Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate campaign ran 129 commercials on Fox News from Oct. 1 through Oct. 6. That is about twice the number it placed on ESPN over the same six days, according to ad-tracking data Axios cited.
El-Sayed, a Democrat, is facing Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, in Michigan’s Senate race. Polls show the two in a tight contest.
The airtime has frustrated Republicans trying to beat him. Michigan GOP strategist Dennis Lennox told Axios the problem goes beyond El-Sayed’s sit-down interviews.
“It’s not just that he is doing interviews with Fox. It’s that he is on Fox every commercial break,” Lennox said.
El-Sayed has criticized Israel’s government. If he wins in November, he would become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate.
Republicans say his Fox exposure undercuts their effort to portray him as too liberal for Michigan.
President Donald Trump brought the dispute into public view on Tuesday.
He used Truth Social to attack an interview that Fox anchor Martha MacCallum conducted with El-Sayed a day earlier, calling it “softball.”
“Fox is promoting the Dumocrats, not the Republicans and MAGA. They have totally lost their way!” Trump wrote.
White House officials also called the network on Tuesday to complain about the MacCallum interview, Axios reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.
Fox News Media President and Executive Editor Jay Wallace answered the criticism in a statement to Axios. He said the network will broadcast content that its core viewers may not like.
“Someone didn’t necessarily like that,” Wallace said, apparently referring to Trump. “But that’s what we do.”
The friction began in early August. El-Sayed had just beaten an establishment-backed rival in the Democratic primary when Fox host Jesse Watters praised him on the air.
“You gotta respect Abdul because he beat the [Democratic] machine,” Watters said.
Senior Republican operatives took their worries to Fox producers and executives on several occasions. They cautioned that El-Sayed could use the compliment to market himself as a moderate.
Later that month, his campaign did just that, inserting Watters’ remark into a television ad. The spot described the host as an “unlikely validator.”
An Aug. 24 appearance on Watters’ program eased the concern for a short time.
Watters pressed El-Sayed on his criticism of ICE, his support for Medicare for All and his views on Sharia law.
The next day, Watters gave his own take on the candidate.
“I actually like Abdul. I probably shouldn’t like him, but I do.”
Some Republicans concede that El-Sayed has answered tough questions well, including on subjects at the heart of the GOP’s case against him.
Appearing on Fox News is part of his strategy to win over voters beyond the Democratic base.
“I am going to have conversations with all kinds of folks,” El-Sayed told MacCallum on Monday.
Fox News also has a business reason to host him, based on its own figures.
The network said Watters’ August interview with El-Sayed drew nearly 3.4 million viewers, making it the highest-rated prime-time cable news telecast of the month.
Michigan GOP strategist Jason Roe pointed to those numbers in his comments to Axios.
“They are doing him a favor. It’s only helping him reach center-right voters. But they are in business to make money, and he attracts eyeballs,” Roe said.
