Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan senator-elect and first Muslim member of the US Senate, has registered a leadership political action committee called "Habibi PAC" with the Federal Election Commission. The filing, dated Thursday, makes El-Sayed one of several newly elected Democrats to launch leadership PACs following Tuesday's midterm vote. Leadership PACs are distinct from campaign committees. According to OpenSecrets, they function as influence instruments — lawmakers use them to distribute money to colleagues, party committees, and allied candidates, thereby accumulating chits that translate into leadership posts and committee chairmanships. In the 2024 cycle, leadership PACs directed $79.3 million to federal candidates, with most going to Republicans though a Democratic PAC was the single largest donor. The name carries deliberate cultural weight. "Habibi," an Arabic term of endearment meaning "my dear" or "my beloved," became a signature of El-Sayed's campaign. He deployed it to memorable effect in his victory speech, addressing Vice President JD Vance directly: "JD, habibi, there is this delicious irony in the fact that you're constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January." El-Sayed is not alone in the move. Other newly elected Democrats filing leadership PACs include Arizona Congressman-elect Amish Shah's "PACStreet Boy," Iowa Senator-elect Josh Turek's "WheelPAC," and North Carolina Senator-elect Roy Cooper's "One NC PAC." The filings are standard Washington behavior for ambitious freshmen signaling intent to build coalitions early. The tension is structural. El-Sayed ran on getting money out of politics. In his victory speech he declared that the result proved "the many can win" in a battle against money. He defeated Republican Mike Rogers after a campaign in which Trump, Vance, and Senator Ted Cruz questioned his loyalty, called him a "jihadist," and attempted to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood without evidence. He told Al Jazeera that defeating Trump was insufficient — the system that produced him had to be replaced. That system runs on exactly the kind of money leadership PACs channel. The 2026 midterms are already the most expensive on record: total spending is projected at $11.9 billion, up from $8.9 billion in 2022. Outside spending driven by super PACs is expected to hit $3.9 billion — an 85 percent increase. Dark money from undisclosed donors has already reached $1.47 billion, surpassing the 2024 full-cycle record of $1.35 billion, which included the presidential race. El-Sayed now faces the oldest question in reform politics: whether you can dismantle the machine from the inside while using its parts to get there. A leadership PAC is a conventional power tool — it does not accept dark money or unlimited contributions like a super PAC, but it is the institutional currency of internal congressional influence. The gap between the campaign rhetoric and the first institutional action is where the real story will play out over the next two years.
