Michigan state Rep. Karen Whitsett, a Detroit Democrat, is publicly warning voters against Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, saying the socialist wing of her own party takes Black voters for granted and treats them as a political bloc rather than individuals.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Whitsett said Democratic Party leadership’s approach to Black voters hasn’t fundamentally changed over time. “It doesn’t change, it’s just different slave owners,” she said, describing what she sees as an expectation that Black voters automatically fall in line behind left-wing candidates.
Whitsett went further, calling the far-left socialist wing of the Democratic Party “more racist than the KKK,” and singling out white women within that movement as particularly problematic. “You can see the serious divide of the crazy socialist far-left and especially the white women,” she said. “They are the worst and the most racist that there possibly ever could be. They’re, I think, they’re more racist than the KKK.”
She also criticized prominent Black activists who have aligned with El-Sayed’s campaign, including Al Sharpton and Detroit pastor Horace Sheffield III, accusing them of “keep[ing] the knee on” Black voters’ necks. Whitsett argued the Black community is increasingly aware of the power of its own vote.
“Are you trying to help the black community or are you trying to kill it? Are you trying to keep people stupid and ill-informed or what? Because right now I can’t tell, right? Is this voter education or are you just trying to make sure you count your slaves on the plantation.”
Whitsett said her political priorities rest on faith and community rather than party loyalty. “I always try to be a voice of reason, and I’m not a go-along, get-along. So, my whole thing is it has to make sense, and I am definitely family over party. God over party is of the utmost importance,” she said.
She said that framework is why she can’t back El-Sayed. “So for me, when you point that out to people, it’s just common sense that to people, that’s just common sense that El-Sayed is not the candidate,” she said. “There’s just no way. It doesn’t line up. It doesn’t line up biblically, and it doesn’t line up with common sense.”
On policy, Whitsett said she supports the goal of universal medical coverage but faulted El-Sayed for failing to explain how his Medicare for All proposal would actually work in practice.
Whitsett’s term in the state legislature ends this year, and she has said she plans to retire from office. El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Whitsett’s remarks by the time of the original report.
