A Democratic Michigan state lawmaker is publicly urging voters to reject U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, accusing the far-left wing of her own party of exploiting Black communities worse than any group in American history.
State Rep. Karen Whitsett did not hold back in an interview with Fox News Digital. The Michigan Democrat accused progressive politicians, and white women on the far left in particular, of treating Black voters as a guaranteed voting bloc while delivering nothing in return. She singled out El-Sayed, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, as a candidate whose platform does not serve the interests of Black communities in the state.
Whitsett framed her opposition in starkly personal terms, telling Fox News Digital that the Democratic Party's leadership has simply swapped one form of control for another.
"It doesn't change, it's just different slave owners."
She went further, drawing a direct comparison between the party's progressive wing and one of the most notorious hate groups in American history:
"You can see the serious divide of the crazy socialist far-left and especially the white women. They are the worst and the most racist that there possibly ever could be. They're, I think, they're more racist than the KKK."
Whitsett's criticism of El-Sayed centers on what she describes as a disconnect between his policy promises and the practical needs of Black Michiganders. El-Sayed has campaigned on Medicare for All, but Whitsett told Fox News Digital he has not been able to explain how the program would actually work.
She put it bluntly:
"This Medicare for All, it's not for all. You're now going to put the government in your health system, and they're going to decide for you."
Whitsett also questioned whether the broader Democratic establishment is interested in empowering Black voters or simply counting on their loyalty. She challenged party leaders directly, as Breitbart News reported:
"Are you trying to help the black community or are you trying to kill it? Are you trying to keep people stupid and ill-informed or what? Because right now I can't tell, right? Is this voter education or are you just trying to make sure you count your slaves on the plantation."
For Whitsett, the decision to speak out is rooted in faith and principle, not partisan loyalty. She described herself as someone who refuses to go along to get along.
"I always try to be a voice of reason, and I'm not a go-along, get-along. So, my whole thing is it has to make sense, and I am definitely family over party. God over party is of the utmost importance."
She added that El-Sayed's candidacy simply does not pass the test she applies to every political question: does it line up with scripture and common sense?
"So for me, when you point that out to people, it's just common sense that to people, that's just common sense that El-Sayed is not the candidate. There's just no way. It doesn't line up. It doesn't line up biblically, and it doesn't line up with common sense."
Whitsett is not the only voice raising alarms about El-Sayed's candidacy. The Washington Examiner reported that Black voters, historically the most reliable part of the Democratic coalition in Michigan statewide races, have shown notably less enthusiasm for El-Sayed compared to other segments of the party's base. That gap could prove decisive in a tight contest against former Rep. Mike Rogers.
The internal tensions within Michigan's Democratic Party extend well beyond Whitsett's criticisms. El-Sayed has also drawn fire for his refusal to condemn campaign surrogate Hasan Piker, a socialist Twitch streamer who has praised Mao Zedong, said "America deserved 9/11," and made antisemitic comments, according to Fox News Digital.
Jewish Democrats in Michigan have signed an open letter vowing not to support El-Sayed, citing what they described as his embrace of politics that "demonize Jews" and show "implacable hatred" toward Israel. El-Sayed apologized to Jewish voters but refused to cut ties with Piker, a decision that has only deepened the divide.
Whitsett also named prominent Black activist Al Sharpton and Detroit pastor Horace Sheffield III, accusing both of helping to keep Black voters in line rather than holding Democratic leaders accountable. She accused them of "keep[ing] the knee on [black voters'] neck." Sheffield has worked with El-Sayed's campaign.
El-Sayed's campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment by the time of publication.
Whitsett's term in the Michigan state legislature ends at year's end, and she plans to retire. That timeline makes her public break with the party's progressive wing all the more pointed, she has nothing left to lose politically, and she is spending her final months in office saying what she believes other Black Democrats think privately.
The Michigan Senate race has become one of the most closely watched contests in the country, and El-Sayed's problems keep multiplying. Beyond the resistance from Black voters and Jewish Democrats, his appearance on Fox News defending Sharia law drew sharp conservative backlash and raised questions about his broader appeal in a general election.
Fellow Democrat Haley Stevens has publicly urged El-Sayed to drop Hasan Piker from his orbit as the race tightens. When members of your own party are telling you to distance yourself from your surrogates, the coalition is not holding, it is fracturing.
Whitsett's broadside fits a pattern that should worry every Democratic strategist watching Michigan. A Black Democratic lawmaker, speaking on the record, is telling her community that the party's progressive wing treats them as political property. She is not whispering it in a back room. She is saying it on camera.
El-Sayed's Medicare for All promise remains unexplained in practical terms, his campaign surrogate remains a liability, and his support among Black voters, the voters he needs most, is soft. Former Rep. Mike Rogers has to be watching all of this with considerable interest.
When a Democrat with nothing left to lose tells her own community that the party's progressive leaders are worse than the Klan, the problem is not one lawmaker going rogue. The problem is a party that has taken its most loyal voters for granted so long that the truth finally caught up.
