More than a dozen donors to the Hitler-praising, neo-Nazi congressional campaign of Dan Bilzerian have also contributed to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed—in many cases spreading thousands of dollars between the two candidates, the Washington Free Beacon found.
Bilzerian, a far-right social media influencer with a trust fund, and El-Sayed, a far-left epidemiologist, have no policy overlap except strong opposition to AIPAC and Israel, but their donors include a man who has equated Zionism to Nazism and a Texas subprime auto loan entrepreneur who also threw his weight behind Israel-bashing Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie.
The overlapping donor list suggests that El-Sayed’s virulently anti-Israel rhetoric appeals to the kind of Muslim-American donors who also buy into Bilzerian’s hateful Jew-baiting and offensive trolling.
The most significant Bilzerian and El-Sayed donor is Ibrahim Awad, who has given more than $19,500 between both candidates, Federal Election Commission records show. That haul included a $12,651.88 jumbo gift to the Bilzerian Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee. The figure is above the legal limit and potentially a campaign finance violation if passed along to Bilzerian’s campaign committee.
Awad is a Georgia-based personal injury attorney—with a mixed record.
“I don’t think he cares about anything but being paid. I actually ran into the judge in the street, and he told me I had poor representation and that was the only reason I lost my case!” one aggrieved former client on a Yelp review.
The Palestinian cause is also central to Awad’s worldview. He is the cofounder of Palistory, an anti-Israel nonprofit, and in YouTube videos has boasted about his cooperation with the terrorist-aligned Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“Zionism is Nazism. And history will remember every single person who calls themselves a ‘Proud Zionist’ as a Proud Racist, Genocide Enabler,” Awad said in an X post from March 2025.
The Texas subprime auto loan entrepreneur Hussein “Sam” Mahrouq is also a donor to both the El-Sayed and Bilzerian campaigns. Mahrouq has ponied up more than $150,000 to support anti-Israel candidates around the country. Other beneficiaries of his cash have included Reps. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), and Summer Lee (D., Pa.), as well as former Rep. Cori Bush (D., Mo.).
Mahrouq also gave $1,000 to the Anti-Zionist America PAC. The committee is run by Michael Rectenwald, a former NYU professor, who has accused Jews of being behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks and supports “the elimination of Zionists from the U.S. government.”
Mahrouq did not respond to a request for comment.
During his primary campaign against Rep. Randy Fine (R.) in Florida’s Sixth Congressional District, Bilzerian, a notorious antisemite, leaned into open Nazism on the trail.
“Jewish supremacists, Satan’s creepy little minions, should we revisit that Austrian painter’s opinions?” a Bilzerian ad asked, featuring an image of Hitler.
The spot, which took the form of a nightclub song, attacked Fine, a Jewish supporter of Israel, as a “Shylock” and featured him with horns. “The fat Jew has poison to sell,” an AI-generated nightclub singer croons. Child victims of the Gaza war, the AI animation sings, “are just goyim cattle to him.”
When asked on a recent podcast to name a problem not caused by Jews, Bilzerian—whose attacks on Jews go well beyond the Israel-Palestinian conflict—was unable to do so.
Bilzerian ultimately lost to Fine by about 40 points, after blowing more than a million dollars of his own cash on the effort, FEC records show.
Bilzerian, who reported well over $100 million in net worth on his financial disclosures, is the son of the corporate raider and convicted fraudster Paul Bilzerian.
The younger Bilzerian—an early fixture of the so-called manosphere who promotes his playboy, gun-toting lifestyle to his many followers—has a history of alleged violence against women and other criminal mischief. In December 2014, he was sued by Miami-based model Vanessa Castano, who accused him of kicking her in the face. Just days after that, he was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on charges of bomb-making. Porn star Janice Griffith also accused him of throwing her off a roof, resulting in a broken foot as part of a botched stunt for Hustler magazine.
Joint El-Sayed and Bilzerian donors are mostly people with names that appear to be of Arabic or Muslim origin.
In contrast to Bilzerian, El-Sayed claims his problem is with Israel, not Jews per se. But the liberal Democrat has long been accused of trafficking in antisemitic tropes and has refused to renounce one of his key campaign surrogates, the virulently anti-Israel, Hamas-supporting Hasan Piker. On Monday evening, El-Sayed bizarrely asked the Fox News host Jesse Watters if Watters was circumcised.
Awad, the Muslim-American Bilzerian and El-Sayed donor, said in a May 2024 social media post that “you can’t be Jewish and Zionist.” After former senator Lindsay Graham’s (R., S.C.) unexpected death, Awad posted a statement declaring, “I am relieved that we’re granted a reprieve from his evil.”
Awad has also offered effusive praise to Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa, who regularly denounces Jews as roaches, demons, and ghouls, among other epithets. He has also offered support for New York City’s socialist, Israel-hating mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and promoted Candace Owens, the podcaster notorious for spreading antisemitism.
“She’s showing more courage than the sick men in our own Congress,” Awad said of an Owens monologue downplaying the Holocaust.
During a TED Talk he gave in 2025, he demonstrated Islamic prostration on stage, getting down on his hands and knees with his face pressed onto the stage and his posterior pointing upwards at a 45-degree angle.
Reached for comment, Awad texted that it would be “much appreciated” if the Free Beacon would note his Instagram handle, @karateattorney. He signed his note “Ibrahim aka AIPAC Slayer.”
Osama Albibi cut El-Sayed a $4,000 check while throwing Bilzerian an additional $1,000, FEC Records show.
Albibi, who lives in Panama City Beach, Fla., has been a financial adviser with Wells Fargo since July 2020, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records show.
“I can help you make informed investment decisions,” Albibi promises on the company website.
At least three physicians were also among the donors to both candidates—including Dr. Ishtiaq Habib, a hospitalist at Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers in Morris, Ill.
Habib donated $526.68 in total to the two men, FEC records show.
Dr. Yusuf Salah, a psychiatrist, gave about $514 between Bilzerian and El-Sayed, records show.
Salah is affiliated with Insight Hospital and Medical Center and UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital, according to U.S. News and World Report and his LinkedIn.
Another physician, Dr. Akram Shhadeh, donated at least $1,527 between the two candidates, records show. Shhadeh, a neurologist, is the co-president of Arubah Neuroscience Innovation Institute.
Other large donors included Florida-based real estate gadfly Tony Bushala and Muhammad Harb, the owner of Moe’s Deli and Grill in Deerfield, Fla.
None of these dual donors other than Awad responded to requests for comment.
While Bilzerian’s political career is over for now, El-Sayed is ascendant. The progressive will face Republican Mike Rogers in the November general election, with polls showing a tight race.
Neither El-Sayed nor Bilzerian responded to requests for comment.
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