Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s open Senate seat, called the Trump administration’s military aid to Azerbaijan “a blatant violation of international law” and pledged to defend the peace, dignity, security and self-determination of the Armenian people, according to a statement from the Armenian National Committee of America.
The seat he is running for belonged to Armenia’s most reliable advocate in the chamber, and the man who holds it is leaving. Gary Peters is retiring after more than a decade during which he authored the Armenian Protection Act, pressed for enforcement of Section 907 and traveled to the Lachin Corridor during Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). This race decides whether Michigan Armenians keep a voice of that caliber in the Senate.
“The Trump administration’s blank check for military aid to Azerbaijan in the face of ongoing atrocities is a blatant violation of international law,” El-Sayed said.
“As Michigan’s next Senator, I will stand up for the peace, dignity, security, and self-determination of the Armenian people, and all people, and for international law,” he said.
The blank check he describes has a specific legal name. Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, passed by Congress in 1992, bars US government assistance to Azerbaijan until it stops blockades and offensive force against Armenia and Artsakh. Since 2002, presidents have held authority to waive that restriction, and every administration has waived it year after year. Enforcing Section 907 means declining to sign the waiver, which is a decision the executive makes and Congress can press.
El-Sayed said he is honored to have the support of the Armenian National Committee of America.
“Armenian Michiganders are a treasured part of our great state, and they understand better than anyone what’s at risk in this election,” he said.
Michigan’s Armenian community traces its roots to the turn of the twentieth century and is among the oldest and largest in the United States. It is anchored today by St. John Armenian Apostolic Church in Southfield, the largest parish in the Eastern Diocese, and St. Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church in Dearborn.
El-Sayed grew up in the Detroit area with Armenian-American schoolteachers. He is a physician and public health scholar who led the Detroit Health Department and Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services, and he has engaged directly with ANCA and with Michigan’s Armenian community throughout the campaign.
He won the Democratic nomination on August 4, defeating Representative Haley Stevens by about 1 percent in a race that was not called for more than 12 hours. He faces Republican Mike Rogers, who represented Michigan’s 8th congressional district from 2001 to 2015 and chaired the House Intelligence Committee, on November 3.
Polling gives El-Sayed a narrow lead. The RealClearPolitics average has him ahead by 3 points, and recent surveys from Emerson, Rasmussen and the Washington Post have put him between 2 and 3 ahead. The Cook Political Report rates the contest a toss-up, while Sabato’s Crystal Ball has moved it to Leans Democratic.
