought in over $115,000 from individuals who currently work for or once led CAIR, a group the United Arab Emirates has formally designated a terrorist organization. Taken together, the two reports paint a pattern of a campaign accepting large sums from donors tied to organizations with hostile positions toward American military posture and Israel.

A Campaign Worth $14.5 Million and Counting

El-Sayed’s Senate bid is not a shoestring operation. FEC records show his committee has raised more than $14.5 million in total receipts, with over $10.2 million itemized from individual donors. That fundraising haul has outpaced his Democratic primary rival Haley Stevens, and it has drawn national attention, including tens of millions in outside spending from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s United Democracy Project working against him.

The Dark Money Pledge That Didn’t Quite Hold

El-Sayed has campaigned as the candidate who refuses corporate influence. One of his own campaign ads claims he is the only Michigan Senate candidate who has never taken a corporate political action committee check. He has also publicly signed a pledge against dark money and posted that his campaign had gotten this far without it.

Reporting tells a more complicated story. El-Sayed’s father-in-law, nephrologist Jukaku Tayeb, is the second-largest donor to Fighting for Michigan PAC, a super PAC created to support El-Sayed’s campaign. Tayeb has since added another $100,000 to that PAC, bringing his personal total to $300,000 and making him the group’s single largest backer. A Detroit News columnist called this a two-faced stance on outside money, noting El-Sayed’s team argues campaigns are legally barred from coordinating with PACs regardless of family ties.

🚨 OMG $7,000!!:
ABDUL EL-SAYED TOOK $7,000 FROM AL-AWDA CHAIR (BUT, NOT AIPAC!)

Abdul El-Sayed received $7,000 from Amani Barakat, chair of Al-Awda, an organization that has advocated dismantling the U.S. military.

The contribution is drawing scrutiny over the political… pic.twitter.com/jQwsll7GxH

— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) September 14, 2026

Why Donor Identity Matters More Than the Dollar Amount

Seven thousand dollars is a small fraction of a $14.5 million war chest. The dollar figure is not really the point. Federal disclosure rules exist so voters can see exactly whose money funds a candidate, and those rules expose relationships even when no law has been broken. That transparency is precisely why this story has legs. Voters do not need proof of a crime to ask hard questions about a candidate’s judgment when the checks come from people advocating positions far outside the American mainstream on national defense.

For a candidate asking Michigan voters to send him to the United States Senate, a body with direct authority over military funding and foreign policy, taking money from a donor whose signature cause is dismantling American bases abroad is a fair thing to scrutinize. Combine that with a father-in-law bankrolling a super PAC after a public dark-money pledge, and the pattern raises legitimate concerns about consistency between what El-Sayed says and how his campaign actually gets funded.