Will This Man Be the First Muslim Governor?
. . .Today, a rather unlikely-sounding candidate to become Michigan governor is looking to take back the state for the Democrats.
Abdul El-Sayed, a 33-year-old doctor and son of an Egyptian immigrant, is running an economically populist campaign that would also make him the first Muslim governor in American history. He’s competing to replace the term-limited Rick Snyder, the despised Republican who oversaw the infamous lead poisoning crisis in Flint (which was incidentally only recently declared over). It’s a major test of whether diverse economic populism can assemble a multi-racial coalition to defeat Trump and his Republican lackeys.
The campaign hit a minor controversy over the last week, as centrist Democrats have alleged he can’t legally run. Bridge Magazine quoted several election lawyers and party “leaders” — mostly anonymously, for some reason — arguing that since Michigan law stipulates that any gubernatorial candidate has to be registered to vote in the state for the previous four years and El-Sayed was registered in New York from 2013-16 when he was in medical school there, he’s ineligible.
Open-and-shut case? Hardly. Michigan records confirm that El-Sayed maintained his registration in Michigan continuously since 2003 (while obviously voting in two place isn’t legal, simply being registered in two places is), as well as an apartment in Ann Arbor. Robert Lenhard, an attorney for the campaign who was previously the chair of the Federal Election Commission, issued a statement Wednesday saying: “We have looked at this question closely and are confident Abdul El-Sayed is qualified to run for governor of Michigan.” (Read more from “Will This Man Be the First Muslim Governor?” HERE)
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