US Senator Abdul El-Sayed launches ‘Habibi’ political action committee

Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed has launched a political action committee called “Habibi PAC”, days after becoming the first Muslim member of the United States Senate.

Political action committees, or PACs, are organisations that raise and spend money to support or oppose candidates for office.

A Federal Election Commission filing dated on Thursday shows that Habibi PAC is registered as a leadership PAC sponsored by El-Sayed. Such committees are separate from a politician’s own campaign.

Habibi, an Arabic term of endearment meaning “my dear” or “my beloved”, is a word El-Sayed used often on the campaign trail, including in his victory speech in Detroit, when he addressed Vice President JD Vance directly: “JD, habibi, there is this delicious irony in the fact that you’re constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January.”

He is one of several newly elected Democrats to register leadership PACs since Tuesday’s vote, according to FEC filings. They include Arizona Congressman-elect Amish Shah’s “PACStreet Boy”, Iowa Senator-elect Josh Turek’s “WheelPAC” and North Carolina Senator-elect Roy Cooper’s “One NC PAC”.

According to OpenSecrets, ambitious lawmakers use leadership PACs to gain clout with colleagues and strengthen bids for leadership posts or committee chairmanships by giving to other members, their party and other political committees.

In the 2024 election cycle, leadership PACs gave $79.3m to federal candidates. Most went to Republicans, although a Democratic leadership PAC was the biggest single donor.

El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, defeated Republican Mike Rogers after a campaign in which Trump, Vance and Senator Ted Cruz questioned his loyalty, called him a “jihadist” and attempted to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood movement, without providing any evidence.

Speaking to Al Jazeera at a rally in the Michigan city of Wyandotte days before the vote, El-Sayed said taxpayers’ money should be spent saving lives at home rather than going to foreign governments committing genocide or apartheid.

He added that defeating Trump was not enough and that the system that produced him had to be replaced.

Getting money out of politics was one of his central pledges. In his victory speech, he said the result showed that in a battle between money and the many, “the many can win”.

His win came amid the most expensive midterm election on record. According to an analysis of FEC data by OpenSecrets, total spending is expected to reach $11.9bn, up from $8.9bn in 2022.

Outside spending, driven by super PACs, is projected to hit $3.9bn, an 85 percent increase on 2022. So-called dark money from undisclosed donors has already reached at least $1.47bn, surpassing the 2024 record of $1.35bn, which included the presidential race.

OpenSecrets found that conservative groups outspent liberal ones on outside spending by about $360m, while Democratic candidates were expected to outspend Republican candidates by roughly $800m.