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As Abdul El-Sayed\u2019s<\/span> one-time primary opponent attempts to redirect closing arguments in the Michigan Senate contest to the topics of Israel and antisemitism, the Democratic nominee has entered the final stretch of the midterms against a barrage of bigoted attacks over his own race and religion.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump called him a \u201cjihadist.\u201d Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went on a racist rant<\/a> against Arabs. According to Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a mailer went out showing El-Sayed\u2019s face next to the World Trade Center\u2019s Twin Towers.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are running the most bigoted, hateful, Islamophobic campaign I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d McMorrow told<\/a> a local TV outlet. McMorrow, who ran for the Democratic Senate nomination but dropped out before the August primary, is taking a far different tack than Rep. Haley Stevens, the Democratic primary runner-up<\/a> who has spent the race\u2019s final days painting El-Sayed as an angry antisemite and crossed party lines<\/a> Sunday to endorse Republican contender Mike Rogers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rogers has sought to portray El-Sayed as anti-American and repeatedly tried to tie his opponent to the Muslim Brotherhood. He insists the attacks have nothing to do with faith. But that is exactly how many observers see them, including Muslim Republicans who have been disgusted<\/a> by the rhetoric.<\/p>\n As the election draws to a close, the Islamophobic attacks have taken a backseat to Stevens\u2019s claims of antisemitism \u2014 most prominently concerning a PAC ad<\/a> that connected high grocery prices to U.S. spending on Israeli military aid \u2014 and a personal feud between the former primary opponents. And some of El-Sayed\u2019s allies worry that the Muslim and Arab-baiting attacks will work. One recent poll found that 38 percent of Michigan voters said<\/a> they would be less likely to vote for a Muslim candidate.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michigan\u2019s Muslim and Arab organizers have not been taking the attacks lying down, however. In interviews last month, two prominent leaders in Dearborn\u2019s Arab American community described widespread excitement over the opportunity to vote for the man who would be the first Muslim in the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cIt very much feels like when President Obama was running and his whole campaign was around like hope. That\u2019s what it feels like,\u201d Layla Elabed, the organizing director at Arab Americans for Progress, told the Intercept on October 8.<\/p>\n