Cruz Labels Michigan Senate Candidate a "Jihadist Leprechaun" as Republicans Sharpen Closing Attacks

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas used a campaign event in Grosse Pointe Woods, outside Detroit, to renew claims tying Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood. "My nickname for the guy is the jihadist leprechaun," Cruz said. El-Sayed has repeatedly denied the allegation.

Cruz also argued that a Senator El-Sayed would receive top-level security clearance and could land on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "If I am correct that he is a passionate supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, there is a very real risk that Americans will die as a result," he said.

The insinuation has become central to the closing message of Republican nominee Mike Rogers in a Michigan Senate contest expected to be extremely close. The Trump administration designated some branches of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in January. In a recent Fox News interview, El-Sayed said: "I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, I never will be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood."

El-Sayed's campaign has called the claims a bigoted anti-Muslim smear and says Republicans are using them to distract from voter frustration over the economy. Campaign spokesperson Cole Wozniak described Cruz as a deeply unpopular politician and accused Rogers and his allies of trying to divert attention from rising gas and grocery prices, which he blamed on the Trump administration's policies.

The allegations largely trace back to 2012 and 2013 posts by El-Sayed's half-sister, Fatten Elkomy, who said their birthmother was active in the Brotherhood in Egypt in the early 1970s while in college. El-Sayed, who was born in the U.S., has said his parents divorced when he was 3 and that his stepmother raised him. He has said he has not discussed his birthmother's past involvement with her, which predates the group's U.S. terrorist designation by decades.

Cruz also cited El-Sayed's time as president of the University of Michigan chapter of the Muslim Students' Association and a 2011 op-ed supporting protests against Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. Cruz and Rogers further pointed to a 2012 open letter El-Sayed signed as a medical student backing then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, the country's first democratically elected leader, who came from the Brotherhood's political wing. The Obama administration had engaged with Morsi's government until the Egyptian military removed him in July 2013.

Rogers has his own history on the subject. As a congressman in 2012, he said the U.S. would have to talk to moderate Brotherhood members while watching carefully, and he voted for legislation that kept funding Egypt under Morsi. Asked about it by NBC, Rogers said he wanted to preserve ties with Egyptian intelligence services that the Brotherhood was trying to undo. Pressed by reporters on Qatar's support for the group and the Qatari-gifted Air Force One, he voiced concern about Qatari funding at U.S. colleges instead. His campaign said the group stands for ideologies directly opposed to American ones.

El-Sayed has said Republicans are trying to suggest he would have "dual loyalties." At an Oct. 16 event in Marquette, he said: "My mom and my sister are not running for office. I'm running for office. Judge me by my actions and my work." Asked about the phrase, Cruz said, "I don't know about dual loyalties," but added that El-Sayed's demonstrated loyalties are to the Brotherhood. He said he was not talking about how El-Sayed prays, but about ideology.

Cruz also predicted that an El-Sayed victory would make Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a top supporter, the 2028 Democratic presidential nominee, and warned she could win. Rogers called the race the "most important race in the country" and said El-Sayed was lying about his ties, arguing that someone who cannot tell the truth on matters of life and death does not belong in the Senate. Michigan voted for President Trump in 2016 and 2024 but elected Democrat Elissa Slotkin to the Senate in 2024, and the CBS News Battleground Tracker rates the race a toss up.