Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed is launching a new leadership political action committee named Habibi PAC.
Political action committees, or PACs, take contributions and pool the money to support or oppose political campaigns. A leadership PAC is specifically run by a politician to give money to others.
"Habibi" is an Arabic term meaning "my love." El-Sayed has jokingly used it to refer to political rivals like Vice President JD Vance.
Neil Thanedar is the executive director at the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. He says given El-Sayed’s stance on PAC money, he's interested where the PAC's money will go.
"Abdul El-Sayed has talked numerous times about not wanting to accept corporate PAC money and other special interest funding. And so the first report will tell us who's giving the money and then where's the money going?"
Political commentators say launching a PAC right after a Senate win is a classic strategic move to build influence ahead of the next presidential election cycle.
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