Nancy Pelosi

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday urged voters to support Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, after rebuking him over his past comments about Israel and calling them “wrong.”

“I urge everyone across America to support our Democratic Senate nominees, including @AbdulElSayed,” Pelosi wrote in a post on X. “Every seat matters. Every vote counts. Let’s win together!”

In the post, Pelosi said that “Democrats are united in a big blue wave For The People” and that, “To lower costs, protect healthcare and defend our democracy, we must elect a Democratic House and Senate.”

The post came after Pelosi criticized El-Sayed on the podcast On Brand, during which the host Donny Deutsch said he felt a wing of the Democratic Party held views he considered to be antisemitic.

"It's hard and sad and it's upsetting to see so much of what's going on in the Democratic Party as a Jewish man, it's almost unbelievable," Deutsch said. "When you say Israel doesn't have the right to be a Jewish state, that's antisemitic as far as I'm concerned."

Pelosi asked for examples, to which Deutsch replied that El-Sayed had said that he "doesn't believe they should be a Jewish state," adding that it was "concerning."

Pelosi responded: "No, it's more than concerning. It's wrong. It's wrong, and it isn't a reflection of the Democrats in the Congress of the United States. This new person in Michigan, we'll see if he gets elected to the Congress."

Speaking previously about antisemitism, El-Sayed told Morning Joe in August: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own kids. We have a responsibility to take on antisemitism in all of its forms wherever we see it."

Newsweek contacted El-Sayed's campaign for comment on Friday outside of standard working hours.

El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers in the high-profile Senate race in Michigan—a closely divided battleground that Trump carried by 1.4 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.

El-Sayed has drawn scrutiny for his views on Israel, including over his description of Israel's war in Gaza as a "genocide" and remarks that he did not consider Israel as a U.S. ally.

He has rejected suggestions that criticizing Israel's actions in Gaza is equivalent to antisemitism.

In an interview with the journalist Mehdi Hasan, El-Sayed was asked about accusations of antisemitism and whether he disputed Israel's right to exist.

"I do not. I just dispute the idea that you should have an ethnostate," he said.

A Democratic Party spokesperson sent Newsweek the following statement from Nicholas Martin, a spokesperson for Pelosi: "Speaker Emerita Pelosi urges everyone in Michigan and across America to support Abdul El-Sayed and help elect him to the United States Senate.

"While they may disagree on some issues, she is united with him in the fight to lower costs, protect healthcare and defend our democracy. The stakes in this election could not be higher, and she believes all Democrats must come together to win back the Congress and deliver for the American people."

Polls and election analyses point to a closely contested race.

In a CNN poll released Thursday, El-Sayed was placed at 49 percent support, while Rogers was placed at 42 percent. Conducted among 786 likely voters from October 20 to 27, it had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.

An Insider Advantage poll of 1,200 likely voters put El-Sayed more narrowly ahead, 47 percent to 46 percent. This survey was conducted from October 21 to 22 and had a 2.83 percent margin of error.

A Marist survey also found El-Sayed slightly ahead, with 50 percent support compared with Rogers’ 48 percent. It was conducted among 1,185 likely voters October 15 through October 18, with a margin of error of 4.3 points.

Election analyzer Cook Political Report and polling aggregator RealClearPolling both consider the Michigan Senate race a toss-up.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson, James Debens and Tony Phillips.

Update, 10/30/26 12:01 p.m. ET: this article was updated with a statement from Nicholas Martin, a spokesperson for Pelosi.