Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, opposes American military funding for foreign nations and says he would vote against aid to Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.
"I am against it, in large part because I just don't understand why anybody thinks it's the right thing to do to send our tax dollars abroad, to fund foreign militaries when our own kids barely get to go to schools that are functional," El-Sayed said.
The position puts El-Sayed outside the traditional bipartisan consensus on foreign military aid. His comments reflect a growing debate within the Democratic Party over the scope and conditions of U.S. support for allies.
Sources close to his campaign say his views extend beyond military aid to include all U.S. arms sales to Israel. He has argued the current status quo makes a two-state solution impossible.
"I am not O.K. saying that, as a senator from Michigan, I'm going to take tax dollars from Michigan, send them to a foreign government that does heinous things in contraposition to the ideals that I support, and then sit here and be, like, yes, but I'm for a two-state solution—when I know that the current status quo is never ever going to allow that to happen," El-Sayed said.
Jordan Domingue, El-Sayed's former security chief and a Marine veteran, raised concerns about those positions. Domingue told the Michigan Enjoyer that he tried to steer El-Sayed away from what he called "extreme positions," including opposition to Iron Dome funding, but found them to be deeply held beliefs.
El-Sayed has also linked U.S. foreign policy to the rise of terrorism, asking in a prior public statement, "What Happens When People Are in Pain?"
The 2026 Michigan Senate race will test how these positions play with voters in a competitive state with a sizable Arab American population — and whether El-Sayed's foreign policy break from the party mainstream helps or hurts him in a Democratic primary.
