Abdul El-Sayed
Role at the time: Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, speaking at a campaign town hall in Flint
Response to this claim
Abdul El-Sayed said on October 3, 2026, as a heckler was removed from his Flint town hall, that in a University of Michigan Republican group chat "they pay them $200 to do exactly that," a remark HuffPost reported as El-Sayed suggesting the removed heckler could be a paid protester.
“In a University of Michigan Republican group chat, they pay them $200 to do exactly that ... They'll pay $200 for someone to waste his money, show up and heckle me ... I'm just saying, you deserve a better social life than that.”
HuffPost's report from the Flint town hall, written by a reporter who covered the event. It quotes El-Sayed's remarks about the group chat, reports that the College Republicans confirmed the messages are genuine while distancing themselves from Dashti, says America Next did not return a request for comment, and says the Rogers campaign had not responded by publication. The article spells Dashti's first name "Imran"; his own X account, The Michigan Daily, Fox News and the Rogers campaign's post use "Iman." The article's subtitle says a conservative PAC "said it would pay for students to travel to the event," while its text attributes the offer to Dashti's message.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Relative to the proposition that America Next offered College Republicans members $200 each to attend and disrupt the Flint town hall, El-Sayed endorses the central claim that people in a University of Michigan Republican group chat are being paid $200 to heckle him. In the remarks HuffPost quotes, he refers to a group chat rather than to America Next, and he does not say the removed heckler was paid. Condemned fits because he states that the payment exists and criticizes it. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional, because HuffPost describes his comment about the heckler as a suggestion, but his statement about the group chat is stated flatly.