Detroit DSA endorses Abraham Aiyash
by Danielle Aubert and Jonathan Flatley
During its May 2 General Meeting, Metro Detroit DSA voted to endorse Abraham Aiyash in his bid to be the next State Representative from District 4. This is the seat that opened up after the untimely death of Isaac Robinson, who was elected in 2018 to represent Hamtramck and parts of Detroit.
Isaac Robinson was familiar to many in DSA, most recently in his role campaigning in Detroit and Hamtramck as a Bernie surrogate. He had a reputation as a staunch, tireless advocate for his district.
In the weeks following Robinson’s sudden passing, Abraham Aiyash’s name emerged as a possible candidate to represent the 4th district. Aiyash ran for State Senate in 2018 and came in second in a crowded field.
Aiyash addressed over 100 people at a virtual General Meeting of Metro Detroit DSA on May 2. His parents emigrated to the US from Yemen in the 1980s, and he grew up in Hamtramck. He spoke movingly about Robinson as his political mentor. He talked about his experience working for several years for Robinson’s mother, Rose Mary Robinson, also a state representative.
Aiyash, who is 26, wrote in a tribute to Isaac Robinson, “He’d take me with him to Detroit City Council meetings, Christmas parties in Highland Park, the Young Dems meetings, and when Rose Mary ran for state rep he called on me to help him organize the Muslim vote in Hamtramck.”
He emphasized the experience of working on the Bernie campaign, where he met Metro Detroit DSA member Jess Newman, who persuaded him, on the spot, to join DSA. Like Bernie, he seeks to represent the unrepresented and especially the poor, who are particularly vulnerable right now.
He said that his top three issues are 1) environmental justice, 2) the care economy (such as child care and elder care) and 3) water rights and water infrastructure. He has pledged to take no money from PACs or, indeed, from anyone who might have financial interests in any political decisions that Aiyash might make while in office.
He was asked by a DSA member if he planned to publicly identify as a socialist during the campaign. He responded that he would identify as a proud member of DSA, but that he is running for the Democratic nomination and that he wanted to defend the tradition of the FDR democrat. This is often a point of discussion within DSA, with some members arguing that we should only endorse openly socialist candidates.
Here, however, members were quite enthusiastic Aiyash’s candidacy. As a young person of color, from Hamtramck, already active in politics, with a political and personal connection to the Robinson family, and political priorities identical with those of DSA, he is exactly the kind of candidate Detroit DSA should be endorsing and supporting.
Furthermore, Aiyash has the support of Robinson’s father Roger, a founder of the Metro Detroit DSA chapter and an active member. The vote to endorse by the general membership was overwhelmingly in favor.
After the endorsement, electoral working group chair Carlos Salazar said, “we hope to energize and excite people with the election of Abraham Aiyash, who believes in the same movement politics that we do.” Detroit DSA is endorsing only two candidates this term: Abraham Aiyash and Rashida Tlaib.
At Aiyash’s campaign kick-off event on May 18, Metro Detroit DSA Co-Chair Natasha Fernández-Silber said, “At DSA, we don’t endorse politicians. We endorse organizers who are using their elected office to fight on behalf of working class people to take on corporate greed, to take on the billionaire class.”
To get involved with DSA’s electoral campaign work in Detroit and Hamtramck, sign up here.
