Some Jewish Democrats in Michigan are concerned about safety as a state official has decided not to attend a major gathering on Saturday due to radicals within the party who have criticized U.S. support for Israel.
The state’s Democrats planned to gather Saturday for the 2026 state nominating convention, but Attorney General Dana Nessel (D), who is Jewish, has said she would not be there, Fox News reported.
In late July, Nessell said she was not going because “I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying. And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me,” per the Michigan Advance.
The Fox article said leftist activists within the party shouted down pro-Israel speakers at a convention in the spring, and more Democrats want the U.S. to cut military aid to Israel as it fights violent Hamas terrorists.
Now, some Jewish Democrats in the battleground state are deeply worried about what could happen due to the previous gathering, the outlet continued:
“People are traumatized from the previous convention. Many people I talked to, many super progressive people, are really traumatized by the way they were treated, and the way Haley Stevens was booed, and the way other candidates were treated,” Rabbi Asher Lopatin told Fox News Digital last week.
Lopatin, who was interviewed after joining Republican Senate nominee former Rep. Mike Rogers at a campaign event to unveil Democrats supporting Rogers, referred to Nessel’s decision not to attend the convention and said “it just shows how terrible these extremists are that they’re intimidating even the attorney general of our state.”
Michigan’s leftist U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed (D) responded to Nessel’s decision not to attend the convention, Breitbart News reported August 5.
He said in part, “I think there is a challenge when folks try to use the specter of antisemitism to extend it toward protecting a foreign government against criticism. And I think that’s the place that the Attorney General and I might disagree.”
In response to his comments, Nessel later commented, “To say that, basically, like, perhaps I deserve to be threatened simply because of my political beliefs, I think is a real missed opportunity for Abdul to bring the party together. And I hope that’s what we’re going to be able to do,” according to Breitbart News.
Some Jewish leaders in Michigan are encouraging Jewish Democrats and independents to support former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), who is running against El-Sayed, Breitbart News reported August 20.