Video shows organizer claiming overseas donors to El-Sayed

O’Keefe Media Group says a Michigan Democratic Party field organizer was recorded saying Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has donors overseas and that such money is not allowed, according to an undercover video released Oct. 19. The organizer disputes that account.

“[H]e has people overseas that donate to him,” organizer Abdoul Beckwith says in the video, which was recorded by a journalist posing as a campaign volunteer. O’Keefe’s narration applies the remark to El-Sayed.

O’Keefe Media describes Beckwith as a regional field organizer for the El-Sayed campaign, but the video cites a LinkedIn profile listing him as a full-time field organizer for the Michigan Democratic Party, which runs a coordinated campaign for its candidates. Beckwith, reached by phone, rejected O’Keefe’s characterization of his remarks and said he did not utter the candidate’s name, according to the video.

The Michigan Democratic Party’s press team said in a statement posted to X by O’Keefe: “This individual has no knowledge of the Abdul campaign’s internal operations and his claims are categorically false. He is no longer employed with the coordinated campaign.”

Roxie Richner, communications director for the El-Sayed campaign, said in a statement O’Keefe also posted: “This junior staffer has never been employed by the Abdul for Senate campaign - his comments here are untrue, wildly misinformed, and not reflective of the campaign. The Abdul for Senate campaign is fully in compliance with FEC regulations.”

In 2010, James O’Keefe founded Project Veritas, a conservative group known for hidden-camera sting videos. O’Keefe was removed as CEO by the Project Veritas board in 2023 over financial improprieties and creating a toxic work environment. He now leads O’Keefe Media Group. 

Federal law bars foreign nationals from contributing to federal campaigns and campaigns from knowingly accepting their money, but U.S. citizens living abroad and green card holders may give. The video acknowledges that overseas donations are not automatically illegal. No independent evidence of illegal contributions to the El-Sayed campaign has been made public.

Beckwith also makes remarks that O’Keefe applies to El-Sayed: that he cannot openly reject Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood without losing supporters and that white and Jewish people around him could take over his positions. Beckwith also says, without offering evidence, that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson works for the Ku Klux Klan. 

At an Oct. 17 town hall covered by CBS Detroit, El-Sayed was asked whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood.

He said “yes” and added, “I’m not running to be a Muslim senator. I’m running for U.S. Senate and I happen to be Muslim.” Mike Rogers, his Republican opponent, said the issue is not El-Sayed’s faith but his relationship with the Brotherhood.

In the hotly contested race, El-Sayed’s campaign is pressing its own financial attacks. A campaign release Tuesday promoted an Intercept report that Rogers’ campaign spent more than $100,000 on luxury travel last quarter, mostly private jets, including paying $40,000 to a charter company in September. El-Sayed’s campaign reported about $330,000 in travel, mostly commercial flights, rental cars, rideshares and hotels, according to the Intercept. 

The race remains close according to the latest poll from Rasmussen Reports. A survey of 798 likely voters conducted Oct. 12–14 showed El-Sayed leading Rogers 46% to 44%, within the 3-point margin of error, with 5% undecided.