Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has defied conventional wisdom for Democrats in his bid to be Michigan's next senator.
El-Sayed is the only candidate from the party's left flank to prevail in a swing state Senate primary.
He lifts weights, wears black V-neck shirts that accentuate his muscle definition, and now El-Sayed is hitting the podcast circuit ahead of Nov. 3, when he faces former Rep. Mike Rogers in a competitive race to replace Sen. Gary Peters.
On an Oct. 21 episode of "The Vic Mensa Show" – hosted by the Chicago-born rapper who pivoted to podcasting – El-Sayed and Mensa performed bench press reps together. El-Sayed has borrowed a page from President Donald Trump's playbook in his nontraditional Senate campaign.
In 2024, Trump appeared on
a series of podcasts hosted by male genre stars including Joe Rogan and Theo Von to woo young men. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris' campaign was widely panned by the conservative right for failing to come to terms with Rogan's team. The former "Fear Factor" host helms the world's No. 1 podcast.
Mensa, who is Black, wields a fanbase of young black men, while El-Sayed has long faced questions about his support from Black voters.
Rep. Haley Stevens centered her support from Black Michiganders as a key part of her primary campaign against the former Wayne County health director, and Rogers has attempted to make inroads with Black voters in the state.
After sipping from glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice, Mensa jokingly referenced the controversy surrounding El-Sayed's Islamic faith.
Trump has previously called El-Sayed a "terrorist sympathizer," and last week a viral video surfaced from a campaign event where the candidate shared a back-and-forth with a Republican aide about whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization, which he did.
"When you become the first Muslim elected to the Senate, how many days until Islamic jihad is instituted?" Mensa asked. "How long will it take Sharia law all the way passed?"
El-Sayed responded, "I don't know about Sharia law but look, we got shawarma law in Michigan ... and that's that you can never put lettuce in a shawarma wrap."
El-Sayed then said that Republicans' goal is to "make America small like they are small."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abdul El-Sayed hits podcast circuit and bench press in Senate bid
