El-Sayed on GOP convention attendee’s call for him to be shot: ‘Call it out for what it is’

Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said Thursday that he hoped Republicans would “call it out for what it is” when discussing shouts from a GOP midterm convention attendee who called for him and other Democratic lawmakers to be shot.

In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, El-Sayed was asked about a clip that showed a member of the audience shouting, “He should be shot,” while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) listed Democrats during his Thursday remarks, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico.

It is unclear if Cruz could hear the audience member from the stage as he did not acknowledge the shouts. The incident came on the first anniversary of conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination, an occasion marked at the GOP convention, including by Cruz during his speech Thursday.

“Look, I’m a dad with two daughters, and I hope those daughters get to grow up and live with their dad. This is what has become norm in our politics, I mean, literally calls to violence and the inability for anybody to actually call it out,” El-Sayed told Collins.

“We can learn to disagree agreeably, and when you hear that kind of call to violence, it should be shuddering to all of us. We have a responsibility to lower the temperature, to realize that this is not a blood sport, where you’re just trying to bash the other guy,” he said.

“And so I hope that everybody who heard that is going to call it out for what it is: a call to violence that ought to be condemned across the board,” he continued.

El-Sayed concluded that he hoped “we can actually turn our politics back into a conversation about what really matters,” which he said comprised “the ability to live a dignified life, get the things that you need and deserve in your life.”

He led his opponent , former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), by 3 points in a Wednesday CNN poll, with 47 percent support to the GOP candidate’s 44 percent.

The race to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) has been hotly contested, as both parties hope to take the Senate majority.

Cruz’s office did not respond to The Hill’s request for immediate comment.