A University of Michigan board of regents member has been fired after Michigan Democrats selected a candidate who shared social media posts praising Hezbollah as the party’s nominee.
Amir McLeod, a trial lawyer, endorsed incumbent Regent Jordan Acker, who is Jewish, for the Democratic Party nomination at the state party convention over the weekend, drawing criticism from a former leader of the state’s Democratic Party.
A week before Michigan’s Democratic convention, the Detroit News reported that McLeod shared and later deleted posts on X praising Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Abu Ali Khalil, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike. Both posts shared by Makled referred to Nasrallah and Khalil as “martyrs”.
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Attorney Amir McLeod accepts the endorsement of the Michigan Democratic Party for the University of Michigan Board of Regents on April 19, 2026 in Detroit, Mich.
(Reuters photos)
The Democratic candidate also shared a now-deleted post from Candace Owens in which she called Israelis “demons” who “lie, steal, cheat, murder and blackmail.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Makled for comment.
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Brandon Dillon, former chairman of the Democratic Party of Michigan, wrote an opinion piece criticizing McLeod’s candidacy in the Detroit News, which was published days before McLeod won the party’s nomination. Dillon said McLeod was not a Democrat and his social media behavior reflected “a pattern of extremism and bigotry”.
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Anti-Israel protesters protest at the home of University of Michigan President Santa Ono on October 13, 2023 in Ann Arbor, after reports of a bias-motivated attack on a Jewish teenager.
“These are not isolated mistakes or comments made out of context,” Dillon wrote Detroit News “They reflect a broader pattern of poor judgment that should raise serious concerns.”
In his acceptance speech for the party’s nomination, McLeod acknowledged the students involved in the anti-Israel demonstration that formed on the University of Michigan campus on October 7, 2023, following the terrorist attacks on Israel.
“To these students, the students who spoke out, the students who organized, the students who refused to tell anyone that their education wasn’t worth fighting for, you all reminded us of what a public university should be,” MacLeod said.
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Jordan Acker attends the Michigan Democratic Convention on April 19, 2026.
McLeod, who legally represents University of Michigan students involved in anti-Israel campus demonstrations, has previously called for the university system to divest from Israel.
An anti-Israel demonstration at the University of Michigan led to reports of anti-Semitic attacks against Jewish students. The University of Michigan was one of 60 universities notified by the Department of Education that it was being investigated for failing to address anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination for violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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In December 2024—a few months before the Department of Education shared its information with the University of Michigan—the outgoing Regent Acker’s car was vandalized. The words “Divest… Free Palestine” and an inverted triangle, a reference to Hamas, were spray-painted in red on Acre’s vehicle.
At the time of the attack, Acker said it was the third time that year he had been the victim of anti-Israel slurs.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Acker for comment.
Original article source: ‘Martyrs’: Michigan Dems Nominate Hezbollah-Praising Candidate After Removing Jewish Regent
