Election shows new political powerhouse

Abraham Aiyash

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck’s Abraham Aiyash can thank Hamtramck voters for his success in the recent August Primary election.
That’s because they gave him roughly half the votes he needed to win the Democratic run-off for state representative.
He won the primaries for both the unfinished term of the late State Rep. Isaac Robinson, who died of COVID-19, and the new two-year term starting in January.
Because the district he represents, which includes Hamtramck and part of Detroit, has traditionally voted for Democrats, he is likely to beat his Republican opponent in the November election.
Aiyash won the district by a landslide with 5,352 votes, out of which Hamtramck contributed 2,530 votes for the full term, and slightly less for the partial term.
There were two other Hamtramck candidates in that race, Michele Oberholtzer and Shahab Ahmed. Oberholtzer came in second in the district-wide vote, as well as in Hamtramck.
District-wide, she garnered 1,946 votes, and locally 533. Ahmed, who was the first Bangladeshi-American to serve on the Hamtramck City Council, trailed locally with 416 votes.
We reached out to Aiyash for comment, via his two Facebook pages and telephone messages, but he did not return the messages by press time Thursday.
By all appearances, Aiyash worked hard for his victory, attracting key endorsements, including US Senator Bernie Sanders and Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski, and getting residents registered to vote.
According to City Clerk August Gitschlag, Aiyash was motivating residents to register in the days leading up to election day.
According to voter registration records, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 4, which was election day, 89 residents registered, most of whom appear to be Yemeni-Americans.
Aiyash is not only the first Hamtramck resident to win this district in 30 years, he is also the first Hamtramck Yemeni-American to serve this position.
The Yemeni-American community has grown in recent years, and now appears to be the city’s new political powerhouse.
So far this year, the total number of residents to register is 1,116, pushing the total number of registered voters to 13,113.
Out of that number, voter participation is still low. Only 4,626 participated in the August election – which represents 35 percent of the registered voters.
In other local election results, City Councilmember Mohammed Hassan’s dream of unseating Wayne County Commissioner Martha Scott failed, district-wide – which includes Hamtramck.
But locally, he beat Scott, who has held various elected offices for decades.
In Hamtramck he garnered 1,298 votes while Scott received 987.
Two county millage renewals passed in the county, although a majority of Hamtramck voters voted in opposition.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy can usually count on Hamtramck’s support, but in this election, voters here went for her key challenger, Victoria Burton-Harris.
Posted Aug. 21, 2020