Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat, keeping it in the hands of an Armenian ally after the retirement of Armenia’s most reliable advocate in the chamber, reports Zartonk Media. Decision Desk HQ and Fox News projected El-Sayed, a Democrat, the winner over Republican Mike Rogers.
The Armenian National Committee of America endorsed El-Sayed on September 30, as Zartonk Media reported. The organization said Michigan’s historic Armenian American community, one of the oldest and largest in the country, needed a champion as Senator Gary Peters retired, and that El-Sayed had engaged directly with the ANCA and with Michigan Armenians during the campaign.
He told them then what he would do with the seat. “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,” El-Sayed said.
“The Trump administration’s blank check for military aid to Azerbaijan in the face of ongoing atrocities is a blatant violation of international law,” he said.
“I’m honored to have the support of the Armenian National Committee of America in this fight,” El-Sayed said. “Armenian Michiganders are a treasured part of our great state, and they understand better than anyone what’s at risk in this election.”
The blank check he describes has a specific legal name. Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, passed by Congress in 1992, bars U.S. government assistance to Azerbaijan until it stops blockades and offensive force against Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Since 2002, presidents have held the authority to waive that restriction, and every administration has waived it year after year. The Trump administration renewed the waiver again this year. No renewal has ever required a vote in Congress.
Enforcing Section 907 means declining to sign the waiver, which is a decision the executive makes and Congress can press. That is the lever El-Sayed now has a seat and a vote to use.
Rogers has his own history with that waiver. As a member of the House in 2001, he voted for the legislation that gave the president authority to set the Azerbaijan aid ban aside, according to the Daily Caller. He has not said whether he would vote to end it. He represented Michigan’s 8th congressional district from 2001 to 2015 and chaired the House Intelligence Committee.
Michigan’s Armenian American community traces its roots to the turn of the 20th 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.
Peters spent more than a decade on Armenian issues. He authored the Armenian Protection Act, pressed for enforcement of Section 907, and traveled to the Lachin Corridor while Azerbaijan was blockading Artsakh.
El-Sayed is a physician and public health scholar who led the Detroit Health Department and later Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services. He grew up in the Detroit area with Armenian-American schoolteachers, and he engaged directly with the 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.
