Michigan Officials From Whitmer to Slotkin Silent In Wake of Assault on Jewish Student

Senator Gary Peters, who has been vocal about combating Islamophobia, declines to put name on statement condemning attack

Days after a group of young men attacked a University of Michigan student after overhearing him say he was Jewish, most of the state’s top elected officials have yet to utter a word on the brazen anti-Semitic act.

Just two of Michigan’s congressional representatives—Reps. Haley Stevens (D.) and Tim Walberg (R.)—had addressed the Sunday incident, which occurred just a block from the university’s Jewish Resource Center, by Tuesday morning. Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer (D.), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D.), and Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D.), Elissa Slotkin (D.), Hillary Scholten (D.), Bill Huizenga (R.), and Debbie Dingell (D.) have not addressed it and did not respond to requests for comment. Slotkin is running to replace Stabenow in the Senate, while Dingell represents Ann Arbor, where the attack took place and is being investigated as a hate crime.

Sen. Gary Peters (D.) took a different approach. While his office did respond to a request for comment, it sent a statement attributable on background to an unnamed “Peters aide,” rather than Peters himself. “Senator Peters condemns this attack and all violence based on hate,” the statement reads. Peters’s office did not respond to follow-up questions on why the senator did not address the attack earlier and why he opted to send the statement through an aide who asked not to be identified. 

Peters has been vocal about combating Islamophobia in the past. In Feburary, he condemned a Wall Street Journal column that called attention to pro-Hamas officials in Dearborn, Mich. as “anti-Muslim.” Whitmer also responded to this article, calling it both “cruel and ignorant” and Islamophobic. Her statement on Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack, meanwhile, did not mention the words “Jewish,” “Israel,” or “Hamas.”

“I have been in touch with communities impacted by what’s happening in the region. It is abhorrent,” Whitmer wrote. “My heart is with all those impacted. We need peace in this region.”

Stabenow has historically portrayed herself as an ally of the Jewish people. Tlaib has not. Last week, she condemned charges levied by Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel against anti-Israel protesters at the University of Michigan.

Though they have not commented on the anti-Semitic attack, Whitmer, Stabenow, and Peters all released statements on Sunday and Monday commemorating the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month, as did Scholten and Slotkin. 

Walberg, the Republican who sits on the House Education and Workforce Committee, commented on the attack Monday morning. 

“Antisemitism, especially violent antisemitism, cannot be tolerated,” he wrote before calling on the perpetrators to be punished. 

Another committee member, Stevens, released a statement on the assault Monday afternoon. “It is a sad day when someone is attacked due to their religious identity and it has been horrifying to learn that a Jewish American was accosted in Ann Arbor,” she said. 

Fellow Michigan Reps. John James (R.), Lisa McClain (R.), Jack Bergman (R.), John Moolenaar (R.), Dan Kildee (D.), and Shri Thanedar (D.) responded to the Free Beacon’s requests for comment on Tuesday. They condemned anti-Semitism and called for a swift and effective punishment of the alleged assailants. 

News of the assault traveled far beyond Michigan. Utah Republican senator Mike Lee mentioned it during a Senate floor speech on Tuesday, beating Stabenow, Peters, and Senate hopeful Slotkin to the punch.