Swipe Left: El-Sayed’s ‘Senate Island’ Dating-App Ad

Give Abdul El-Sayed this much credit: at least he’s targeting actual voters with this ad. His “Blues Clues” ad during the Michigan primary on mail-in ballots aimed at the Peaked In Romper Room demo. El-Sayed’s latest video testimonial from a campaign rally was even worse, a painful-to-watch testimony from a frightened woman closely flanked and “coached” by Mallory McMorrow and El-Sayed to get through a boilerplate “man of the people” endorsement. 

McMorrow got “big mad” about criticism of that hostage-video-esque moment, as Twitchy noted yesterday:

She had never spoken at a press conference before. Beforehand, she shared with me that she was really nervous. But she told me it was important for her to be there as a UAW member because she believed in using her voice for her fellow members and for working families. Doing something new is HARD. And scary. She started speaking and got stage fright. What you can’t see in the video is that under the podium, she reached back. When I saw it, I grabbed her hand. Abdul did as well. We both stepped forward to stand with her. 

She may have had stage fright, but that’s no excuse for how McMorrow and El-Sayed used her to say something that came out of a PR intern’s coffee break either. This woman was hardly the only UAW member in Michigan, after all, although maybe she’s one of the few who will support El-Sayed. They bodied this poor woman to prevent her from walking off the stage and coached her through a generic endorsement that had nothing to do with the constituent, as I pointed out:

Almost certainly, the woman has difficulty with public speaking. And that’s understandable; plenty of people do, and maybe most people do until they grow accustomed to it. However, if that’s the case, why choose this woman to deliver this particular argument, which is a generic “Republican is a corporate toady” allegation? This wasn’t a personal testimony either for El-Sayed or against Rogers that would require it to be offered by the principal involved. El-Sayed and McMorrow literally stuffed words into her mouth and then hovered over her like Lavrentiy Beria’s personal guards in a Soviet show trial to ensure compliance. 

As to why they chose this woman to read off the script under apparent duress, I have my suspicions, based on El-Sayed’s demographic problems in Detroit. 

At least El-Sayed’s latest ad leans into his most natural demos … affluent white female liberals (AWFLs). It’s a dating app campaign ad, right down to El-Sayed’s “sexy” poses for the camera and discussions of what gives him the “ick.”

Well, there’s plenty of ick to be had in these sixty seconds:

Abdul El-Sayed dropped a sexualized U.S. Senate ad called “Senate Island” to sell his socialist platform in the most perverted and un-American way possible. pic.twitter.com/Vjby2a5uvN

— Justin (@JustinUSA) September 1, 2026

Au contraire. El-Sayed created the ad to sell his perverted and un-American socialist platform in one of the most American ways possible – by using sex to sell the product. Madison Avenue has used this strategy for decades to sell us soap, toothpaste, deodorant, you name it. El-Sayed is using sex to sell us the rope by which we might hang ourselves.

However, the ad has its problems. First off, the product stinks, and no amount of sexiness can mask its stench. Second, there is no sexiness. El-Sayed comes across as a guy whose self-perception is even more warped than his grasp of economics. El-Sayed barely clears the podium on stage, and while he looks fit, his candlepower falls somewhere between Jesse Eisenberg and Tom Green. The only people who would feel the intended effects of El-Sayed’s flexing into the camera are AWFLs, and if he doesn’t already have that demo locked down, El-Sayed and the Democrats are in deeper guano than previously thought. 

Somewhat more seriously, this shows a fundamental disconnect between El-Sayed and the electorate. This ad demonstrates El-Sayed’s entirely unearned arrogance. His Blue’s Clues ad showed that he saw the electorate as infantilized incompetents; this ad makes him look like a clueless 6 who’s convinced of his 10-ness. Neither will appeal to the broad swath of the electorate Democrats need to hold this Senate seat, and together they paint a picture of an unserious poseur who can’t be taken seriously. 

The messaging from Team El-Sayed should convince voters to swipe left. And vote Right. 

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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