The Michigan Democratic Party nominated Amir Makled, a Dearborn attorney who reposted social media tributes to slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and shared Iranian regime propaganda, for a seat on the University of Michigan Board of Regents during the party's convention Sunday. Makled defeated incumbent regent Jordan Acker, a Jewish board member who had faced sustained hostility for his support of Israel.
Makled will now appear on the November ballot alongside incumbent regent Paul Brown. Their Republican opponents are Lena Epstein and Michael Schostak. The eight-member board is elected statewide to eight-year terms, and it governs one of the largest public universities in the country.
The nomination is the latest sign that the activist left's grip on Michigan Democratic politics has tightened to the point where praising a U.S.-designated terrorist organization's leadership is no longer disqualifying. It is, apparently, a credential.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that Makled reposted messages calling Nasrallah a "martyr" and referred to him by the honorific "Sayed." He also shared a post stating that Abu Ali Khalil, Nasrallah's security chief, "was martyred in an 'Israeli' strike in Tehran," adding, "May His Ascension rise High."
Last June, on the day Israel began its operation against the Islamic Republic, Makled shared a post from @IRIran_Military, described as a regime fan account, calling for Iran to "show no laxity in sacred war against the enemy."
After the Free Beacon reported on these posts, the Service Employees International Union rescinded its endorsement of Makled. The union's reversal did not stop him from winning the nomination. Michigan Democratic convention delegates chose him anyway.
Makled did not respond to the Free Beacon's requests for comment.
National Review reported that Makled argued throughout his campaign that the University of Michigan should divest from Israel. That position tracks with his legal work: he represented Michigan students who faced criminal charges after participating in the university's anti-Israel encampment in spring 2024.
Nearly two weeks before the convention, Makled introduced left-wing Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed at a campaign rally that also featured Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. Piker has claimed "America deserved 9/11" and insisted it "doesn't matter if... rapes happened on Oct. 7."
That is the company Makled keeps, and the company Michigan Democrats just rewarded with a major statewide nomination.
El-Sayed's speech at the convention was enthusiastically received by attendees. Pro-Israel U.S. Senate candidate Haley Stevens, by contrast, was loudly booed by the crowd. The Free Beacon previously reported that El-Sayed held a private campaign call the day after the death of former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, during which he reportedly wanted to avoid making a statement because many voters in Dearborn were "sad."
The pattern is consistent. Democratic officials and candidates in Michigan are not merely tolerating anti-Israel sentiment, they are calibrating their public statements around it, and the party's convention delegates are selecting candidates who embody it.
The man Makled replaced on the ticket, Jordan Acker, is a supporter of Israel whose home was the target of antisemitic vandalism in 2024. The Detroit News published a quote from Acker that captures the stakes plainly:
"The question we have to ask as Jews is whether we still belong here."
That a sitting Jewish regent lost his party's nomination to a candidate who praised Hezbollah's leader and shared Iranian military propaganda tells you where Michigan's Democratic base has moved. Acker did not lose on policy disagreements about tuition or campus facilities. He lost because he supported Israel, and his replacement has made hostility to Israel the centerpiece of his public identity.
The broader fractures inside the Democratic Party are not limited to Michigan. Sen. John Fetterman has said his "moral clarity" on Israel is pulling him away from fellow Democrats, a rare admission that the party's center and its activist wing are diverging on fundamental questions of national security and alliances.
But in Michigan, the activist wing is winning. And it is not winning with vague progressive slogans. It is winning with candidates who post tributes to the leader of a designated terrorist organization.
This is not a symbolic post. The University of Michigan Board of Regents exercises direct governance over a flagship public university with tens of thousands of students, a multi-billion-dollar endowment, and significant institutional influence. Board members shape investment policy, campus security decisions, and the university's posture on political controversies, including the encampment protests that Makled's own legal clients participated in.
A regent who campaigned on divestment from Israel and who has a documented record of praising Hezbollah figures will now have a direct vote on those questions if he wins in November.
Makled told the Michigan Daily after the convention that he viewed the room as a preview of the general election.
"I think this room is a litmus test of what we can expect come November, if the campaigns are staying strong and moving forward."
If he is right, Michigan voters should understand exactly what they are being asked to endorse.
The Democratic Party's tolerance for extremism on its left flank is not a new story. Elizabeth Warren endorsed a Maine candidate with a Nazi-linked tattoo while grilling a Republican nominee over Christian ink, the kind of selective outrage that erodes any claim to consistent standards. The pattern holds: Democratic leaders apply intense scrutiny to the right and almost none to their own ranks.
In Michigan, the consequences are concrete. A union pulled its endorsement. Convention delegates shrugged and nominated Makled anyway. The party's pro-Israel candidates got booed. The candidate who praised Hezbollah got the ballot line.
None of this happened in secret. The social media posts were public. The Free Beacon reported on them. The SEIU withdrew its support. And Michigan Democrats still chose Makled over a sitting Jewish regent.
The broader trend of left-wing activism pushing past mainstream boundaries has been visible for months. What happened in Michigan this weekend is a sharper version of the same dynamic: the activist base sets the terms, and the party falls in line.
Republicans Lena Epstein and Michael Schostak will face Makled and Brown in November. Michigan voters will decide whether praising a terrorist leader and sharing Iranian regime propaganda disqualifies a candidate for public office, or whether the Democratic Party's convention delegates had the last word.
When a party's delegates choose a candidate who called Hassan Nasrallah a martyr over a Jewish incumbent whose home was vandalized, the problem is not one candidate. The problem is the party that picked him.
